Help me find (or design) a new laptop

[Awesome]

So this year I'm getting a new portable computer. I've only seen what my local computer shop sells and one particular model seems pretty solid. i7 processor, Nvidia GeForce 740m graphics card, 1 tb hard drive, 8 gigs ram with Windows 8. I don't know too much about the exact specs but those seem like relatively up to date pieces of hardware. The price on this was (I believe) 999 USD/Euros.

My question is how much better could a laptop be with a 1,000 USD budget assuming I want it to be able to play some more recent games little Battlefield 3 and be able to hold me over for the next 5 years? This is also going to pull me through my bachelor's which will require me to use some programming software and CAD.

Thoughts/opinions?

 

[rawr]

[MENTION=9644]Awesome[/MENTION] - yes. Those are pretty good specs.

i7 is pretty top-of-the-line for mid consumer-grade processors - you'll want nothing less than an i5 if you're doing CAD (engineering, right?) IMHO. I'd stick with the i7.
8GB RAM is good, though i'm not sure how much CAD and gaming use (i don't game.) RAM's relatively cheap, so you may consider anything from 8-16GB. 16 is probably excessive though.

1TB storage is plenty - good luck using all that (unless you're a digital hoarder.) Be sure to pay attention to the write speeds though as you probably want something that's a bit faster (7200RPM maybe?)

Also look into your graphics card. You'll want a decent one (aka GPU) for gaming and CAD. most that come on desktops and laptops should be decent enough nowadays - mine sucks though.

Of course in 5 years better hardware will come out, but that should last you plenty past college. I've got a 2009 computer that i'll probably upgrade once i get a job. But it's lasted me throughout my college career, and could probably last me a little longer if i were not to upgrade. I've run several programming apps on it, and they run fine (although VStudio takes a bit to load up.) My processor and graphics card is the most limiting factor.

EDIT - just saw the thing about the graphics card - looks pretty good, but i'm not current with GPUs. maybe @sprinkles has a better idea?

All in all, it looks plenty for what you want to do. May be able to find one closer to 850-900USD online though.

 

[sprinkles]

[MENTION=2240]rawr[/MENTION]

I don't know, I don't do laptops. I'm also not up on modern hardware because I make computers out of old stuff that is nearly deprecated.

However looking at this stuff, it seems just fine. RAM should be plenty, the i7 processor should be just enough for CAD and stuff. Just be aware that a lot of things (such as CAD) are irrelevant to multiple cores, CAD is more single core dependent, except for rendering. In fact AutoCAD only recommends 3ghz single or dual core processors. This isn't to say that you can't have more cores, just that more cores probably won't increase performance all that much with CAD.

 

[rawr]

@rawr

I don't know, I don't do laptops. I'm also not up on modern hardware because I make computers out of old stuff that is nearly deprecated.

However looking at this stuff, it seems just fine. RAM should be plenty, the i7 processor should be just enough for CAD and stuff. Just be aware that a lot of things (such as CAD) are irrelevant to multiple cores, CAD is more single core dependent, except for rendering. In fact AutoCAD only recommends 3ghz single or dual core processors. This isn't to say that you can't have more cores, just that more cores probably won't increase performance all that much with CAD.

Huh, i didn't know that about CAD. I knew most games looked mostly at single cores. More reason he should get an Intel rather than AMD. I was looking it up because i'm not current on hardware either, but seems like the i5 and i7 aren't too different. Still, if i7 is what he was looking at, i'd stick with it.

 

[SealHammer]

[MENTION=9644]Awesome[/MENTION] what are the specs on the screen? What brand/model is this computer?

While awaiting your response, insert plug for ThinkPad X, T, or W series here. Seriously. Thinkpads are powerhouses.

 

[Awesome]

I don't remember but the screen was large enough that it has a numberpad on the side of the keyboard. The brand is Toshiba. It also has a rather sensitive touch screen which is probably a good portion of that price tag. However, I don't want a touch screen so I'm thinking I could get something better for the same price.

 

[Awesome]

Alright guys

Thank you all so much for your help! Here is what I settled with.

Dell Inspiron 15 7000 series
i7 4500U
Nvidia Geforce 750m
16 gb RAM
256 GB SSD

The screen is I believe 15.3" with a 1920 x 1080 resolution. It cowers compared to a lot of gaming computers but hey I can almost max out Borderlands 2 and Bad Company 2 so I'm happy.