Looking for a new laptop, here are some things I've noted:


My reasonings: If I don't need it, I don't want it. Extra "stuff" will just slow the system down (Loading an extra driver will at the very least add to the startup time, additional components will use more power). High speed is for compiling applications. I don't want to wait several minutes(or as long as I do now) every time I hit the compile button.

"But it only takes..." - The little things add up. I'm a big fan of optimizing, even if I only get 300ms out of it.


What I'm looking for is some online store OR easy-to-follow build-your-own(from scratch) instructions. I'd be grateful if anyone can help.

Any laptop you'd get would come with atleast Windows 7 Home Premium. Getting a better edition shouldn't actually add more "bloat", because all the features are present, just disabled. You aren't getting Windows Lite with a lesser edition, but it sounds like Home Premium is sufficient for your needs.
As far as I know, all laptops come with DVD drives, except for those thin ones like the Macbook Air, which are ridiculously overpriced. Building a desktop is easy; building a laptop is hard. I don't think you can get a computer without preloaded software. I heard Sony offered the option of removing all the bloatware, but I don't know if it is still there. Back when I payed attention to this stuff, Vaios always looked overpriced to me, anyway. You're probably best off just doing a clean wipe when you first get it.

It sounds like you want a powerful netbook - which I don't think anything is powerful enough.

Give me your price limit and desired screen size. These are requirements to finding something you want. I think the Toshiba Portege R700 should work; it has a 13" screen, ~3 pounds, and up to i7 CPU and 4GB RAM. I'd expect it to cost ~$1100. If you have more money to spend, you can speed everything up and make your computer more awesome by getting one with SSD's instead of the traditional HDD's. I'm currently using a Vaio Z laptop, which is like the Portege but even more awesome (i5 CPU, 4GB, 128GB SSD, 13" screen, 3 pounds, Nvidia 330M GPU, 1600x900 screen (up to 1920x1080)). It costs even more, though - $1900. But, hey, it's awesome enough that I can play all my games on something barely larger and no heavier than a netbook.

If you want a more well-rounded computer, the HP Envy 14" is great. Many processor choices, including i5 and i7s, and it comes with a pretty good GPU to boot. It's probably around ~5 pounds, however - but with an i5 processor instead of i7, you can get it for under $1000. And from what I gather, it has some of the best speakers available in laptops. My Vaio Z speakers are pretty crappy.

If these are too expensive or something, gimme price limit, desired screen size, and I'm interested in why you don't care about the GPU. Why would you need an i7 processor and no GPU?

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 24 2011, 4:23 am by Centreri.

RAM: About 4 GB RAM (I can't see any more being necessary)[/quote]
easy
pointless requests. They will only add to your price if you get rid of them.
difficult, but not impossible. Sandy bridge is the latest intel, you'll want some i5.
Intel graphics are excellent now for onboard. Video outputs are almost always found, and immensely useful for presentations.
very difficult to achieve with a good processor and large screen. Since you're using wired, I would assume this is not all that important, as most laptops have at least 2 hours heavy use, 4-8 on light/idle/power save.
7 is mandatory, all windows are essentially the same. I would recommend you get whatever and install your own version of windows if you want to be truly slimmed (I haven't googled if there is a windows 7 equivalent of vlite and nlite). There's also windows 7 starter to look at.
You can't get everything you want, ever, except perhaps with gentoo and a desktop.
I advise you to rid yourself of this mentality as microsoft, apple, and staredit network gave up on it a long time ago.
newegg.com. Use the power search

*other notes*
you seem like you're in the business for an SSD. the increase in speed from mechanical to solid state is well worth it. It won't save your compiling time, but it will save your bootup time/driver load crap.
Of the things you noted, all of them are pretty standard or completely ridiculous to request.

To give you an idea of how fast sandy bridge is, the $220 i5 2500K (quad core) is on par with the $900 i7 970 (hex core). The mobile processor will be out this spring. If you wait that long, it's a decent way to spend your $1500 on beast of a laptop. Otherwise, just search for an old i5 quad core.

Yeah, sandy bridge seems to be awesome. If waiting is a possibility and you're looking at something high-end, I'd take a peek at the Samsung Series 9 (sexiest laptop I've seen, shown at CES) and Sony Vaio SA (Vaio Z successor with sandy bridge) and see when they'll come out.

Samsung Series 9 is weaker, but it still comes with a good CPU, good builtin GPU, is as thin as macbook air, SSDs, etc. ~$1600. Vaio SA is, I believe, basically my Vaio Z with sandy bridge and maybe some other improvements. Oh, and Sony apparently created a battery backup in the form of a sheet that can be attached to the bottom of the laptop. Best thing over the competition with Sonys: resolution. Vaio Z comes with 1920x1080 resolution, while I haven't seen a competitor in the 13" (or 14") with anything above 1377x877 or whatever it is. And high resolution is awesome. The SA will probably be slightly more expensive than the Samsung, but it'll come with better resolution and better GPU (they've stuck with a separate GPU, so I'm guessing it's better than intel builtin that Samsung's using).

If you're looking for a way to search yourself, well, look at Newegg and Amazon, the Dell website, the HP website, the Toshiba website, the Sony website, the Apple website (if you want a macbook), and that's pretty much it. Asus and Acers should be on Newegg/Amazon; I don't believe they sell directly. Sub-brands like Gateway and Compaq should have something, but I wouldn't expect much.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 24 2011, 4:37 am by Centreri.

If you don't want extra drivers and bloatware, you can reformat as soon as you take it out of the box... Just reinstall necessary drivers and not the garbage ones.

Less-awesome, cheaper alternatives:
http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-U36JC-A1-13-3-Inch-Laptop-Black/dp/B004I1J846/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1295874067&sr=8-1
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834157311
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834131086
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115948
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834214184

Thanks for the responses.

The screen size I'm looking for would be around 14-15", 13" might be a little small for me. I'm not worried about available screen resolutions either. I won't be using it to watch videos or play games.
I know some of the requests are ridiculous, but I wanted to cover everything.
As far as price is concerned, I guess anything above ~$1300 starts to become too expensive.
I want to jump on the 64-bit bandwagon and I don't think there is a Windows 7 Starter for 64-bit, so I guess Home Premium is the way to go.

Software isn't really that big of a problem since reformatting is the best choice (as suggested).
I can also wait until September, but I'm anxious to get one sooner.

Also for Hard Disk space, about 80 GB would be way more than enough.
The dealer also needs to ship to Ontario Canada.

This is a laptop I will be using for at least 5 years to come.

EDIT: Just took a quick look at sandy bridge and the others shown at CES and I'm really digging the all-in-one-chip thing.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Jan 25 2011, 5:26 am by Heinermann.

As I said earlier, we can expect sandy bridge in the spring, so you should have it before summer starts. Canada has some of the best prices (often times better than the US, but not always) on PC components due to NCIX and bargain hunting. IDK about full computers, though. $1300 may put a damper on an i5 sandy bridge, but we'll find out once it's released. The all in one chip is a decent idea but it has its flaws in terms of gaming. Intel is still way behind AMD's onboard chipsets, which is ~4 years old (890 and 790 GX are both a rebranded radeon 2400). However, with 32 nm tech, it's quite impressive.

For me, a laptop is all about portability, and having a small screen is the first key for that. My first laptop was a 15.6" 4:3 thinkpad which was entirely too big. I love my 9" eee though.

As I said earlier, you're going to want an SSD. HDDs are in the 300 GB range. That's a lot of wasted space and will give you a large bottleneck on a lot of applications. SSDs will remove most of that bottleneck, and give you the 64-80GB range for $100-$150. The laptop will probably come with a hard drive for free, so you can grab yourself a 2.5" or 1.8" enclosure and have a portable external hard drive.

64 bit is pretty much the standard now. You could get away with 32 bit in vista, but now there's no reason.

Reformatting comes with a bit of a problem in and of itself. Hopefully you are not averse to acquiring windows (especially given the fact you will be buying a legal copy with the computer), but if you are, it's likely you won't be able to reformat and you won't have any sort of reinstall disc. That's just the way OEMs work. They get a cheap copy of windows, barely give it to you, and then are required to give support rather than microsoft. The windows install disc has all the versions already on it, so choose the one that's right for you. If you are multilingual, then get ultimate (that's really the only reason for ultimate). Otherwise use home premium or find a copy of enterprise (not included on most install discs).

Hrrm. Well, if you want something better than the ones I already showed you, there aren't that many options. You can try the Lenovo ideapad y460 - it might go a tiiiny bit over budget, but it also fits your requirements. However, I think it's overpriced. $1300 is a tough pricepoint.

If I were you, and you don't NEED a computer right now, I'd wait. With luck, when Sandy bridge comes out, it'll be affordable, and you'll be able to equip a mid-tier sandy bridge laptop with SSD's and have all you want. I don't think that ATI's APUs can match Sandy Bridge in speed (I get the feeling they're more intel atom replacements).

With reformatting - I think Rockz is right when it comes to it. I briefly looked at reformatting my laptop after I got it, but decided against it. You don't get a windows CD, and unless you want to buy windows standalone, it's difficult to do it. I recommend just uninstalling anything you don't want. Anything with SSD's and a good processor will be able to load all the rest near-instantaneously anyway - my laptop boots within 15 seconds and is usable within 3 (of authentication), even with several autostart programs.

It is actually pretty easy to get an unmodified Windows disc if you know how and if you have a DVD burner available to burn the disc once you have it downloaded (I downloaded mine in advance to use with the key I was going to have when buying it and put in the key when I received it). I could tell you how to get it probably without even needing to tell you where to get it.

1) Go to technet.microsoft.com
2) Click Downloads
3) Click "see entire list" (wherever the link may be). You may have to sign in with a Windows Live ID - any will do.
4) Find the exact product you need to download (most likely you want the x64 edition of whatever is stated by your product key sticker)
5) View the details to find the SHA1 hash for the download
6) Copy the SHA1 hash into the search box of your favorite search engine, possibly followed by either download or torrent - the product name is not necessary
7) Look for a download that mentions the SHA1 hash you want and download it. (if it is a torrent, be sure to use a client that lets you download only the file you want)
8) When the download is complete, use a utility that can verify that the file's SHA1 hash matches the one you found at technet.microsoft.com

If the utility shows that the SHA1 hash matches, you now have a copy of an unmodified version of the disc, identical to one you would get directly from Microsoft. If the download included any files or programs other than ones with SHA1 hashes matching ones from Microsoft's list, discard or ignore those files.

I've used these steps to get the updated Vista discs with the service packs preinstalled (for when I did a new install to clean out the preinstalled programs on my laptop) and also to get my Windows 7 discs.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Jan 26 2011, 2:40 am by ShadowFlare.