help buying a laptop

[wildheart25c]

So I made it out of school and the university without a laptop. I hate them. Just my opinion. However now that I'm going to work, I need one. Thing is, I don't know anything about laptops. Squat. I'm not computer illeterate. I just never cared for laptops you know. So anyways, what better place to research laptops than asking people about their own and getting feedback.
My budget is between 1k and 2k. Performance is what matters. This laptop that I buy now, I won't buy another for at least 4 years. So I don't want to regret buying one.
So what do you think? Can I build my own laptop like I did my PC? Perhaps some of you here could share a link or two regarding the latest brands and their specs?
Thank you.

 

[TP-Oreilly]

dell offer some good pc's, i dunno if its possible to build your own, and just wondering, what will you be using it for

 

[~Darkseeker~]

Performance for 2k is easy, any other factors to consider? (weight, size?)


also, what does your work involve? personally (being a musician and novice web designer) id get the most suped' macbook i could find.

 

[wildheart25c]

to be honest i realy don't know. After posting here I tried youtube and some websites I found via google. I tried finding out what the top 5 laptops are. The top two were apple macbook and gateway nvsomething. No way am i going to get a mac. as for the gateway, I checked the reviews and even tho most were good, i just didn't feel confident about it. So i'm still searching. I also learned the difference between notebook and netbook
as for what I want to do with it, i thought that by saying GAMING id make it easy. Great graphics and processing power. But I learned that when you say GAMING, the only GREAT quiality about your device are the graphics. It won't necessarily strong procesing power. At least that's what I say. Anyways, tho i'm into games I have to sy that I don't have time for them. So I play one game and a 256 card is more than enough. I'm big about speed and memory. Seeing as this is a laptop, storage space doesn't matter. I don't want a heavy laptop. Something light but not like a netbook of course. I'm used 20+ inch screens (desktop) and i knwo that if i buy a 17inch laptop then it'll b heavy and big.
thank you all for your quick replies.

 

[~Darkseeker~]

im going to go ahead and suggest looking around the high end HP, Toshiba and maybe Alienware models (if you dont mind a tad of bulk), quad cores in laptops are hard to find and come with a hefty tag usually, but its not unheard of.

 

[cyo]

I would have to recommend a Lenovo. As far as laptops are concerned, they are the best. Plus with your 2k budget you can customize one exactly how you want it. I've owned 3 Lenovo's in my life and they have never given me a bit of trouble. I would go with a Lenovo "Thinkpad".

Check em out here....http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/...-category-id=653343E0DE54435882FABC3CE1BC569A

Hope this can be of some help

 

[wildheart25c]

Thanx you two. I have indeed checked both toshiba and thinkpad. Saw a presentation on the latter too. I did find a really good HP Pavilon but the screen was too big; 18inch >.<. Well at least my findings are becoming more and more specific!

 

[Jesusfrk611]

For the most part you aren't going to find "gaming" and "small" in the same laptop. You can usually find a moderately speced 15", but it's probably still going to be thick and heavy if there's any performance parts in it. My 15" laptop is pretty basic and it's too heavy for me to want to carry it everywhere. Gaming hardware in a small case just wouldn't get enough cooling IMO. And personally I'm one to say, gaming and laptops don't go together either. Why do you need a gaming laptop for work anyway...?

 

[~Darkseeker~]

agree with above post, my 15" stays next to my G4 now since its bloody heavy (too damn heavy imo). I'll say it again, the only 'small' 15'"ers with a half decent perf. spec are the macbook pros. Still, people hate macs for some reason. If you get a 13-15" laptop thats light, the GPU, or audio, and many other things, will be pretty naff by gaming standards

sucks, but performance = weight usually.

 

[dancingmadrb3]

Does the laptop have to be pricy?
You can get a decent lower end laptop and it would do just as well.
You can buy a Toshiba (who usually make some of the best Laptops) for around $400 or so, even an acer will do fine.
It all goes down to what you need it for, if its for office work even lower end laptops will do fine.
I say go low so you can save money for what you might need, like external hard drives.
It all goes down to what you need.