Need a laptop recommendation

Wife is going back for her doctorate.

Here's the specs:


Operating System

• PC: Windows 10 Professional 64-bit / Windows 7 Professional

Processor

• Minimum i5 (or equivalent) - i7 (or equivalent) preferred

Memory (RAM)

• Minimum 8GB - 16GB Recommended

Hard Drive

• 250 GB Hybrid or Solid State (SSD)

Optical Drive

• DVD+/-RW (or External)

Network

• Wireless 802.11ac

Additional

• Built in webcam, USB hard drive (not required, but recommended)

Warranty

• 3 year warranty with accidental damage - 4 year recommended

Would like to lean towards the preferred/recommended side. Want the best bang for the buck (read - don't want to spend an arm and a leg).

 

theres a pretty big price diff btw an i5 8GB with hybrid drive and an i7 16GB SSD. how much do u want to spend?

do u care about >1080p screen?

def go for external optical drive. it really limits your choices if u want one internal.

 

I'm an Acer nut. A bit more than Asus and HP but I haven't been able to kill one and no one I've steered towards them has.

Acer travelmates, I love 'em.

 

Lenovo Yoga 910/920 .....

 

Lenovo Thinkpad. Only because that's what I have at work and home, and like them.

 

I've succumbed to the fact I have become an apple fan boy. Buy an apple and run bootcamp.

 

Lenovo, been very happy with my Thinkpads after moving away from the Mac scene. Yoga 910/920 are part of the Lenovo Yoga series and are solid laptops as well. I use my Thinkpad P51 for work , Yoga 910 for school, both have been great.

I used notebaookcheck to help me compare models:

www.notebookcheck.net

Mike

 

Except it’ll cost at least double what the windows machine does

 

Cant go wrong with thinkpad. Work horses.
Don’t look flashy though.

 

Let me know what ya get!
I'm using my wifes Lenovo for quite some time now!

 

Go into your local bestbuy and have a deep hard look through all of their open box buys. I recently did this just a month ago. I spent an hour looking over all they had and comparing specs. OMG, the most awesome laptop I've ever had fell into my hands. It's an HP, but I never knew this much power could exist in something so small and with such quality. It cost me 700 bucks, down from 1300. All aluminum, rather small, i7 with 8gb RAM and an SSD drive. It only has one USB 3 and 2 USB C ports, but any extension you can imagine can come from those, including HDMI from the USB C ports using an adapter. The screen resolution is awe inspiring. The speed is fantastic. It boots from hibernation in, literally, under 10 seconds. Fully touch screen and can go into tablet mode by flipping the screen fully. Closed, it's about 1/4 of an inch thick or so. It's just phenomenal the power they can put into something so small and wonderful. I've always had lenovo laptops for work and they are really good, but this thing just blows it away.

Not saying they meet all the specs you need, but just giving you an example of what's out there. Now is the time with BestBuy and their open box stuff, as so many have come back after Christmas returns. The ones without a box are the ones you really want to look into as they really discount those. They are thoroughly checked by their "geeks" and fully factory reset. They're like new.

 

Got an Asus 17" 64 bit Windows 10 off newegg recently... Gaming laptop republic of gaming.. Not bad.. 250gb and 1 tb.

 

Big issues with intel processors and security right now, including macs with intel cpus. Can you go with an AMD processor? Some nice Ryzen based systems out now.

 

I want her to check with Liberty again on needed specs. What she sent me was the requirements for the engineering and computer sciences departments. I'd bet she doesn't need that high.

 

I saw that on Google last night. Thanks. That seems like a great deal.

 

I have carried a portable computer for 28 years, my Yoga 900 is rugged and has been stone reliable and is fast (I7, 16 gig 500GB SSD)
Also works as a tablet and it has the best hinge design on the market.

 

There's half-a-dozen HPs in that price range. Care to narrow it down to a specific model?

 

Lenovo X1 Yoga v2. I use them for work and home and they are awesome. Very fast, light, nice screen and keyboard. No optical drive though.

 

Forget Microsoft and all their stupid updates, security patches, virus software subscriptions etc. Once I switched to Apple, computing life became so much easier. I can do everything I need and more without all the Microsoft hassles.

 

Except with Apple they cost double, triple or even four times as much as a winders machine.

I used to buy an inexpensive computer, use it and abuse it, get 3 years out of it and when I killed it, go buy another one and throw the busted one in the pile. Then I went with my Travelmates and I use and abuse them but can't kill 'em. My current on is coming up on 9 years, it as ugly as a bucket of smashed assholes but works everyday and keeps working. It's replacement is sitting there mostly unused but I fire it up now and again because I feel bad for it.

Apple shit looks cool but their pricing is stupid.