A question to the OP - what are you looking to do with the notebook? General purpose? Dev? Games? A lot of what makes a good notebook depends on what you're going to use it for.
I just got a new Lenovo (T410). I've bought nothing but ThinkPad for my personal notebooks for going on 7 years now. I can't say enough good things about them - in fact, my initial one (~7 years old) is still running strong, and I use it for surfing the net in the basement. They are solid, well built machines. I can't speak to the IdeaPads, but my wife has one and seems to like it. Erick On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 4:39 PM, Jeffery Olson <[email protected]>wrote: > I recently purchased one of the 2011 macbook pros.. I like it a lot. > Even with one of the entry-level 13" models (I upgraded to 8GB RAM and > a Scopio Black 7200RPM HD), I have the horsepower to run a windows vm > (w/ VS2010, SQL mgmt studio, etc) via virtualbox for work and do most > other stuff I want (browsing, emulation/gaming). > > If graphics are important to you, get a 15 or 17" model, as the 13" > models come only with Intel's HD3000 graphics (It's what I have and I > like it just fine, but a lot of AAA games for mac will work only with > models with nvidia/AMD graphics chipsets, just like on windows). Don't > get RAM upgrades from Apple ($200 for 8GB upgrade on 13" MBP, vs ~$85 > to DIY from amazon (I get free shipping w/ prime, so it was a good > deal for me)). Their prices on SSDs aren't bad, though. > > Besides the MacBook Pro, the only other laptop that I know of with a > unibody aluminum design is the HP Envy (and it's looking like the the > 15" model won't see a Sandy Bridge update until this summer at the > earliest). Aside from those two, there are several laptops on the > market with magnesium or various composite chasis. > > In terms of the price:power ratio, a name that I kept hearing again > and again during my laptop search was Sager/Clevo. They have a pretty > dedicated following on the notebookreview.com forums, but because of > the Series 6 chipset issues, all of the Sager laptops that were > released earlier this year are only now getting into consumer's hands. > There seem to be some issues with screen quality and some flex in the > keyboard/chasis, but for the price it's a great bargain (just don't > plan on treating them too roughly). The NP5160 and NP8130 are two > recent models from Sager that provide a great value proposition (just > google and read up on 'em yourself). > > Lenovo also has what appears to be a really nice 14" Sandy Bridge > laptop (the Ideapad y460p), but it got caught up in the Series 6 > chipset recall as well. I've heard a *lot* of horror stories from > people about Lenovos, though. > > No matter what you do, if you're going to go with a new laptop, you > definitely need to get a system with a sandy bridge processor (and > shoot for one with a nice, not-underclocked dual core or quad-core > proc.. if you want to do serious work, I'd avoid any of low or > ultra-low voltage CPUs). The field is pretty wide-open at this point > and only more models will hit in the coming months, so if it's > something you're serious about you should do some research. A good > starting place is to just google for "sandy bridge laptop" in > news.google.com from time-to-time to see recent announcements. There's > also a wealth of information on the aforementioned > forum.notebookreview.com site. A lot of laptop loons there, but watch > out for the tribalist/fanboy types. > > Cheers and good luck, > Jeff > > On Sun, Mar 27, 2011 at 3:00 PM, Justin Bozonier <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Just bought a new MacBook Pro this year (just prior to the update). > > I love this computer. I spend 20-30 hours a week on it. I'm cool for > paying > > for all the little luxuries, especially when it'll last 4 or so years. > > > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Mar 27, 2011, at 2:58 PM, Eric Ridgeway <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > For PCs ive owned several different kinds... ASUS makes great pcs at low > > prices .... Ive also always had good luck with Acer laptops ... Their > > desktops blow but the laptops rock .... I currently use an HP dmz3 for > > personal stuff and a Dell M4500 for work... > > > > The one really important thing to remember is to get a laptop that is > sturdy > > .... Ne more I would only buy a metal laptop .... So MBPs keep looking > > better and better > > > > On Mar 27, 2011 2:50 PM, "Michael Ibarra" <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Seattle area Alt.Net" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/altnetseattle?hl=en. > > > > -- > > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > > "Seattle area Alt.Net" group. > > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > > [email protected]. > > For more options, visit this group at > > http://groups.google.com/group/altnetseattle?hl=en. > > > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Seattle area Alt.Net" group. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > [email protected]. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/altnetseattle?hl=en. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Seattle area Alt.Net" group. 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