Hi,
I'm looking for a laptop that will suit my needs. I've been looking around (here and there) for a while, but I don't keep up on hardware as much as I'm sure many people here do. I'm hoping for some help.
What I want:
-Something lightweight and thin, but durable. I travel for work and other reasons, so this is very important to me.
-I'm a student, so I need to be able to do schoolwork on it. Most schoolwork doesn't require much, but I need the ability to run VMs on Virtualbox (probably no more than one at a time), and use GNS3.
-Battery life is important to me (again, travel).
-Screen size between 13-15". I don't want a 17" monster, but something bigger than a tablet would be good.
What I don't want:
-An optical drive, or anything else that adds unnecessary bulk that people these days don't use. Seriously, I don't remember the last time I used a CD/DVD for anything.
-A gaming laptop. This machine isn't intended to be for gaming. It's for work, school, studying, research, and video chats/conferences.
What would be preferable:
-SSD
-numberpad on the keyboard.
-something that runs fairly cool.
What doesn't matter:
-The operating system, bloatware, or ridiculous certificates that comes with it. I'm probably going to use OpenSUSE as my primary OS, but I'm leaving my options open for things like Debian or CentOS (In other words, whatever comes with it will be wiped).
Price range:
-I dunno. I certainly don't want to spend $2000. In fact, I don't really want to spend over $1000, but I guess it just depends. I'd like to find something in the area of about $700-800 (USD - I'm American) or so, if that's possible. I'd like to not spend more than I need to spend. I'm still a student paying for tuition out of pocket. That's not cheap.
Any ideas?
