robertrust Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I'm looking to buy a new, durable, and reliable laptop over the summer since my last one broke. I would use it primarily for schoolwork and amateur gaming. I've never had a Mac but do like them. Any suggestions for a very solid laptop under $1000? Greatly Appreciated! -Rob Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted May 27, 2014 Share Posted May 27, 2014 I thought those thinkpads took a beating with dignity, but that was a few years ago and their standards may have changed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snubs Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 This one is one of my favorites. It's a little over $1000 though: http://www.dell.com/us/p/xps-13-9333/pd?oc=fncwp1238s&model_id=xps-13-9333 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cooper Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Sorry Snubs, but I read a review on that one. It's a slave to the wall socket, has next to nothing in terms of ports (2xUSB3.0 and a mini displayport and that's it. No Ethernet, no SD card, no PCMCIA, no nothing), the screen is a mirror and I'm quite certain that when you pull the lid so far open that the thing lies level with the main body, the hinges will have snapped off. Particularly that last bit makes it unfit for a school environment. Yes, YOU may be careful with your hardware, but the rest of the class ISN'T (with YOUR hardware at least). Don't go for a light, brittle, thief-attracting shiny that will be the envy of the school. Bring the granite slab that you could beat an elephant to death with while taking notes in Word. In a different thread (cheap 250 bucks laptop? Something like that) someone said the PD upgrades its in-car laptops and sells off the old one. You can probably get one of those for cheap. They're designed and have proven themselves to be able to take a bigger pounding than Debbie when she went to Dallas. In the words of the great Sean Kennedy: Function over form - WHAT does it DO and HOW WELL does it DO IT? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snubs Posted May 28, 2014 Share Posted May 28, 2014 Cooper, sorry, but I HAVE actually had some hands on experience with that one and reviewed that one. I personally enjoyed it use, and it's matches robertrust's criteria, other than the price. It run games well enough for amateur use (not for a serious gamer), and works for general schoolwork. Yes it's missing a couple of ports, but those can be implemented with a USB hub. The hinge is tight and isn't an issue, and the battery lasts over 5 hours, which I consider low compared to a MBA or S7. Not to mention Dell also has excellent customer service from my personal experience. Honestly, I'm not sure I could provide a worthy recommendation unless I've actually used the product in question, which is why I recommended that XPS 13. I would recommend something like my Acer S7, but that's way too expensive, unless you purchase an older model. Robertrust, I hope you find a good laptop that meets your needs. LMK what you choose. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Molotof Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 (edited) Just save yourself from the grief and misery of getting a dell and go for a macbook air, I myself sold my MSI GTX780 and my sager NP6110 and went for a macbook pro retina maxed out as i am a heavy duty gamer and everything else, running windows side by side with mavericks and never been happier. Windows is just for games, MAC OS is for getting work done, and i have the best of both worlds in one masterpiece that has a battery that lasts a FULL day of work and play. Nuf said..... Oh i made a test on my panasonic tough book i got from ebay a couple of weeks ago for 150$ http://youtu.be/jeYFsdrfuMI Edited May 29, 2014 by Molotof Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MB60893 Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Custom build your own! It is a lot more fun than hunting for one, and you can create something with better specs attuned to your needs! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry99705 Posted May 29, 2014 Share Posted May 29, 2014 Just save yourself from the grief and misery of getting a dell and go for a macbook air, I myself sold my MSI GTX780 and my sager NP6110 and went for a macbook pro retina maxed out as i am a heavy duty gamer and everything else, running windows side by side with mavericks and never been happier. Windows is just for games, MAC OS is for getting work done, and i have the best of both worlds in one masterpiece that has a battery that lasts a FULL day of work and play. Nuf said..... Oh i made a test on my panasonic tough book i got from ebay a couple of weeks ago for 150$ http://youtu.be/jeYFsdrfuMI My wife's Lenovo gets about 18 hours of run time. Her Air wishes it got that kind of run time! I just got a Dell xps 12 on sale at microcenter a few weeks ago. Pretty nice laptop, short on ports, but it has the basics. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pg94 Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 Wait, this may sound bad but is it pretty easy to build a laptop? Where would I find a case? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest spazi Posted June 14, 2014 Share Posted June 14, 2014 (edited) Wait, this may sound bad but is it pretty easy to build a laptop? Where would I find a case? No! I think he ment building a normal desktop computer. I use a shitty netbook for hacking/pentesting. It has 1.8 ghz single core processor and 2 gigs of ram. It does the job, but anything you buy better than my stats and your good to go! Edited June 14, 2014 by spazi Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Garda Posted June 24, 2014 Share Posted June 24, 2014 I just recently bought a laptop. I wanted a large one that I could work on, so got a 15.6'' Asus. I can't remember the brand name, but it's part of their "ultrabook" (but not nearly as nice as the macbook air) series. It has an SD card reader, i5 processor and 4GB of RAM, 3 hours of battery at regular use (this is my experience, rather than the 5.5 promised). Debian installs without problems and all of the hardware works without any issues. For what you want, I don't think you need to get anything better than what I described above. Perhaps get one of the alternatives with a proper video card, rather than the Intel HD graphics (which is pretty terrible for any "real" games) if games are important to you. If you're just studying and expect to graduate and have a real job in the near future, I think it makes even more sense to get something cheaper. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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