What laptop brands are best?

[Red Celt]

Cheapest apple (macbook air) comes in at $1 under your max =P (but yeah, 11 inches is far too small imo).

Yeah, plus I'd have to get accessories and software and everything and then there'd be taxes and that would push it well over a grand.

I think this looks like it would work for me. Asus with an i7 processor and a 15" screen. Does it look like it would be a decent choice?

http://microcenter.com/product/388092/R5...er_-_Mocha

Looks like a good spec, to me. You'll be well-covered for Office, anyway, and some games too (if gaming is your thing).

[TaraJo]

Yeah, plus I'd have to get accessories and software and everything and then there'd be taxes and that would push it well over a grand.

I think this looks like it would work for me. Asus with an i7 processor and a 15" screen. Does it look like it would be a decent choice?

http://microcenter.com/product/388092/R5...er_-_Mocha

Looks like a good spec, to me. You'll be well-covered for Office, anyway, and some games too (if gaming is your thing).

Well, I'm looking at going back into World of Warcraft when the fall semester is up, but that's a game that's made a conscious effort to be playable even on out of date technology. Might consider a few other games like Minecraft, too, but not really on my mind atm.

[Red Celt]

Looks like a good spec, to me. You'll be well-covered for Office, anyway, and some games too (if gaming is your thing).

Well, I'm looking at going back into World of Warcraft when the fall semester is up, but that's a game that's made a conscious effort to be playable even on out of date technology. Might consider a few other games like Minecraft, too, but not really on my mind atm.

Well, on an i7 with 8Gb of memory, WoW should be fine. Biggest processor hits happen on high-end raids with lots of spell effects happening at the same time. A 5-man instance crawl will be a doddle. Even with pandas.

[popeyespappy]

A couple of Lenovo machines worth considering....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcom...246-629-TS

[TaraJo]

Well, on an i7 with 8Gb of memory, WoW should be fine. Biggest processor hits happen on high-end raids with lots of spell effects happening at the same time. A 5-man instance crawl will be a doddle. Even with pandas.

Well, I do worry a little about the graphic upgrades with Pandaria.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSqaiTWegpg

I know I had to set my graphics really low on my old computer or I lagged like nothing else; it really made it hard to see where I was going and getting around deepholm was a bitch and a half. Or maybe just a faster internet connection could do the trick (I'll probably look into upgrading that, too).

[Red Celt]

I know I had to set my graphics really low on my old computer or I lagged like nothing else; it really made it hard to see where I was going and getting around deepholm was a bitch and a half. Or maybe just a faster internet connection could do the trick (I'll probably look into upgrading that, too).

It's a common mistaken use of language. Lag is due to a poor (or over-burdened) network connection. A low framerate is due to an overburdened graphics card, CPU or memory. Problems in WoW are nearly always framerate issues, as it has a relatively low network usage. So it isn't lag.

With the laptop you linked, the processor and memory are fine. I'm not 100% sure about the graphics card. There will be comparative websites somewhere which include that laptop's card.

[Jackalope]

I know I can get an i7 processor for less than a grand

For what you've said you are intending on using it for, a 2nd gen Core i5 is plenty. I have two laptops, one with a dual core i5, and the other with a quad core i7, and for the vast majority of tasks, there's not a lot of difference in performance. For games, yes, but that's more due to the difference in GPU performance than CPU.

If it were me, for a non-gaming laptop, I'd spend some extra on battery life before the i7 over the i5. For gaming, I'd go for a better GPU first, and make the i5/i7 decision based on whether it would fit in the budget.

[TaraJo]

For what you've said you are intending on using it for, a 2nd gen Core i5 is plenty. I have two laptops, one with a dual core i5, and the other with a quad core i7, and for the vast majority of tasks, there's not a lot of difference in performance. For games, yes, but that's more due to the difference in GPU performance than CPU.

It would be fine, yeah, but for work, i5 will do, i7 is better. They use processor speed to determine what order they put your webcam room. The better your processor, the more customers you get.

[Jackalope]

For what you've said you are intending on using it for, a 2nd gen Core i5 is plenty. I have two laptops, one with a dual core i5, and the other with a quad core i7, and for the vast majority of tasks, there's not a lot of difference in performance. For games, yes, but that's more due to the difference in GPU performance than CPU.

It would be fine, yeah, but for work, i5 will do, i7 is better. They use processor speed to determine what order they put your webcam room. The better your processor, the more customers you get.

Ah, then i7 it is.

Be sure to look at reviews for battery life if that's something that's important to you. I'm lucky to get 100 minutes out of my work i7 with business/software development apps. My personal i7 I can usually get about twice that, and often quite a bit more - as long as I'm not doing anything that requires the 3D GPU. I have a dual GPU, integrated for 2D, and a dedicated 3D GPU for gaming which is a nice feature for extending battery life.

Having a too-small battery sucks.

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With the laptop you linked, the processor and memory are fine. I'm not 100% sure about the graphics card.

If it's the 144 shader version of the GT630M, that's about equal to the GT555M. The 96 shader version is closer to the GT540M.

Either should be more than adequate for WoW.

I have a GT555M - the newest game I have is Skyrim and it runs it very well.

[LastPoet]

I'd go for an Asus i7. My old dual core asus machine, has 5 years and its still running smoothly with the original OS. I fix alot of computers for almost a year now, and I never had an Asus laptop to fix in my shop.