Laptop For Grad School

Hey,

I need help deciding on a laptop for grad school. I am entering grad school in fall and plan on taking it to school every day as I will need it in my lab so I don’t want it to be too heavy but the weight is not a big concern.

Main uses:

-School: The only concern here is that I will need it to run matlab, and photoshop. I know that matlab can be quite taxing on a computer depending on what I am running.

-Home: SC2 (I don’t mind playing on low settings but would like a decent FPS during battles)

Watching Streams

Random other video games (Diablo 3, LoL, etc.) as I like to try out new games when they come out for a while so I hope this laptop will be able to play games coming out in a few years as well.

I know very little about computers and have just looked at the few I put below, any suggestions on the ones I listed or other computers or pieces I should use would be quite helpful. I am looking to spend around $1000-$1300 but can go a little higher if it is necessary.

My main concerns are that I know nothing about video cards and trying to google it has just given me a long list and I don’t know how any actually compare.

Random Facts: I have an additional mouse and keyboard already, and will most likely attach a second monitor when I am at home so I don’t really worry about the screen size.

Random Questions: How much RAM is really necessary as I was always told 4GB was more than enough but now a days it seems like 4GB is low?

Also all the extra cooling options they advertise, are any of those really necessary?

Any help is appreciated!

http://www.xoticpc.com/msi-ge60-0n006us-preorder-p-4334.html?wconfigure=yes

http://configure.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=ni15ra5t_ft_040&model_id=inspiron-15r-se-7520&c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1

As you can probably tell from these links I really have no idea what I need for what I want to do or if they are good deals for their price at all. Also I know there are a lot of posts about laptops for school but everyone wants different things so I thought I would just lay out all my wants here and hopefully gain some insight into what I need.

Also I live in Canada if that will affect some of your decisions.

Last edit: 2012-07-28 06:06:48

RespectedPuddle July 28 2012 06:08. Posts 80

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http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6165-clevo-w150er-p-4344.html?wconfigure=yes

Get this. I can't find a better price per performance anywhere. Get the 70$ processor upgrade, Get an SSD (128 or 256) as primary and the 500GB as secondary. Get the IC diamond thermal paste, its pretty standard to get for high performance laptops. You definitely don't need the copper cooling upgrade tho. It comes with 8gb RAM and its up to you whether you want to pay 130 for 16GB upgrade.

The 650M will be able to run 60fps on high for SC2, about 35 on ultra. It's a mid-high range card thats really affordable.

This is the computer i'm ordering for college, with the matte screen upgrade. trust me i've done sooo much research the past few months, the bang for your buck on this is unmatchable anywhere.

good luck

Myrmidon United States. July 28 2012 07:01. Posts 8480

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4GB may be a bit limiting, depending on what you're running in MATLAB and Photoshop, and these are the kinds of programs that you leave open because restoring everything back to how it was after reopening is a pain. RAM by is pretty cheap though, and in many laptops, you can install more yourself with little trouble.

Would you be showing others results on your laptop? Is getting something that looks appropriate a concern (in most fields, I'd think so)?

To be honest, your performance requirements are not that high. I'd think about a business-class laptop (e.g. Thinkpad T series) with a Core i7-3xxxQM, just in case you need to be able to crunch through some things. An Ivy Bridge processor like that will have integrated graphics capable of playing modern games, just not on any high settings. An SSD would be nice too, to load programs faster.

Last edit: 2012-07-28 07:01:59

hitchslap July 28 2012 14:25. Posts 20

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Just get one of the new macbook pro with the retina display. Definitely a high quality laptop despite what the haters say

Rollin Australia. July 28 2012 14:42. Posts 1139

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On July 28 2012 14:25 hitchslap wrote:
Just get one of the new macbook pro with the retina display. Definitely a high quality laptop despite what the haters say

Sorry, where can you get them for $1000-$1300? I thought they were ~$2000+ with the retina display... ???

Throw off those chains of reason, and your prison disappears.

Alabasern United States. July 28 2012 14:59. Posts 2814

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The new Macbook Pro have repair issues I've read. I've owned a Macbook Pro for 3+ years and if I were you I'd buy a Lenovo for that price range.

Support your esport!

Alryk United States. July 28 2012 15:42. Posts 2225

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iirc, you can buy a Lenovo thinkpad T series with at least the HD+ display, and the NVS5400M (clearly not the greatest, but its based on a 630M and still better than HD4000) and a quad core for under 1300$. Lenovo had the GPU at only 50$ for the upgrade as opposed to the 250$ recently. No idea if its still active, or if its even available like that in Canada though.

Edit: Doesn't seem like they offer cheap GPU in canada.

Last edit: 2012-07-28 15:46:43

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