I've got $1500 to spend on a laptop for school. What should I buy?

[Skvadrin]

I'm going to a game production school so it'll need to be powerful enough to run heavy programs like maya, photoshop, 3ds max and other game creation tools. I also need to be able to run the games on max detail. I've approved $1500 for spending on a computer for myself that I can take to school, but I'd like to double check with the community first before buying something so expensive. What type of laptop should I get?

[Team Frosty]

Macbook Pro seems pretty perfect for you, could get a decent 15" for 1500 w/ education discount at the college store I think.

[llDemonll]

do you absolutely want a laptop?

[Deleted]

Macbook Pro seems pretty perfect for you, could get a decent 15" for 1500 w/ education discount at the college store I think.

Although, he could get a much more powerful PC for that price as well. (I think I just started a war).

[Skvadrin]

yes I want a laptop because I need to be able to take it to school

[Trebblow]

If you want a laptop for gaming, dont plan to bring it to school, if you need a laptop to bring to school, dont plan to game on it.

I bought a gaming laptop, and it was so huge that it didnt fit into my locker with our shelves in it and all my stuff and my friend's one.

[Darios]

High end toshiba satellite man. I have a custom satellite with the highest end hardware and this thing is insane. It beats out M15x's that I've seen so I'd say its your best bet. Completely loaded for $1500.

[Skvadrin]

trebblow I go to an art academy with a game design program. I don't have a locker to worry about.

[Faunwea]

I heard alienware laptops are good and some are on discount depending on the school you go to.

[Skvadrin]

question then, will I want to shop at best buy and pay an inflated price, but get a warranty on it, or buy it at a small computer shop, pay far less, and go without a warranty?

[prankstar]

the sont vaio f series are great for what you need and they come packaged with software heres the stats you can get for $1500

Keyboard Backlight with Seneor

Color is Black.

i7-740QM (1.73GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz)

8GB DDR3 1333MHz

500GB Hard Drive at 7200rpm

16.4" 1600x900 LED Screen

NVIDIA GeForce GT425M GPU (1GB VRAM)

Blu-ray Rom, DVD Read and Burn

Quadcore

Backlit Keyboard, Bluetooth, Webcam, HDMI, eSATA, 802.11 b/g/n, Card Reader

Windows 7 Professional 64Bit

Office 2007 Professional (Word, PowerPoint, Access, Excel, Outlook, InfoPath, Publisher, OneNote, Project, Visio, Groove)

Adobe Master Collection CS4 (Acrobat, Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, InDesign, Fireworks, Flash, OnLocation, Soundbooth, ...)

if you chose to go for a dell or asus you could probably knock about 400$ off the price

[nwo]

question then, will I want to shop at best buy and pay an inflated price, but get a warranty on it, or buy it at a small computer shop, pay far less, and go without a warranty?

Neither, if you want the best deals and the best/latest hardware, you want to purchase your laptop online. Customize your own at dell.com or go to newegg.com and browse their selection.

Here are a few laptops I was able to pick out on newegg:

ASUS G Series G73JW-XN1 NoteBook Intel Core i7 740QM(1.73GHz) 17.3" 8GB Memory 500GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220834

MSI GT680R-008US Notebook Intel Core i7 2630QM(2.00GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834152239

That MSI laptop is probably as good as it's going to get for your budget and use. It has the fastest quad core available for laptops as well as one of the fastest graphics cards for laptops. The fact that it comes with 8GB of RAM and a whopping 1TB 7.2k RPM HDD is just icing on the cake. It's going to be hard to beat this MSI laptop deal to be honest. You could customize your own, which I can guarantee will cost you more. But there is no need to because this MSI laptop already has all the things you need according to your opening post.

[Ica]

Look at asus g73SW to.. mostly same as the MSI one execpt bigger screen, and maybe a bit less memory

[Deepfreeze773]

Check out LG XNOTE R590, or the AION laptops.

[zizfizziks]

If you need a powerful computer, then don't buy a laptop. The desktop you could get for 1500 would FAR outperform the laptop you could get for the same price. Don't buy a laptop. Trust me on this one. Just use 1450 to buy the desktop and 50 to buy a nice portable USB drive.

[Honkeymagoo]

Do you think he could build a desktop that trumps a 1500$ laptop for a little over 1000$ and spend the rest on a lower end laptop for school?

[DarkEyedDreamer]

Yeah i just recently bought a new laptop aswell. I got the ASUS G73J and this thing will eat anything currently out their for breakfast. This thing is fast, quiet, great price for what you get in it. I bought mine at Best buy for 1200 and is alot cheaper than the newegg version(which has only 2gigs more of ram).

[nwo]

If you need a powerful computer, then don't buy a laptop. The desktop you could get for 1500 would FAR outperform the laptop you could get for the same price. Don't buy a laptop. Trust me on this one. Just use 1450 to buy the desktop and 50 to buy a nice portable USB drive.

Read the OP, trust me on that one.

Do you think he could build a desktop that trumps a 1500$ laptop for a little over 1000$ and spend the rest on a lower end laptop for school?

No, because he has to use his laptop at home and at school and he wants to do a lot more demanding stuff than looking at porn, surfing the internet, and word processing.

[Bearfist]

I went to a school for game design myself. I had a lower end toshiba satelitte and while it showed its lower end status in games it was fine for 3d apps. I never took my laptop to class as we had better pcs to use in the labs. Get the best vid card, ram, motherboard and all that you can for your dollar.

However, I will say that sticking only to a laptop will be a little limiting on your 3d work. At least for me, 17inches was feeling mighty small in maya and ut3 editor with all the view ports and other things. You should be able to find a 1500$ one that fits your needs I am quite sure. Good luck in your studies as well!

[diablito]

Although, he could get a much more powerful PC for that price as well. (I think I just started a war).

This is relative since windows and mac os use their resources differently. A macbook pro with run a lot faster/smoother and for much longer than a pc within the same price range.

The big selling point for a mac, imo, is customer service. If you buy a mac and have any problems, concerns, or questions you simply make an online appointment at your nearest mac store. Show up with your laptop and they'll work on it right in front of you. You get this service included for 1 yr with your mac. No pc manufacturer does that.

I have an HP laptop and an iMac. I like my pc just as much. But if i had to buy just one i would get a mac for the customer service alone.