Bowspearer needs a laptop.

[bowspearer]

So in the last couple of months, my laptop has started going on me and so I've decided to replace it. As last time I went reconditioned for around $400 and only got a few years out of it; this time I'm going for top of the line and brand new (student loan approved today- money in my account Friday next week)

The thing is that trying to choose is doing my head in, as I've just discovered that forget about cost of doing it- you cannot upgrade anything core in a laptop like the CPU.

What I'm looking at are 2 machines:

Lenovo Thinkpad E520 Edge with discrete graphics:

• Intel Core i7-2640M Processor (2.80GHz, 4MB L3, 1333MHz with Intel HD Graphics 3000)
• Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
• 6 GB PC3-10600 DDR3 SDRAM 1333MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
• 500GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
• 15.6" HD (1366x768) LED Backlit Display, Anti-Glare, Midnight Black
• AMD Mobility Radeon 2GB
• DVD Recordable
• 6 Cell 2.2Ah Li-Ion Battery
• ThinkPad 1x1 b/g/n
• Broadcom Bluetooth 3.0 with antenna
• 720p HD Camera
• NO Fingerprint Reader
• 1 Year Depot/Express Warranty

Dell Inspiron 15R

• 2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM processor 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz
• Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium SP1 64bit (English)
• 15.6" (39.6cm) HD WLED True-Life (1366x768)
• 6GB3 DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz
• 500GB2 SATA hard drive (5400RPM)
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 525M - 1GB (For QUAD Core CPU)
• 1Yr Carry-In Service after Remote Diagnosis

What do people reckon is the better way to go?

[loophole]

Personally I would go for the Dell for one reason, it has a NVIDIA card cant get better than that IMO anyway

[Doubledealer]

Definitely go with Lenovo, they are superb machines. Having said that, I would only buy from the T, W & X series. I have a T420 and it's marvelous. It's built like a tank (military grade toughness ftw ), has the best keyboard in the laptop biz, can be customised to the nth degree, has 6 channels that run under the keys, around the motherboard and under the machine in case you spill something on it, the 9-cell batt upgrade gives you a good 10 hours (plus you can later add another slice battery for a total of 20+ hours run time!!), cheap upgrade to 1600 X 900 (you seriously DON'T want 1366x768) etc etc.

Lenovo is the Windows equivalent of the Macbook Pro for good reason, my advice is to go for the T420 or T520 but make sure you upgrade the battery and screen resolution if you do!

Edit: Also forgot to mention, can't believe I didn't...Another great thing about the Lenovo's is how cool the things run. I've got a sandy bridge i5 2520M, 8GB RAM etc and it's ice cold no matter what I'm running. This is a big draw card over the Macbook Pro's whose cases are essentially external heat sinks! They get HOT

[bowspearer]

Know what you mean loophole. It feels like splitting hairs but as I can't upgrade post purchase to any great extent, I want to get this spot on.

Thanks for the heads up on that DD. Currently using a T43P and it's a bit of a heatsink- glad they've massively improved on that front. I'll probably wind up going towards the Lenovo as their special should still be good by the end of next week, while Dell are wrapping theirs up tomorrow.

The wild card of course is Toshiba. I called them up today and the sales guy literally couldn't help me because they're 2 days from a new line and everything is under wraps until then. I'll probably have to reassess things by the beginning of the week based on that as well.

[Doubledealer]

What do you intend to use it for bowspearer (should have been my first question, lol)? What things are improtant to you in a laptop?

I've worked on a range of different Toshiba laptops at work (2010 & 2011 models) and they're okay machines, nothing amazing. My gf has a new Toshiba laptop with 3D, TV tuner and a load of other stuff - I just asked her what she thinks of her laptop and she replied "It's alright, the battery always runs out though."

[bowspearer]

What do you intend to use it for bowspearer (should have been my first question, lol)? What things are improtant to you in a laptop?

It's more a case of trying to overkill now to get the most life out of it possible. Ideally I want it to still be software compatible about 5 years from now. My current T43P is roughly 7 years old so I figure if I can get that sort of life out of this one, I'm laughing.

[Doubledealer]

It's more a case of trying to overkill now to get the most life out of it possible. Ideally I want it to still be software compatible about 5 years from now. My current T43P is roughly 7 years old so I figure if I can get that sort of life out of this one, I'm laughing.

Tom Cruise: Help me...Help you!

This info doesn't really tell me much, the only advice I can give to that is: Buy a laptop with the fastest sandy bridge i7, as much RAM as you can stuff in it, an SSD HDD etc. With that you'll also get: Average battery life, a hotter machine, a pricier machine, possibly average build quality and keyboard etc. I mean do you need/want to be able to run 3D applications for example? Is this a laptop for study purposes? What's your budget?

[Hursticon]

Personally I would go for the Dell for one reason, it has a NVIDIA card cant get better than that IMO anyway

I'd have to side with Loopy on this one; as both seem to be near identical, the tipping point for me is the graphics card which produces the most stresses on any PC and ATI/AMD don't have a great track record with heat issues or driver stability.

That's my 2c anyway man, I hope it helps but by the looks of things DD has quite a bit more experience with Laptops than myself; I personally avoid them purely because I don't like being locked into things with PCs (Like a certain fruity electronics company ) and especially not on a Hardware level.

@DD: You're asking all the right questions man, doing a thorough job!

[Doubledealer]

I'd have to side with Loopy on this one; as both seem to be near identical, the tipping point for me is the graphics card which produces the most stresses on any PC and ATI/AMD don't have a great track record with heat issues or driver stability.

That's my 2c anyway man, I hope it helps but by the looks of things DD has quite a bit more experience with Laptops than myself; I personally avoid them purely because I don't like being locked into things with PCs (Like a certain fruity electronics company ) and especially not on a Hardware level.

@DD: You're asking all the right questions man, doing a thorough job!

If 3D is a requirement then I agree that Nvidia is the GPU brand you ideally want, but I'd try to get one from their Optimus range which has automatic switching between integrated/discrete depending on what task you're running eg. game will switch to Nvidia card, web surfing will use integrated graphics. This will mean your laptop won't be running hot all the time (and will therefor have longer batt life) so it's pretty important.

Don't forget though, the new Sandy Bridge chips are no slouch in the graphics department and their integrated graphics are far more impressive than you might think. Bowmeister, you may want to do a google on 2nd generation sandy bridge integrated graphics or similar to find out how things have changed recently (for the better) with integrated graphics. I'm not going to be running The Witcher 2 at full spec (or at all, that's what my gaming desktop is for) so this was ideal for me. Saved a few bucks and my machine runs cool as a cucumber. It's all about what you need it for though. When I think laptops I don't think 3D apps unless it's a desktop replacement, even then it might not be relevant. We just need to figure out what Bowspearer is gonna be doing on this thing.

[jena]

I just wanna be the jerk that sits here and says BUY A MAC but I know I just gave you all an invitation to attack me lol