My laptop hunt

Gatecrasher

Gatecrasher

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Looking for a laptop for my 20 year old daughter. She is going into 3rd Year at UCT, studying film, media and screen Production so will be using it a lot for video editing. Her current laptop is taking huge strain.

http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/Lenovo-LENOVO-Y5070-59428700-lp-100661.php
Best graphics card. Kind of ugly though.

OR

http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/Dell-NBDEI554745101612W83-lp-94134.php
how useful is a touch screen? And 16GB vs 8GB. Hybrid drive. But only dual core.

OR

http://www.laptopdirect.co.za/Asus-NB-AN550JCN359P-lp-94730.php
Decent specs, with looks she will love.

OR

Something else? Any advice? I won't necessarily be buying it from laptopsdirect.
 
Lenovo

Get the Lenovo.

It's got awesome looks and better specs. Her work will be graphics card intensive so having the GT 860M instead of a GT 850M would make a huge difference.

You can check www.evetech.co.za for their gaming laptops also. However, that Lenovo is fantastic for the price.
 
Hmm, because its cheaper, I could do the offer at Wootware on the Lenovo where they swap out the HD for a 256GB SSD and put the HD in a USB Encasement as an external drive. Will then cost around the same as the Asus. But this is a daughter, not a son, and that shiny ASUS is going to talk to her.
 
You should focus more on CPU, Dedicated Graphics, RAM and HDD if you want a laptop mainly for multimedia use capable of Video Editing, Rendering, etc. Touch screen is not important or other fancy features. I would stay away from Lenovo, go for reputable brands such as Dell, Acer, ASUS, MSI etc.

What about this one MSI GE70-2PL-420ZA GE
http://www.wootware.co.za/msi-ge70-...00rpm-hdd-windows-8-1-sl-64-bit-notebook.html
 
How is hp/lenova less reputable in the notebook space than msi????


Dell for me every time. The on site no questions asked warranty is worth it
 
_kabal_ said:
How is hp/lenova less reputable in the notebook space than msi????


Dell for me every time. The on site no questions asked warranty is worth it
Click to expand...

All my recent personal laptops have been Dell XPS. Although I did buy an Asus for my younger daughter and she has battered away at it for a few years now and it is still going strong.

I gave all the options to eldest and she has opted for the Asus N550JK. One of the things she mentioned which I hadn't noticed is that the Dell and Lenovo do not have internal CD drives, and she will need one for burning projects and she doesn't want it to be external either. Thanks for feedback and suggestions.
 
The trackpads on the new Lenovos are a trainsmash. Like jump off a bridge & buy a USB mouse on the way down bad. And the bottom left key on the keyboard is a FN key not CTRL which screws with you if you're used to shortcuts. (Edit...actually on that model it seems like the left most is a CTRL...maybe they do learn after all). If you can deal with those then I'd be inclined to take the Lenovo.

Personally I'd get the lenovo, swap the hybrid drive for a SSD and find a way to deal with the above.

Also...don't like that numpad story on the dell. Rather have a full sized laptop keyboard.

Oh and you can get some of the lenovos without optical drive which I'd seriously consider (thinner and lighter depending on series). My main PC hasn't had an optical drive in like 3 years and the one in my laptop I don't recall ever using...
 
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I never said Lenovo is less reputable brand than MSI, all I said was I would stay away from Lenovo.
Lenovo is a chinese company brand, would you choose a world's largest chinese car brand over Suzuki, Citroen or Mitsubishi? If yes to Lenovo or huawei, then you should be confident in buying a chinese car brand too. Lenovo just sells well because it is cheap, world's largest brand doesn't necessarily mean better. If you want to save the Rhino, then don't buy chinese products. HP was a good brand but it is struggling, I remember reading a article that they would longer focus on making PC & Laptops, besides HP buy most of PC products from Taiwan anyway. PC enthusiasts or nerds all know MSI, to them they are reputable brands, if you're not into PC hardware , then it might not be reputable brand to you. I've known MSI, Acer and ASUS brands as most of my pc hardware are made from them. I also Remember reading MSI won laptop of the year in PC mag or stuff mag. I've also read many PC hardware related articles on the company winning many awards. But it's not just about which brand is the most popular, its more about the specs, what do you want your laptop to do or use it for within your budget. A trusted brand of course, doesn't have to be famous brand, even a trusted underdogs brands makes better laptops than famous ones.
 
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Gatecrasher said:
Something else? Any advice? I won't necessarily be buying it from laptopsdirect.
Click to expand...

The Dell is the most tempting to me, as it has 16GB RAM, whereas the Asus and the Lenovo have 8GB RAM. That will be another R1200 if you want to add another 8GB RAM.

However, the Asus's CPU is 500Mhz faster than the Dell, which makes a big difference + it has a matte display, which is better for proffessional people to work on - I know they're not keen on glossy displays.
 
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