Another College Student Laptop Rec Thread
 

Hey fellas. Thanks for dropping in.

This September I'm starting my first year of Game Development. The computers at the school are hard to get access to at the best of times (filled with twits watching anime/surfing facebook and youtube). This, and the fact that my Game Dev course is going to be very computer-intensive, I'm thinking it would be great to have a notebook to carry around with me to make working on stuff so much easier and portable. They have wifi all over the school so that's also a bonus.

Budget: Max of $1,000 all things considered. (Tax, eco fee, etc)
What It'll Be Used For: Most intensive thing will probably be light-to-moderate 3D modelling; but will also be used for photoshop/image editing, Flash work, document/note making, and light C++ programming.
Ideal Specs: 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, Quad-core CPU, minimum 4hr Battery life during intense use, must run Windows.

Of course, I'm willing to compromise a little on the specs, as those are just ideal.

This would be my first choice, but will be out of your budget a bit as its $1000 before taxes:
ASUS N53SV-A1, Notebook (Silver Aluminum) - Intel Core i7-2630QM, 15.6" HD (1366x768) LED-backlit, 4GB RAM, 750GB HDD, NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M 1GB, DVD-RW, Wireless BGN, Bluetooth, 2M Webcam, USB 3.0, eSATA, B&O Icepower Audio, Windows 7 Home Premium

Asus (2 year warranty with Canadian depot), geforce video, and a Sandy bridge chip with the AVX extensions that will come in handy for video transcoding work you might do in your program.

Otherwise, I would pick a slightly lower priced i5 Asus laptop with a dedicated GOU...take a look at The Canada Computers site I have linked you. Gotta love that 2 year warranty...

I would suggest an Asus or Lenovo Core i5 dual core with hyperthreading. The mobile Core i7's absolutely rape battery life, which would be a pretty important feature for a student I'm assuming. There are a *lot* available at NCIX for under $1000- 15" would be better due to resolutions available (For some reason under 14" seem to have stupid resolutions which could be inconvenient for the type of work you'll be doing) I can try to take a peek for some specific models, but The Asus X Series seems to be pretty feature packed for their prices

Acer Aspire AS7745G-9445, Notebook (Black) - Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz) Quad-Core, 17.3" HD (1600x900) LED-backlit LCD, 8GB DDR3, 1TB (2x500GB) HDD, ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB Dedicated Graphics, DVD-writer, Wireless 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0, Gb LAN

Not sure if I believe the battery life specs, but should be right up your alley.

Size?

You may want to wait closer to September to see what new Sandy Bridge powered models are released.

I have recommended these left right and center. Every person that has one has been VERY happy so far:

Take Flight With ASUS B Series Notebooks

- Matte screen
- Quad core processor options
- Dedicated NVIDIA or AMD GPUs
- AMD Eyefinity ready (for ones with the AMD GPUs)
- NVIDIA Optimus (for ones with the NVIDIA GPUs)
- VERY good keyboard
- Excellent docking abilities
- 3 year warranty
- 3 year BATTERY warranty
- 1 year accidential damage warranty


And the best part.....

14" under $1000: asus b43 - Price comparison - Canada's Cheapest Prices

15" for between $900 and $1100: asus b53 - Price comparison - Canada's Cheapest Prices


IMO, there is no better value out there.

Cheaper here: Xpress Canada - Acer Aspire AS7745G-9445, Notebook (Black) - Intel Core i7-740QM (1.73GHz) Quad-Core, 17.3" HD (1600x900) LED-backlit LCD, 8GB DDR3, 1TB (2x500GB) HDD, ATI Radeon HD 5850 1GB Dedicated Graphics, DVD-writer, Wireless 802.11b/g/n, Bluet

Thanks for the heads-up, I was looking for a lappy just like that. :thumb:

I don't know how these compare with the Asus B series, but I have been very pleased with my first purchase of a Lenovo laptop and the X220 series seem to fit your needs. The questions I can't answer, do your programs require a dedicated gpu (well would it be better ?) and is 12.5in too small. Right now there is a 25% discount on it + 8% cashback.

Personally, I would never buy an Acer laptop but that's just me...

Now, I'm not that familiar with laptops, but the specs on that laptop don't look appealing for the price tag, especially compared to others I've seen with superior specs at the same price.

DAT NOTEBOOK... I'm... in love...