Reply to: What laptop? (powerful, large, light).

[MikeNguyen]

+1 Macintosh, it's amazing beautiful

[Jason Mitchell]

Hi All

I finally feel able (5 months into a 6 month contract) to buy my own laptop for work. Not somthing I ever did before (for work).

I'm a DBA, and in the future may want to spend evenings playing with VMWare, SQL2008, Oracle11g, SQL Azure etc. But also want a powerfull machine (i5 or i7 sandy-bridge, 4GB+ memory, ideally 15" screen) that looks good too (for office first-impressions). My shortlist (in current order of preference) is.

Sony Vaio
Apple Mac Pro/Air
Dell
Lenovo thinkpad 520
Toshiba M11

advice please

richard101

Have you decided on the graphics? I have a vaio and it looks great and performs even better. Its a fantastic laptop to have.

[2BIT]

I've heard many people recommending PCSPECIALIST.CO.UK - Laptop Computers, Laptops, Custom Laptops, Gaming Laptops, Buy Laptop as you can configure all the important bits and still get a laptop at a reasonable/competitive price.

It's where I'll be looking when I decide to replace my current laptop, hoping they're still around and offering the same service by then.

was gonna recommend these, built my laptop with them - not light but big and pretty powerful - check em out, the cases aren't sexy though

[xoggoth]

Acers are tough. Dropped mine down some concrete steps about a week after I brought it, and apart from scratches it was fine.

[VectraMan]

I've just taken the plunge and bought a Dell laptop from their outlet site. The spec is a quad core i7 with 6gb Ram, 640gb HD and a 15 inch screen. It's not light though but it's battery life is pretty good (9 cell one). It's got a 2gb nVidia 540m graphics card. It cost £570 with a 1 year warranty. So far I'm pretty impressed!

That sounds quite tempting. Hmmm.

[JamJarST]

You may want to wait until the new macbook air is out. Rumour has it that it will have a low power i7 processor.

Ooh really? I keep getting drawn to the Macbook Air every Monday at Luton Airport because I think it is perfect for my needs, and the amount of travel I do. If it had an i7 I think I would be very hard pressed not to buy one. Is that just the 13" or will the 11 also get it?

[eek]

what bunk and mm said.

You may want to wait until the new macbook air is out. Rumour has it that it will have a low power i7 processor.

[DS23]

Another +1 for the macbook. Mine's pretty awesome.

Mind you, it should be for £3k.

what bunk and mm said.

[Peoplesoft bloke]

I've had 2x Vaio, a Dell and am currently using an Acer. None of them has fallen to bits - maybe I don't bash them as hard as everyone else.

My Acer is an Aspire 8943G - snappy name! 18" screen, i7 processor and 4g Ram, there's a version with 8gb and twin 640gb HDs too IIRC

Very happy with it so far, but as I say, touch wood I don't seem to break them anyway.

[amcdonald]

I've just taken the plunge and bought a Dell laptop from their outlet site. The spec is a quad core i7 with 6gb Ram, 640gb HD and a 15 inch screen. It's not light though but it's battery life is pretty good (9 cell one). It's got a 2gb nVidia 540m graphics card. It cost £570 with a 1 year warranty. So far I'm pretty impressed!

I've got the same except for 8gig! ram and it's good enough for me. And the graphics card is good enough for a little gaming if anyway from home, and makes photoshop a breeze

[BoredBloke]

I've just taken the plunge and bought a Dell laptop from their outlet site. The spec is a quad core i7 with 6gb Ram, 640gb HD and a 15 inch screen. It's not light though but it's battery life is pretty good (9 cell one). It's got a 2gb nVidia 540m graphics card. It cost £570 with a 1 year warranty. So far I'm pretty impressed!

[Spacecadet]

First IBM Thinkpad 760CD lasted seven years (1995-2002).
Second IBM Thinkpad T23 lasted seven years (2002-2009).
Then switched to Dell.....
Dell Vostro 1520 lasted just two years (2009-2011).
Just bought a new Lenovo Thinkpad T520.

Not surprising really... the vostro is more consumer orientated and designed/priced accordingly which your comparing to a corporate class T series IBM

[doodab]

I like the "monolith from 2001" look myself, it's purposeful and businesslike.

[oracleslave]

As I said Thinkpad wad my first choice but for technical consultancy I need half an eye on looks.

[Moscow Mule]

Another +1 for the macbook. Mine's pretty awesome.

Mind you, it should be for £3k.