I'm going to graduate school and I need a new laptop.

Former experiences:

• In 2006 I was gifted an Alienware. It was incredibly bulky and heavy, the battery lasted 90 minutes with Wi-fi turned off (or 45 with it on), and eventually it became unreliable for even hosting TF2.
• In 2010 I bought a Macbook. I really don't like the Mac OS. It also failed to keep up with my typing. Seriously how does that even happen.

Current preferences:

• Small enough to carry, but big enough to become my new computer for the next two years. Preferred widescreen for coding/gaming maybe?
• Good battery life
• I've typically bought Dell desktops with no troubles but I don't know anything about their laptop line. I've seen too many friends have problems with HP/Acer/Toshiba laptop to even want to go that route.

Does anyone have any testimonials they'd be willing to throw at me? Once I get home from San Diego I'll be doing some serious shopping for this thing. Opinions on different brands or models are much appreciated. Thanks!

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.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yeah. DONT get your works computer department to fix your laptop. I asked the guy if he could take a look at mine and when he fried it, my boss said: since im SURE *wink wink* that he wasnt working on that during company time, we will not help you get a new one.

Also, my acer aspire 8943G was pretty expensive, great screen(18inch), mouse is intermittent since coke spilled on it.

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Here are three laptops which fit your requirements.

The first is this Lenovo Ideapad. Costs $999
The good: The best graphics performance of the bunch, has two GTX 650m's in SLI.
The bad: Worst batter life of the bunch, at only 2 hours. Also only 6GB of RAM while the MSI has 8GB, which may not be a huge deal depending on what you do. Most expensive. No CD/DVD drive. HDD only 5400RPM, which seems strange to have in a performance/gaming laptop. Slightly heavier than the MSI.
Summary: Best performer, shortest battery life.

The second is this MSI GE60. Costs $929.
The Good: $20 cheaper than the Ideapad. 8GB of Ram, two more than the Ideapad. Double the battery life of the Ideapad, at 4 hours instead of 2 hours. Has a Bluray Drive. Slightly lighter than the two Lenovos.
The Bad: 750GB HDD, which is 250GB smaller than the Ideapad, but that might not really matter. Weaker GPU than the Ideapad, as it's only one GPU, whereas the Ideapad has two.
Summary: Probably the best overall laptop of the bunch. Has decent battery life and great performance.

The third is this Lenovo G780. Costs $780.
The good: Larger screen than the other two laptops. Has a DVD drive, which the Ideapad does not. 8GB of memory, which is more than the Ideapad. The cheapest of the bunch.
The bad: Weakest graphics card by a significant amount, although it will still be good for gaming, just not as well as the other two.
Summary: The cheapest of the three laptops, but it's performance obviously suffers.

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Hidden: 

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy. -MLK

Antic Hero wrote:

My new years resolution is 1680x1050.

Rocky Martin wrote:

TheAnimal is one cool dude.

Hideyoshi wrote:

There's a demo. Play the demo. Form your own opinion.

@Market: Haha yeah, I don't really trust anyone else with my stuff. That really sucks to hear about your laptop.

@Animal:
Oh my goodness what a great post, thank you! Price isn't really an issue for me at the moment. I think you're right about the middle option. I'm only using 500 GB of space on my desktop right now so 750 GB HDD won't be bad (and I have an external drive anyway). I heard Lenovo was ranked pretty high recently but the points you make on the Ideapad are the same things that turn me away. I've never heard of MSI before--I'll dig around a bit when I get home on Saturday, but have you had any experience with them? I could really see myself liking this laptop.

AND OH MY GOODNESS IT HAS WINDOWS 7 INSTEAD OF 8 it's like it's calling to me

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.Legendary themed months are back! Maybe.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I recommend a Sony brand. They're a little bit pricey, but I find them to be far more reliable than some other brands (looking at you HP, Dell, and Acer). Lenovo is also a very solid brand. You might also want to look at Samsung's line-up.

Check out the Sony Vaio S Series and T Series.

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