Hardware Looking for a laptop

[chyyran]

My ThinkPad X201 is getting pretty old..

I want to do some good ol' web browsing, some coding (my IDEs of choice would be PyCharm, Eclipse and VS2010/2012), and I'd like to be able to do some light gaming as well, like Skyrim, BF3, Dota 2, League of Legends, TF2, and FFXIV: ARR, and I'd like it to last quite a while. I've had great experiences with a ThinkPad, so I'd be willing to sacrifice some performance for durability.

I don't want too heavy of a laptop, and my budget is around $1200

I'm looking at a T430 with maxed out specs (i7-3520M, Nvidia NVS 5400M, 16GM RAM). I'm also seriously considering an IdeaPad Y410p, but I'm concerned about it's durability. Should I bide my time and wait for a Haswell ThinkPad?

While I've only looked at Lenovo's offerings so far, I'm open to other suggestions, except HP. HP laptops are horrible IMO.

 

[the_randomizer]

My ThinkPad X201 is getting pretty old..

I want to do some good ol' web browsing, some coding (my IDEs of choice would be PyCharm, Eclipse and VS2010/2012), and I'd like to be able to do some light gaming as well, like Skyrim, BF3, Dota 2, League of Legends, TF2, and FFXIV: ARR, and I'd like it to last quite a while. I've had great experiences with a ThinkPad, so I'd be willing to sacrifice some performance for durability.

I don't want too heavy of a laptop, and my budget is around $1200

I'm looking at a T430 with maxed out specs (i7-3520M, Nvidia NVS 5400M, 16GM RAM). I'm also seriously considering an IdeaPad Y410p, but I'm concerned about it's durability. Should I bide my time and wait for a Haswell ThinkPad?

While I've only looked at Lenovo's offerings so far, I'm open to other suggestions, except HP. HP laptops are horrible IMO.

HPs aren't as bad as they used to be (and are better than Dell by a long shot). Lenovo is a good brand, I have an IdeaPad Y570 and runs Skyrim pretty dang well. Sony makes good machines as well, if not a bit pricier than others, Toshiba can be hit and miss, Asus also makes good machines Haswell, not too sure about, I don't think the difference is so great to justify the higher price, but that's just me

 

[chyyran]

HPs aren't as bad as they used to be (and are better than Dell by a long shot). Lenovo is a good brand, I have an IdeaPad Y570 and runs Skyrim pretty dang well. Sony makes good machines as well, if not a bit pricier than others, Toshiba can be hit and miss, Asus also makes good machines Haswell, not too sure about, I don't think the difference is so great to justify the higher price, but that's just me

As far as I know, the Haswell T440s has a GT 730M GPU, and comes out in November, so I'm thinking I might be better off waiting a month. I really like the durability and the feel of a ThinkPad.

I'm browsing the Sony store right now, it does seem a bit overpriced for what they offer..

How's the durability on Asus laptops?

 

[the_randomizer]

As far as I know, the Haswell T440s has a GT 730M GPU, and comes out in November, so I'm thinking I might be better off waiting a month. I really like the durability and the feel of a ThinkPad.

I'm browsing the Sony store right now, it does seem a bit overpriced for what they offer..

How's the durability on Asus laptops?

Wow, didn't know those laptops they had those GPUs like that! Asus makes very reliable laptops from what I hear

 

[calmwaters]

ThinkPad? Why have I never heard of that; it sounds so awesome. I have a Toshiba and I love it to death; (some weird things have happened to it in the last few weeks though... but I've had it for two years anyway...) I've heard the Asus laptops are good too.

 

[the_randomizer]

ThinkPad? Why have I never heard of that; it sounds so awesome. I have a Toshiba and I love it to death; (some weird things have happened to it in the last few weeks though... but I've had it for two years anyway...) I've heard the Asus laptops are good too.

My brother has one and it's been great, I have a Lenovo Y570 (old I know lol), but that too has been working like a charm, the only downside is these models are known for crappy ventilation, but that's just with the Y5XX series mostly. Avoid Dell like the plague.

 

[calmwaters]

My brother has one and it's been great, I have a Lenovo Y570 (old I know lol), but that too has been working like a charm, the only downside is these models are known for crappy ventilation, but that's just with the Y5XX series mostly. Avoid Dell like the plague.

Old is good and yeah, they've fixed ventilation problems with laptops over the years. Dell has never made anything good as far as I know; I wonder how they even still exist. I actually saw someone with a Dell laptop and I was like, "Why do you have such a piece of crap?"

 

[the_randomizer]

Old is good and yeah, they've fixed ventilation problems with laptops over the years. Dell has never made anything good as far as I know; I wonder how they even still exist. I actually saw someone with a Dell laptop and I was like, "Why do you have such a piece of crap?"

ROFL copter, did Lenovo ever fix those ventilation issues? And yeah, same here, whenever I see someone with a Dell, I ask myself, "do you have life that badly". Asus, Lenovo, MSI and some HP models are the way to go.

 

[calmwaters]

ROFL copter, did Lenovo ever fix those ventilation issues?

Probably. They'd have to do something.

 

[Rydian]

The Ideapad is about the build quality of your average mid-level consumer laptop, not really as good as the traditional models like the T.

ThinkPad? Why have I never heard of that; it sounds so awesome.

Because Lenovo hasn't traditionally marketed towards the average user that just wants the cheapest thing they can get that's shiny, so the name's not really out there. They used to just sell to businesses and so reliability was a main concern.

 

[the_randomizer]

The Ideapad is about the build quality of your average mid-level consumer laptop, not really as good as the traditional models like the T.

Because Lenovo hasn't traditionally marketed towards the average user that just wants the cheapest thing they can get that's shiny, so the name's not really out there. They used to just sell to businesses and so reliability was a main concern.

The question is, can the ThinkPads be used for gaming as well (I mean, do they actually have GPUs that don't suck)? As for Haswell, I really don't know how much better they are than the Ivy Bridge CPUs.

 

[Rydian]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/
As far as the thinkpad line, the S, T, and W can have dedicated ("discreet" there) graphics.

 

[calmwaters]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/
As far as the thinkpad line, the S, T, and W can have dedicated ("discreet" there) graphics.

Do those come with built-in chargers or something? Do you have to have a cord to plug into your wall to charge it or is it somehow portable?

 

[Rydian]

Do those come with built-in chargers or something? Do you have to have a cord to plug into your wall to charge it or is it somehow portable?

Last I checked all the Lenovo laptops were still coming with wall chargers you plug in like normal (just with smaller transformers on them since tech keeps evolving).

 

[calmwaters]

Last I checked all the Lenovo laptops were still coming with wall chargers you plug in like normal (just with smaller transformers on them since tech keeps evolving).

You think they'll eventually get to a USB-type charger? But you know, one that hooks into the laptop's power plug instead of the USB port? I want that, really I do.

 

[Originality]

You think they'll eventually get to a USB-type charger? But you know, one that hooks into the laptop's power plug instead of the USB port? I want that, really I do.

It'll be a very long time until you see a laptop powered by a USB type charger. USB can't carry enough currant to charge a laptop battery.

 

[chyyran]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/
As far as the thinkpad line, the S, T, and W can have dedicated ("discreet" there) graphics.

My brother has a T420s, and the NVS 4200 can just barely handle BL2 at 1368x786. Granted, that's a rather old T (not as old as my X201), and the graphics card isn't really gaming oriented.

Thus, waiting for the T440s and it's GT 730M . I just hope it isn't too expensive at launch.