Buying a laptop for my webdesign and coding projects, what's your recommendation?

[hawke]

I was a windows guy all my life, was raised on dos and windows. I got my first Macbook from school a couple of months ago, Fell in love with it instantly, and sold both my windows seven laptops. I have the Macbook Quad core i7 2.4ghz, with 4 gig ram, and AMD/ATI HD6750.

My render speeds nearly doubled with it, plus Its been running since the day I got it, and has only needed to shutdown when a software update is applied. I was having to restart my Windows every couple of days, to avoid errors...

Plus I run windows 7 in VM when I really need it...
Hope that helps

 

[Roparadise]

I was a windows guy all my life, was raised on dos and windows. I got my first Macbook from school a couple of months ago, Fell in love with it instantly, and sold both my windows seven laptops. I have the Macbook Quad core i7 2.4ghz, with 4 gig ram, and AMD/ATI HD6750.

My render speeds nearly doubled with it, plus Its been running since the day I got it, and has only needed to shutdown when a software update is applied. I was having to restart my Windows every couple of days, to avoid errors...

Plus I run windows 7 in VM when I really need it...
Hope that helps

What were the windows specs?

 

[cyberthane]

Go with Lenovo for sure.

 

[SH3RMAN]

hey buddy buy the alienwar m11x R3 i buyed it in less 1 week with IM.
It work great with all apps including games and for sure xrumer ^^

 

[hawke]

 

[pauli walnuts]

I agree, i have an Acer and have had no problems with it, except i broke the screen which i replaced which was costly. My Wife had a toshiba too and had overheating problems. I think my next laptop will be an Asus, but hearing good reports on Dell and have heard there support is good.

I had (gave it to my daughter) a Toshiba satellite and it overheats and dies. I've replaced the keyboard, hard drive, and cd drive. I wouldn't recommend it. I wouldn't buy dell either - just my personal opinion.

Right now I'm using a acer aspire netbook and haven't had any problems with it. The screen is too small to do alot of graphics, but it handles all those programs and others with no problem. The next one I buy is going to be a viao

 

[lanbo]

get something with a good keyboard!

 

[Roparadise]

@hawke
The apple pc has better system parts i7 vs i5 in the windows pc and the hd6750m in apple pc is better then the 540m in windows pc. That is why its the better pc,not because its running MAC OS. A clean install of windows 7(with the same system spec) is just as good as mac os if not better due to the vast amount of more programs made for it.

 

[bouquet]

I got an asus when I upgraded from my viao, must say I like it more then my old viao!

 

[Techxan]

Dont buy a laptop.

 

[Techxan]

dup post, my bad. Damn Firefox!

 

[RalstonPamulaa]

if i were you i would be having mac book air, you should grab it 2!

 

[tacopalypse]

if you're primarily doing web design/coding, i'd say that the most important factors are that you have a high resolution and lots of ram. mainly because you'll be having a lot of applications open at once. cpu and gpu aren't as important because you're just going to be viewing websites. optionally, an ssd is a nice addition as it'll make your laptop practically invulnerable to drop damage, and also your OS will boot a lot faster.

i'd aim for something with these specs:
ram: at least 8gb
resolution: at least 1680x1050
cpu: at least a dual core
storage: ssd with at least 100gb

battery life is also an important consideration. generally the more powerful your other components are, the less battery life you're going to end up with. how relevant this is depends on how often you'd be working on the go vs plugged into an adapter.

 

[hamish11]

I can almost feel an undercurrrent of a religious war brewing in some of these replies. lol. I own both macs and wintel machines. It really comes down to personal preference. The "much more software runs on windows" is a non argument now with very fast VM solutions available for the Mac. But... it really comes down to which OS you prefer. Just make sure you get top notch components no matter which OS you go with. 8GB of RAM and if you really want to have a fast machine go with an SSD, but don't get one bundled with the machine, spec it out and buy it separately. If you go Windows, look at Acer as others have said, also ASUS, HP, and Samsung. I have noticed a dropoff in the quality of Lenovo lately.

 

[TheVigilante]

dude take my advice and go for ASUS look these brands dell,HP they dont produce a shit when you open these laptops you will find out the LCD is of a different company and what not now consider ASUS they produce their own motherboards and they have excellent customer service plus the i7 that are available in ASUS are more cheaper and more powerful than these DELL and HP.Remember AMD uses ASUS motherboards and remember one thing ASUS produces components for other companies like Apple,HP,DELL lol

if you got more money then for sure go for apple but ASUS is class check out their configurations on their official website

 

[Roparadise]

Isn't one of the best advantages apple has,is that it has the Apple effect? I remember a few months ago a jr vip member made a thread about how having an ipad makes you appear to be much more professional vs any other tablet.

 

[hamish11]

Why would anyone here on BHW care about the so called Apple "effect", not even sure that it exists. Just buy the laptop the suits your needs. Results trump perception everytime.

 

[krayzietalent]

Don't buy a Macbook, any of them. As someone who worked in an industry with 80% of the users using them (and I worked on one daily), they are absolutely not worth the cost. Get a Lenovo Thinkpad, much better for the price, and essentially the same quality as a Mac with the same specs, just a bit lower quality casing, and you won't be as upset when you get your laptop stolen!

 

[Roparadise]

Why would anyone here on BHW care about the so called Apple "effect", not even sure that it exists. Just buy the laptop the suits your needs. Results trump perception everytime.

Because some people on BHW have off line clients they need to impress.

 

[crashus]

You don't really need a overpriced laptop, what you need is a 17" display and lots of RAM

So 8GB of ram would be okay, so you can totally turnoff your swap file. Also fast cpu like i3-i5-i7 preffered, and ssd 128Gb HGG also

I think you'll need about $1k if a budget here