Help Choosing a laptop

hughesga

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you guys could give me some advice.

I'm looking for a new laptop. I'm a final year engineering student. Ideally the laptop would be able to run programs like Autocad/Pro E/Solidworks etc but it is not absolutely necessary as there are plenty of computers in college to work on and I don't believe I might not be using those programs alot this year.

I was initially going to go for a macbook pro 13 inch (its about €1300 with the student discount and including applecare) or the 15 inch (about €1800 with discount and applecare).

I just want to consider all my options before buying a mac. I have looked online a bit and have saw recommendations for the HPDV6/7. Its a bit too big for what I'm looking for. I'm looking for something kind of nicely designed and portable (ie. 13, 15 inch) but not a netbook. I was in Sony the other day and saw a nice Vaio, it was a SB series. I went home and read the reviews online though and they seemed to be getting bad reviews.

Some ones Ive heard online are:

HP envy - dont know if this is available in ireland?!
Dell 14z - Seems to be bad reviews online about this!

Sony Vaio's seem to be quite popular. At this stage I'm nearly tempted just to go for the mac because it is possible to run windows on them. But are there any ones that can equal or beat it on design and specs?

I have max €2,000 to spend. I don't have to necessarily spend it all, I think around €1200 would be a fair budget. Could you please recommend me a laptop and could you please tell me where I could buy it?

Jaafa

Can you post the specs of the laptop your interested in?

hughesga

This new HP Envy (http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy/features.html) would be perfect but its not released in the US until December 6th and it might take ages to come to europe. I'm in my final year of college so I kind of need to get a good laptop soon!

The Macbooks I'm interested in at the moment are:

13-inch: 2.4 GHz
2.4GHz dual-core
Intel Core i5
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
Built-in battery (7 hours)2

15-inch: 2.2 GHz
2.2GHz quad-core
Intel Core i7
4GB 1333MHz
500GB 5400-rpm1
Intel HD Graphics 3000
AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 512MB GDDR5
Built-in battery (7 hours)2
In Stock
Free Shipping
€1,799.00

These prices do not have the student discounts included (10-12%)

patsryan

i recommend getting a macbook there a good computer that run mac os, windows and linux so you are getting the best of three worlds.

also i notice you saying that the macbook pro 13" is 1300€ with a student discount this is wrong, the laptop is 1079.32€ direct from apple with free shipping
http://store.apple.com/ie_aoc_5004126/configure/MD313B/A?select=select&product=MD313B%2FA

if you could afford it id recommend adding an ssd also it will supercharge everything you do

as for running AutoCAD you can get a free version as your a student from
http://students.autodesk.com/
this is perfectly legal just download and enter the provided serial number

there are also loads of brilliant free apps on the mac app store

hope this helps!

hughesga

Thank you very much for the reply. Right now it is most likely I will go for the MBP 15 inch. The only real problem with the MBP is that it is not ideal for running Autocad/solidworks/proengineer etc on it because supposidly the graphics card isnt the best on it. I cant afford to go buy the next model up for €2,100.

patsryan

AutoCAD for Mac runs fine on most macs, i use it my self on a Mid 2007 iMac which only has a 128mb ATI graphics cards even the Intel GMA 3000 which is in the 13" MBP would run better than my computer.

The system requirements for AutoCAD for Mac are

Apple® Mac® Pro 4,1 or later; MacBook® Pro 5,1 or later (MacBook Pro 6,1 or later recommended); iMac® 8,1 or later (iMac 11,1 or later recommended); Mac® mini 3,1 or later (Mac mini 4,1 or later recommended); MacBook Air® 2,1 or later; MacBook® 5,1 or later (MacBook 7,1 or later recommended)
Mac OS® X v10.6.4 or later; 64-bit Intel® processor
3 GB of RAM (4 GB recommended)
2.5 GB free disk space for download and installation (3 GB recommended)
All graphics cards on supported hardware
1,280 x 800 display with true color (1,600 x 1,200 with true color recommended)
All Mac OS X supported language operating systems Apple® Mouse, Apple Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, MacBook® Pro trackpad, or Microsoft®-compliant mouse.
Mac OS X-compliant printer

Jaafa

Some other options for you, Asus Zenbook, comes with an SSD so its going to be very very fast, though screen size is smaller than you might be used to.

http://www.expansys.ie/asus-ux21-ultrabook-core-i5-11-6-4gb-128ssd-w7hp-64-bit-223848/

Review of it: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-Zenbook-UX21E-Ultrabook.65506.0.html Note: battery life should improve due to having an i5 instead of the review i7.

Another nice asus, i7 with a very good GPU and much cheaper than the mac's
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/21_15/productdetails/80003463/Asus_15_6_N55SF_S1194V_i7_2670_8_750GB/90N5FC2D9H4E13VL133U/default.aspx

And a decent sony: http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Sony_VAIO_VPCSB2M9ES_1088018.html

adamtj09

Jaafa wrote: »

Some other options for you, Asus Zenbook, comes with an SSD so its going to be very very fast, though screen size is smaller than you might be used to.

http://www.expansys.ie/asus-ux21-ultrabook-core-i5-11-6-4gb-128ssd-w7hp-64-bit-223848/

Review of it: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Review-Asus-Zenbook-UX21E-Ultrabook.65506.0.html Note: battery life should improve due to having an i5 instead of the review i7.

Another nice asus, i7 with a very good GPU and much cheaper than the mac's
http://www.komplett.ie/Komplett/product/ZKB_02PC/02_NOTEBOO/21_15/productdetails/80003463/Asus_15_6_N55SF_S1194V_i7_2670_8_750GB/90N5FC2D9H4E13VL133U/default.aspx

And a decent sony: http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Sony_VAIO_VPCSB2M9ES_1088018.html

IMO the asus is a poor mans MacBook Air that costs roughly the same price, I would highly recommend a Mac, I have the MacBook Air , and it is the best computer I have ever owned, followed closely by my old MacBook Pro, they last, don't brake easily, are designed well(ie. it doesn't cook your legs or have hinges falling off , Mac OS X is a well designed easy to use OS, you can also run windows if needed, and the customer support is fantastic)

I'm a computer science student, so my MacBook Air is with me at all times, but would equally recommend the Pro, especially for the work you want to do(large files etc?)

hughesga

Thanks for the suggestions.

I love the specs on the Asus N55SF, its a nice price too. I was wondering if had Blue Ray on it too, because I couldnt see it in the specs on this page but Ive seen it on other models online. It not mentioned on komplett.ie though.

Im not sure if the zenbook would have the graphics capability to run solidworks/proE etc...

The Sony looks pretty slick and portable. Once again I'm not very sure about running solidworks/pro E...

hughesga

Haha. The Macbook Pro 13 or 15 inch is still the most likely anyway. If the HP Envy 14 was available I'd definitely go with though :-(

The one thing thats bad about the mac is the graphics gard. Its not ideal for graphics intensive stuff being around 500mb.

adamtj09

hughesga wrote: »

Haha. The Macbook Pro 13 or 15 inch is still the most likely anyway. If the HP Envy 14 was available I'd definitely go with though :-(

The one thing thats bad about the mac is the graphics gard. Its not ideal for graphics intensive stuff being around 500mb.

The 15" MacBook Pro has a good graphics card, in fact it switches between the dedicated graphics card and the integrated one when doing less intensive tasks(to save battery life). The 15" would handle everything with total ease, even the 13" would.

hughesga

thanks Adam. I'm 90% sure I'm going with the base 15" Mac model now. The Applecare seems a bit steep though. Does anyone know any insurance companies who would insure it and hopefully save a few bucks?!

Jaafa

hughesga wrote: »

Thanks for the suggestions.

I love the specs on the Asus N55SF, its a nice price too. I was wondering if had Blue Ray on it too, because I couldnt see it in the specs on this page but Ive seen it on other models online. It not mentioned on komplett.ie though.

Im not sure if the zenbook would have the graphics capability to run solidworks/proE etc...

The Sony looks pretty slick and portable. Once again I'm not very sure about running solidworks/pro E...

Well here's is the Asus on another site and it definitely has a blue ray drive.
http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/products/keywords/asus+n55sf/ex/clearance,dummy,tradepack

Compared to the 15'' mac your getting

1. Same processor
2. Better graphics card
3. Bang and oulfsen speakers
4. 2 year Asus global warrenty
5. Bigger HDD.
6. More Ram.
7. Same quality build (I can personally vouch for this)
8. 900 euro cheaper. (With the money saved you could buy a really nice monitor or something)

Whereas with the mac you get
1. Better looking
2. OS could suit you better.

For me its an easy choice but its your money......

hughesga

Hmmm fair point! It is half the price really..... Thanks for the advice :-)

hughesga

Actually about the Asus, how portable is it? I looked online and I did see "desktop replacement" mentioned a few times. Does it weigh a lot?

Jaafa

hughesga wrote: »

Actually about the Asus, how portable is it? I looked online and I did see "desktop replacement" mentioned a few times. Does it weigh a lot?

2.6/7 kg. The 15'' mac book is 2.55kg. So not a big difference.

I carry around a 15'' laptop and its very manageable if you have backpack.