School me on laptops

[shiftbmw]

I have recently entered the laptop market and am hoping to gain some knowledge.

My use will be general for the most part. Internet, music, hd movies, etc. I also intend to run drafting software(Creo) and Photoshop. I don't really game much. Reliability is a huge concern because I will need this to serve as my only computer for extended time without the ability to get another should the need arise.

I'm curious what I need, what I can't live without, and what pitfalls to avoid. Also, who makes the best laptops for the money these days?

Edit: Also, I'm looking specifically for a PC as I can't justify the cost/performance of a Mac and I intend to run windows specific software and would prefer to do so on a windows specific machine. Apple makes a great machine, but it's not for me at this time.

Thanks!

[Cletonius]

Picked up a dell xps17 with my tax refund and haven't regretted it.

[Komzorz]

Drafting software and photoshop would benefit from a dedicated GPU, although the new CPUs out there these days have GPUs built in that might do the trick, I haven't done any research on how quick AMD's APU or whatever it is inside Intel's new Ivybridge processors, but you'll probably want more than the least amount of graphics processing available.

In terms of durability, I've always liked IBM / Lenovo laptops, I also know a couple Toshiba laptops that lasted 4+ years of college environments, so that says something. Apple also makes a pretty tough product, and their new Macbook Pro is a pretty hot item, but it also costs a premium as does most of their stuff. Personally, I get refurbs off Dell Outlet whenever they send me a 20% off coupon, I've gotten a couple laptops that would suit your needs perfectly for $400-450 that way. In terms of durability, they're average I'd say.

[Vivek]

My vote will always be for a mac. I've had a Macbook pro, a black macbook, and two macbook air's. Out of those the Pro was noticeably the fastest, but I would much rather own an air. You don't seem like you need to run things too serious, so a 13" pro should be decent. You can get a 15" for the bigger screen size and better internals (I haven't really kept up on what they have lately though), but it is a pretty hefty premium imo.

[shiftbmw]

Thanks for the responses so far. While macs are nice, I can't justify the cost per performance on these machines, particularly when I intend to run windows specific software. I know you can run a windows environment on a mac, but I don't think the advantages are worth the struggle.

[Vivek]

Yep, that definitely makes it pointless. While mac hardware is beautiful, I'd never run one on windows.

[FunfGan]

My vote will always be for a mac. I've had a Macbook pro, a black macbook, and two macbook air's. Out of those the Pro was noticeably the fastest, but I would much rather own an air. You don't seem like you need to run things too serious, so a 13" pro should be decent. You can get a 15" for the bigger screen size and better internals (I haven't really kept up on what they have lately though), but it is a pretty hefty premium imo.

I'm sorry. I will never own anything other then a Mac, but Airs are the most useless pieces of crap ever built. Honestly the slowest computer I've had the misfortune of using.


/rant

[u3b3rg33k]

Thanks for the responses so far. While macs are nice, I can't justify the cost per performance on these machines, particularly when I intend to run windows specific software. I know you can run a windows environment on a mac, but I don't think the advantages are worth the struggle.

It's stupidly easy to do - apple provides instructions as well as all the drivers to make everything work (all the magic keys) in winblows.

if you do, I'd suggest the 15" - it comes with a real GPU, whereas the 13" comes with the lame-oh intel IGPU.

[Vivek]

I'm sorry. I will never own anything other then a Mac, but Airs are the most useless pieces of crap ever built. Honestly the slowest computer I've had the misfortune of using.


/rant

Which ones did you have? The non unibody ones blow, but for general web crap my unibody's have been great. SSD's...right now I have the ultimate one from last year or the year before with 2.13gHz C2D and 256GB/4GB...never gives me any trouble at all and I do some light games occasionally (gta, racing stuff).

[FunfGan]

Which ones did you have? The non unibody ones blow, but for general web crap my unibody's have been great. SSD's...right now I have the ultimate one from last year or the year before with 2.13gHz C2D and 256GB/4GB...never gives me any trouble at all and I do some light games occasionally (gta, racing stuff).

The only ones I've used are the latest generation haha.

I have the second to newest 13" Pro(top of the line, best processor crap whatever) running Lion and I love it.

[Cliche Guevara]

I recently bought an XPS 15 and I absolutely love it. I went over to Apple's website just for kicks and spec'd out a Macbook as similar to my Dell as I could make it. Apple couldn't match the HD space or battery life, but it still ended up being $1,200 more for a Macbook with worse performance.

[FunfGan]

Here come the lolmacssuck people.

[Vivek]

As someone on e46f said to that picture (from memory)

what an adorable way to justify owning something that's a pain in the ass to use

[Cliche Guevara]

How do you justify spending that much fucking money when you can get an amazing computer that, with a little common sense, will last you just as long for less than half the price? I've had PCs my entire life and have never had an issue with them.

lolbutmacsarepretty

[shiftbmw]

Again, comments much appreciated fellas. Hopefully we can avoid making this a Mac vs PC thread, as I have established that a Mac isn't suitable for me based on cost per performance and desire to run windows specific software on a windows machine, despite the fact that they are great machines.