So I'm starting to have loads of trouble with my current laptop (which I've had since June 3rd of 2006... so 5 and a half years) with it's fan not working, and now apparently it wont boot up because the network adapter broke or something (probably from overheating so much). Not to mention how outdated it is (it was cheap, low-end, and on sale then).

I take my laptop everywhere with me, so I prefer a smaller size (my current laptop is 13"x9" with a 14" screen). I mostly just use it for stupid useless stuff like internet and to write small programs and stuff like that ... but it is still my primary machine, so it should have some power (especially since some of the stuff I program requires a quite a bit of CPU usage ). I'd like to be able to play games reasonably well (low-medium settings; I have a desktop for higher performance gameplay), and minecraft.
I could probably pull some numbers out of my ass of what I want, but I don't really know what I am talking about (I want 4-hundred jiggawatt-level processing unit, with 140 terrynanos of internal memory capacitance!).

I currently don't have a specific time frame (ASAP!) or price. Which is what I'm looking for from you, SEN. To help me make an informed decision on what, when, and how much to get. I have some amount of money saved up, but I'd prefer to dip in to that as little as possible ... So the more this will cost just means the more I'll have to save from each paycheck. I absolutely do not want to spend more than a thousand... And I assume laptops are a lot cheaper than when I bought this, so I'm expecting around half that.

Thanks in advance to any help.

EDIT:
Or at least suggestions of where/what to look for ... I'm aware that laptops are overly expensive, which is why I'm trying to get help to figure out what an appropriate middle ground would be for me (cost vs. what I'd like to get vs. what I'll actually use). :\
I don't even know where to buy a laptop (other than like Best Buy or Walmart). xD

Post has been edited 4 time(s), last time on Nov 26 2011, 11:42 pm by FaRTy1billion.

I just came across this guide at newegg ...

Going along with what I remember from the guide ...
Size would (preferably) be 13-15".
Can anyone tell me what processor I might look out for (good or bad)? I don't really know how they fit together in terms of 'better' or 'worse'.
I don't care about SSD, it's just expensive and I don't want to pay for it. I don't care how large the harddrive is. Any new laptop will have a larger harddrive than this laptop (and this one is not full .. anymore).
I assume I'd need 4 GB of RAM, 2 at the least (I have 1 on this laptop and it is very not enough).
Other things like LED screens, HDMI ports, etc. I don't really care about unless they are insignificant cost (LED screen might be neat). I definitely need a CD drive (don't care about bluray).

Throwing around numbers I'll make an arbitrary budget of preferably below $600, max around $800.

The actual finder thing doesn't really help because I can't sort things by RAM and stuff ...
D: Maybe I should just ask someone at a store, except I don't trust them to help me.

This would be awesome if it was cheaper. xD

Also does the brand matter? What brands should I stay away from, and is there any one I should look for? :\ I know this question is highly subjective, but I dunno ...

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 27 2011, 8:53 am by FaRTy1billion.

What about this same thing for $180 less?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230132

That one. You want to buy that one.

Is why I made a topic asking for outside assistance instead of going LOOL I BUY THIS ONE

Is one vrael posted good? At newegg I can't seem to narrow my choices down enough to compare between a few items. What processor do I want? i5? Now I have narrowed down to 19 at newegg.

EDIT: Got it down to 11 ... the one Vrael posted is the lowest priced one (don't remember what I added to make it bump the price up to 600s. xD Probably the i5.)

If other people agree that it is a good idea to get that one and have no further suggestions, I'll probably just get that one. ;o Waiting to see how much money I actually have since apparently my bank's online banking thing is down.

EDIT2:
D: I'm in a hurry. I opened a tab to check my bank once again, and that was enough to overheat this worthless piece of shit that I have to put up with right now. (And now it wont turn on, despite the fan working better than it has in days).

Post has been edited 7 time(s), last time on Nov 27 2011, 9:50 am by FaRTy1billion.

Mobile i5s are dual cores with hyperthreading. Keep that in mind. The one Vrael posted is pretty nice for that price point, however. ASUS build quality is questionable, but if you take good care of your laptop that shouldn't be an issue.

Other than my own, I've never seen a laptop last more than about 3.

That laptop isn't very quality, but spec/price-wise, it can't really be beat. Keep in mind that it's a 15"; to go smaller, you'll have to either reduce specs or increase price. Which isn't unreasonable.

It's probably a heavy laptop. The Asus/MSI ones that focus more about competing on specifications tend to be heavy; I'd expect a minimum of six pounds.

I'd buy this instead:
http://store.sony.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&productId=8198552921666394729#specifications

Special Sony deal (ends tomorrow, I think, so decide quickly); $800 for a 13.3" Vaio S, a sheet battery (attaches to the bottom of the laptop to double battery life) and a bag (which is worthless). The laptop has 500GB of storage space compared to the Asus's 640GB, 4GB of RAM compared to the Asus's 6GB (both of these are probably irrelevant to you), and the GPU is somewhat worse (I think ~70% of the one in Vrael's). It's still not integrated graphics, and I would EXPECT it to run minecraft swellingly, but I'd get a second opinion to see just how well. On the plus side, it's 3.8 pounds without a sheet battery, 5 pounds with it, and probably has a better battery life even without the sheet battery. Also, the keyboard is backlit. I'd expect the Sony speakers to be really bad, but seeing as the Asus is... one of their cheapest models, I'd say that it's likely that they're BOTH really bad in that department.

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 27 2011, 7:07 pm by Centreri.

Weight isn't really an issue for me as long as it isn't like 20 pounds.
I just noticed that newegg doesn't specify the dimensions like the one you linked to.. :\ So using my measuring tape, I have estimated that the one on newegg is a few inches wider than my current laptop (which has similar dimensions to the one you posted), but about the same depth. It'll still fit in my backpack, but it will go past the top of the pocket.

Thanks for the suggestion, it always better to have more options. Though the smaller size is a plus, I don't know if it is worth $180.

Post has been edited 1 time(s), last time on Nov 28 2011, 1:00 am by FaRTy1billion.

Well... there's the huge increase in battery life, and the backlit keyboard...

Good point.
Funny I was talking about that with my mom this morning. I was saying I don't know why such a thing would even be useful.

EDIT: Trying to find if there exists a replacement battery with a higher capacity. ... So far I can't seem to find a replacement battery at all? :\

EDIT2: Gave up on finding a battery (it doesn't seem to exist?). I was going to try to see if I could find one with a comparable battery life and compare the cost ...
And unrelated, if I ever need more memory apparently it is pretty cheap for like 8GB... So RAM shouldn't be much of an issue.

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Nov 28 2011, 3:45 am by FaRTy1billion.

You're not really going to find a non-Sony/Lenovo laptop with comparable battery lives. Only Sony and Lenovo, to my knowledge, use the detachable sheet batteries. I'd expect the Asus to realistically handle 3-4 hours of normal work, maybe 2-3 of gaming. Probably less. The Sony should handle maybe a tiny bit better without the sheet battery, and maybe double that with it.

This laptop I already have is Compaq/HP ... I got it back when battery life was expected to be around 2 hours, and it had an optional 7 hour battery. That's the sort of thing I was looking to find.

Anyway, I went through that Sony site you linked to ... this is the cheapest one in the 600-700 price range. The $620 one from newegg is still appealing because it is the cheapest still.

Things I look for in a laptop, in order of general importance:

Screen Size:
It has a direct impact on battery life, weight, and size. IMO the smaller, the better. It also negatively impacts performance unfortunately.
Screen Resolution:
Generally you will be stuck with 1366x768, but higher is always better.
Mouse:
If possible to find out, synaptics touchpads are the best touchpads and allow for multi-touch, which is the only touchpad I would ever buy. Obviously a clit mouse is superior than even the best touchpad though.
GPU:
If you are going to game, this is possibly the most important, but going for a "gaming laptop" is counterintuitive. If you're not gaming, then generally onboard is just fine.
CPU:
mobile processors are notoriously slow. IMO the only thing worth getting is the absolute newest cpu on the market in your price range. That means a core i* with 4 numbers after it, or possibly whatever AMD just churned out. The sandy bridge i3 and i5 are stupendous and should be striven for regardless of budget. They also come with halfway decent graphics which will theoretically run SC2 (but not really).
Keyboard:
double check to see where the fn key is. Generally it should be to the right of the left control. Also make sure the "Enter" button is not xbox huge, and the backspace is larger than the other keys, unless you never use "|" and never make mistakes.
Battery life:
No matter what you do the battery life will be contingent on the CPU/GPU/Screen size. Batteries also cost more, so instead of buying a huge battery, try to increase efficiency which is what the above is about.

That being said, cyber monday has some decent deals, and you should always check slickdeals.net and/or bensbargains.net (there are many more as well) for any daily "deals". They come and go.
check newegg's cyber monday thread for the leftovers.

15" Laptop with a quad i7 and Radeon 6570M for $650

^ Cyber Monday deal. Buy now or you won't get it as cheaply.

How worth it is $30 more for Core "i7-2630QM 2.0 GHz + AMD Radeon HD 6570M discrete graphics processor" instead of "Core i5 2430M(2.40GHz) + NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M" (also discrete)? Just an uneducated guess that i7 will be better being newer and 4 cores instead of 2.
On the Lenovo: "4 GB DDR3 SDRAM (maximum)" No room for upgrade? 4 should be plenty though, right?
Both are 15.6, so no problems there.
I can use the bluetooth (lenovo), but it isn't any degree of necessary (I use it to transfer things to/from my phone since I don't have a cord).

@rockz's suggestions:
on the Asus I don't see anything about multitouch, the Lenovo apparently has it. I use an external mouse ~80% of the time anyway.
Screen sizes, as mentioned above (other than the one Cent posted), are the same.
CPUs: All of them have "i#-####*", so no worries there
"will theoretically run SC2 (but not really)" Low settings at the very least?
Hard to see the keyboards on these photos ... I wish they showed an image from the top of the keyboard and the bottom of the laptop. :\

oshit, cyber monday? What the hell is this. I have to go to work in like 40 minutes. How long do these deals last? Until midnight in (timezone) or what?

Post has been edited 2 time(s), last time on Nov 28 2011, 11:08 pm by FaRTy1billion.

As a note, my laptop has i5 and no discrete GPU, and it runs Starcraft 2 on low just fine. So yes, really.

I don't really know how to compare CPUs, graphics, and cost. The Asus and Lenovo are cheapest of the three so far, but I'm pretty clueless about what one is more worth the money.

Also the IS A DEAL ENDS TOMORROW isn't really helpful since I'm leaving for work soon and want to get one as soon as I can anyway. I guess if it does end and go up in price then it will just no longer be relevant..

EDIT:
Googling i5s, found intel website:
i5: "Recommended Customer Price $225"
i7: "Recommended Customer Price $378"
Is that meaningful or helpful?

EDIT2:
Oh, ok. Apparently I can't research these things because visiting a new site just crashed my laptop again.
I was trying to compare the GPUs. :\


Should I just go for the i7 $650, and if that goes away before I actually get to buy this then go for the i5 $630?

Post has been edited 3 time(s), last time on Nov 28 2011, 11:42 pm by FaRTy1billion.

Just buy the Lenovo before it expires. You're not going to see it below $800 in the future. It's a quad core, better graphics, and has excellent speakers if that matters to you. No complaints about it other than the fact that it's plastic.

I've heard bad things about Lenovo's non-Thinkpads. Possibly on SEN. Probably better than an Asus, though.