Buying non-DJ Windows Laptop - Advice Needed.

**Karlos Santos** · 07-28-2013, 06:54 AM

Ok I know this guy and he has this weird rash on his penis, it's not me it's my mate....

joking.

Genuinely my sister needs a new PC laptop. Let's start here with IT HAS TO BE WINDOWS and it cannot be a MAC.
Anyone that posts about Parallels or a Window partition will be ignored. Stick to the brief.

She's in the UK and wants a reliable and cheapish laptop that she for general surfing, pictures, home movie storage, music, watching DVDS etc.

Believe it or not she's a senior systems analyst at one of the UK's biggest television/phone/internet providers but has no idea what is on the market cus she just uses works systems and I am useless cus I havent bought a Win box in nearly 15 years.

I know she should avoid Toshiba from what I have read on the NI forum (obvs she wont be running Traktor) and Dell are shite in my own experience.

I hear you guys talk about Asus quite a lot and Lenovo.

She doesnt need 8 billion GB ram or an i276 processor she just wants a reliable laptop that is of a current mid-high standard. She prefers a 17" though.

She is trying to avoid the typical PC World bloated laptop that comes with a free desk, printer, camera and student.

She just wants a decent Win laptop but these days that seems like a tough ask as the market is flooded with bundles and packages.

You are the guys to ask.

So please keep it Win, keep it realistic £300 - £400 price range (i know this is a DJ forum and we all have a tendency to go full tilt) cheap is good, cheap and good is better.

What Ya Got.

I bow to your superior knowledge.

**makar1** · 07-28-2013, 10:49 AM

Also in the market for a Windows laptop with all the same points you listed, but I see no reason to waste money now when Haswell is around the corner given the huge battery life gains. Unfortunately the only Haswell laptop on the market right now seems to be the Air.

You might be able to get something second hand but a decent, reliable 17" laptop is a little out of the £400 price range I think.

**deevey** · 07-28-2013, 10:53 AM

Lenovo are about the only brand of Windows laptop that I'd pretty much guarantee will work out of the box and continue working until its retired (or windows f*cks everything up with a service pack).

They aren't pretty, they aren't the fastest, but they bloody work.

Oh and yeah I reckon 15' is the most her budget will allow and I'd buy it from http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk having used them before a number of times and they were great to deal with.

17' is not a laptop, nor a notebook, hell its barely a portable PC ... its .... a workstation that happens to have a foldable screen.

**mdcdesign** · 07-28-2013, 11:26 AM

Yep, Lenovo. All day long.

I've had plenty of Thinkpads over the years (although admittedly while they were still IBMs), and they absolutely annihilate every other brand (including Apple) with regards to reliability and survivability.

In an "I Am Legend" situation, you could dig a Thinkpad up out of the ground, shake the dirt off it, and switch it on.

EDIT: Avoid AMD, there's just too many issues with them in terms of reliability and random crashes. Anything i3 or above will be perfectly fine for everyday (non-gaming) usage, so the i3-equipped Thinkpad E531 or the IdeaPad S300. If you can go a bit higher on the price, or if you don't mind going refurb, there are some nice i5 models out there like the T510.

**makar1** · 07-28-2013, 02:02 PM

The Thinkpad E series looks awfully like a typical consumerist laptop, especially compared to the T and X series.

The T440s is one model that's caught my eye so far.

**alexdude** · 07-28-2013, 02:19 PM

Sony produces some nice vaio computers at decent prices. Most contain a good amount of ram and at least an i3 processor. They should be able to last for some time.

**mdcdesign** · 07-28-2013, 04:30 PM

Originally Posted by makar1

The Thinkpad E series looks awfully like a typical consumerist laptop, especially compared to the T and X series.

The T440s is one model that's caught my eye so far.

Agreed. Tbh, they all look too "modern" for my tastes these days... my favourite model of all time was the R50, which was absolutely gorgeous in a business kinda way.