Great laptops around R13000

Pixelatedzee

Pixelatedzee

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Ey guys been looking at getting a new laptop as I'm doing design and my current laptop a toshiba satalite A300 is a piece of junk that has way too many problems and can hardly render 3 projects before it has a problem. I would build a new PC but I need to be portable and I know nothing about the current laptops on the market. You know any decent laptops around 13G I should look at? I still feel like apple would be the wiser choice when it comes to design but it makes me feel restricted. My lectures are pressuring me towards a MacBook but I don't want to be restricted by software.
 
Any laptop around that price is great.

For you I just suggest looking at a i7 Sandy bridge or Ivy Bridge(newer) and minimum of 8GB of ram to 16GB , maybe a 256GB SSD also.

Websites to look at would be:
http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/laptops__show-by-price.php?minprice=10000&maxprice=15000
http://www.nivo.co.za/#c/l/computers/notebooks/sort.by~price/264
http://www.rebeltech.co.za/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=59&sort=3a&page=7


So you are looking at getting a laptop at around R10,500 and the SSD will cost R2500+- (just an idea)

Getting a SSD will GREATLY improve loading speeds of programs and the Operating system. The only problem with SSD's currently is that they are quite small compared to hard drives. A 256GB SSD will set you back about R2500 depends obviously how much space you require.

Recommended SSD's to look at:
OCZ Agility 4 256GB - R2,208.00
OCZ Vertex 4 256GB - R2,548.00


Otherwise if you can live with a hard drive you can get yourself a much better laptop.
 
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Thanks bro. It's a hard choice because I've been saving for a gaming PC now I have to settle for this. Evetech usually has some good laptops to choose from. But thank you none the less
 
Pixelatedzee said:
Thanks bro. It's a hard choice because I've been saving for a gaming PC now I have to settle for this. Evetech usually has some good laptops to choose from. But thank you none the less
Click to expand...

You can get a laptop that has pretty good graphics then and skip the SSD.

This one has a AMD Radeon HD 7670M:
DELL Vostro V3560 - R12379.00
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html

This one has a AMD Radeon HD 7730M:
DELL Inspiron 17r 5720 - R12294.00
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7730M.72678.0.html


These are obviously not true gaming laptops but should be able to play most games decently at medium graphics.

Look at this to get an idea of what graphics you need to look for in a laptop: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Comparison-of-Laptop-Graphics-Cards.130.0.html

The HD 7670M and the HD 7730M are class 2 graphics cards, the 7730M is however slightly faster than the 7670M.

You should be able to easily find a laptop with a Nvidia GT640M in it, this is slightly faster than a HD 7730M, a GT650M would be much better than a GT640M.
 
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hey another good choice for store is dion wired. Their normal prices are bad but if you wait for their specials there are really good ones. Got a 13k one for 10k last december also they are willing to negotiate the price a little bit and plus they are easier to go through in terms of using your warranty where the online guys you have to go through the manufacturer. Just a thought.
 
NomNom said:
Agreed with this!

ASUS N56VZ-S4209P - R14,204 + R75 (shipping) = R14,279
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+1 also, I have the N56VM (only 8GB and nvidia 630m) but its one fine machine. Can't go wrong with it. Do wish mine can support 16gb of ram though, but that option wasn't available at the time.
 
Pixelatedzee said:
Ey guys been looking at getting a new laptop as I'm doing design and my current laptop a toshiba satalite A300 is a piece of junk that has way too many problems and can hardly render 3 projects before it has a problem. I would build a new PC but I need to be portable and I know nothing about the current laptops on the market. You know any decent laptops around 13G I should look at? I still feel like apple would be the wiser choice when it comes to design but it makes me feel restricted. My lectures are pressuring me towards a MacBook but I don't want to be restricted by software.
Click to expand...

why are they recommending a mac? if you go the windows pc option you might have issues with their software (only mac licences available and so on)
 
Velenoso said:
They are recommending mac because it's a superior platform. I agree with them.
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+1 I agree. I graduated as an Art Director last year, having used the same MacBook for 4 years. Its now 5 years old and strong as ever.

Plus as a fellow designer, it really helps looking at a beautiful computer and OS when designing. :)
 
Macbook Air 13" 128 running VMWare fusion for any software incompatibilities.
 
As cool as the Air is, I'd definitely go with the Macbook Pro 13-inch Dual-Core i5 2.5GHz if you're on that R13k budget. Just more bang for your buck - a bigger hard drive and a more powerful processor. Just makes more sense for work.
 
mulacasto said:
As cool as the Air is, I'd definitely go with the Macbook Pro 13-inch Dual-Core i5 2.5GHz if you're on that R13k budget. Just more bang for your buck - a bigger hard drive and a more powerful processor. Just makes more sense for work.
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Unless you're shelling out R20k, no. The cheaper Mac Pro's have SATA drives, less battery life, increased weight and no noticeable processing advantage. My primary work machine is a Mac Air 13. It outperforms my client issued Dell 15" i7 CPU Windows machine at every turn.
 
NomNom said:
You can get a laptop that has pretty good graphics then and skip the SSD.
Click to expand...

Another option is to look into a HDD caddy that replaces the optical drive at a later stage. This way you can have a SSD & HDD.
 
VaishaliG said:
Buy lenovo laptops withing a price range of Rs.13000-14000/-
lenovo offering such a low price range in laptops with good features like 1.8GHz processor, bluetooth and Wi-fi.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth and WiFi are not features any more dude, if your laptop doesn't have those its probably a Chinese piece of crap.
 
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