BudgetEngineer

Freefly (home of the Movi stabilizer and many drone/gimbal innovations over the years) released their Wave high speed camera this week. I've been following the development of this camera for months and it's unique in that it can record continuously at 4k directly to high speed PCIE SSDs thanks to real time wave compression. Lower resolutions with higher frame rates are also available of course, and it joins the ranks of "cheap-er" high speed cameras. Would be really interesting for LTT to talk about alongside the Chronos they just got. 
 
 

Just get the single 480gb drive. Boot times are a bit slower with 2 drives because you have to wait for the raid controller to load and reliability is the same as having 2 separate drives and having one of them fail eventually but the data on both become unusable. I only recommend 2 drives if you need capacity. The speed benefits are hardly noticeable.

http://www.amazon.com/Sennheiser-HD-598-Over-Ear-Headphones/dp/B0042A8CW2/ref=br_lf_m_10184278011_1_1_img?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&s=electronics&pf_rd_p=1982469682&pf_rd_s=center-4&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_i=10184278011&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=0SFXYCKXTCTAMP1X28A3
 
 
Your welcome

The Black performs slightly better and has a longer warranty but isn't better than the larger capacity imo.
 
The article is really skewed due to the batches that were tested and should be taken with a mountain of salt. http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6028/dispelling-backblaze-s-hdd-reliability-myth-the-real-story-covered/index.html

GS60. More upgradeable and not as overpriced.

Personally, I'd want to max out the level of hardware if I had the $2500 budget you have. That means a GTX 880M, and you're not going to get that in a ultrathin laptop like the Razer Blade. If you want something thin and portable, however...I'd probably pick the MSI GS60/70 or one of the Gigabyte Ultrablade laptops instead.
 
The Asus G750JZ is a good choice, but be prepared for a 8-10 pounds laptop. The MSI GT72 theoretically should be a good choice too, since it's moving to a dual fan design as opposed to the GT70's single fan, but I don't know if there have been any reviews out yet.
 
So my vote is probably for the Asus, although it's kinda unfriendly when it comes to maintenance. The Sager NP9570 with SLI GTX 880M's would almost be an option, but it costs $2,550. If you'd want a SSD in your laptop (which you absolutely should at your budget) it'd cost another $100-$200 depending on the size you wanted. Sager laptops are typically very good in price/performance and are pretty maintenance and upgrade friendly.
 
http://www.sagernotebook.com/index.php?page=product_info&model_name=NP9377

So I guess what you're looking for then is the cheapest i7 laptop with at least a Gtx 780m/870m (they are equivalent in performance I believe) and a big battery (probably 70Wh or more, 54wh is about 4.5 hours battery life). I don't know what fits the bill in that case, maybe a business class or workstation Lenovo with a larger aftermarket battery?

You're probably looking at a higher end model of the WS60 that comes with more ssd space and a 3k screen. They should have lower end models come out soon (in the next month) for under 2k. At least get the gs60 over the gt70. Same hardware, same performance, much more portable package for just a few hundred dollars more. Edit: I stand corrected, seems the model I'm talking about will retail for 2200 on launch... Interesting. Gs60 ghost pro non-3k is my recommendation then.

Asus or gigabyte have similar models. The Asus gaming laptops may be a good fit if you don't care about portability.

I would say, wait for the next tablets coming out. Intel core M processors are coming bringing good specs and the thinnest, lightest two in ones and tablets that are plenty powerful to do normal work with windows 8.1 and soon 9(or what ever it will be called)
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8475/intels-core-m-strategy-cpu-specifications-for-9mm-fanless-tablets
If you think you will need more processing power and want something new you may have to wait a bit longer for the i3, i5, i7 broadwell chips. Core M is the first broadwell chips coming. They seem plenty powerful and they are put in very thin and light machines. Will have to see benchmarks when they come out though but for the future if you are looking for small and thin maybe a 2in1 then id suggest these. Check the link. It has products listed that will be coming.

I take those two over the washed out colors and the color shift every day of the week.

It's a good thing you tried every IPS panel in the world to come to that conclusion.

Get the MacBook Pro. Much easier to carry around, better display, and better battery life.

MSI GS60/70 Stealth Pro, great laptops.

Mate, It sounds like you have already made your mind up before starting this thread.  You asked for advice and you got it.  No body is going against the grain, several users thrashed out the pros and cons of both options and came to a conclusion.  To be honest your lucky the thread didn't escalate into 15 pages of the hate wank special.
 
Here's the best fit  conclusion you should present to your friend:
 
 
If he's decided on getting a MacBook Pro at least get him to spend $100 over his budget for the cheapest retina one. Has twice as much memory, an ssd, slightly faster cpu, better integrated graphics, a better screen and a longer battery life for just $200 more than the lowest level Macbook Pro. Otherwise the lenovo offers the best performance for what he wants to spend.  And in this day and age the only real difference between the two operating systems is subjective.

So everybody is going against the grain and forgetting about he's using it for producing too lol. I think the mac is terrible for that. Especially when he needs multiple cores to run Pro Tools 10/11 and a shit ton of memory and even the Graphics card matters too. I just wanted him to have a good solid laptop that can run everything you throw at it and have the factory warranty because I've seen the Mac 2011 edition for $1000 or $1100 and I think it's not worth that price just because of the aluminum housing and Name.

I think this is the way to go, if he can push a few more $$ then get the mac, otherwise the lenovo offers the best performance for what he wants to spend.  And in this day and age the only real difference between the two operating systems is subjective.

I like the first one, but the second and third are also very apealing!

Actually most studios don't use apple at all, the biggest one is animal logic and they use mostly HP workstations.  There are lots of reasons why, but they are all subjective and end use specific.
 
It is best to find out what a persons requirements are and recommend a system that is best for that, not recommend a system based on internet hearsay.  There is no "best solution" when deciding between mac or windows, there is only better suited to specific requirements. 
 
From what I can tell the OP's friend:
 
wants a mac
doesn't use mac specific software
wants portable and powerful
needs to keep it to $1100
 
From that I would put together a list of all the portable workstations you can find and choose the best one. Regardless of whether it turns out to be a mac, levovo, hp or even dare I say it an acer.

Producers use Macs because they have a very well established software ecosystem for mixing and music creation. Absolutely nothing to do with onboard hardware, monitoring is done through an expensive external sound card or other device.

But that's just useless preferential bias. OS X is better than Windows in every way. There. I said it. The Pro Retina is better too.
 
I'll take my 3D Mouse over a touchscreen any day, thank you.
 
Wow. 5-6 hour battery life. You know what the MacBook Pro Retina has? 9.5 hours.
 
You're ignoring one of the best laptops on the market right now because you don't like the operating system. Just install Windows on it if it matters that much. You'll be very happy with the MacBook.

DEPENDING ON WHAT YOU'RE DOING, if you have cash to splash a new laptop would be awesome. If you think the money can be better spent, just upgrade it if you're happy with it. I'd say the recommendations up above were sufficient, upgrade RAM, add a big SSD.

I just got an MSI GS60 Ghost Pro and it's a killer.
 
Again, no touch screen, but an amazing machine.

Dude really? Don't take typos so seriously.

I don't believe it does, I certainly can't find it anywhere in the menus.