looking for a laptop

[Deleon.David]

with integrated hd4000 graphics,

will be used for studying and light gaming

something for less than 1000 aus dollars

any input is appreciated  
 

[Hazy125]

http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/nxryksa006-only-available-acer-aspire-581tg-p-59094.html

[pcman2000]

You have a lot of choices here, however personally I would not go for a bargain basement model, and instead find something with decent build quality.

All of my below tips are depending on price, but try to hit as many of them as possible within your budget

 

1. Try to look for a "Business Class" laptop, as they normally have better support, warranty, have less bloat ware and have better build quality. Examples are HP EliteBook, Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Precision / Latitude.

 

2. Depending on your storage needs, try to find a notebook with a SSD, whether it's SSD only, SSD + HDD or SSD Cache.

 

3. Look for a decent quality (matte if you prefer that - I do.) display, not a super crappy TN panel. You can try to find high end TN panels with good-ish viewing angles or IPS displays.

 

4. Look for good resolution. Anything above 1366x768 (which, by the way, should go die in a hole) should be good.

 

5. If you're not looking at an Ultrabook, see if you can purchase a model with good battery life if that's important to you. If you pick a business class laptop like mentioned above, you can normally opt for a 6 or 9 cell battery with it.

[WoodenMarker]

Laptop: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834312842

SSD: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820147188

HDD Caddy: http://www.amazon.com/SATA-caddy-12-7mm-Universal-DVD-ROM/dp/B0056EW4A4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374995633&sr=8-1&keywords=hdd+caddy

 

Replace hdd in laptop with ssd.

Put original hdd in hdd caddy and replace your dvd drive it.

 

There you go--speed and storage.

 

I just ordered my friend this configuration earlier today.

 

Edit: Never mind. Didn't notice the currency.

[WoodenMarker]

You have a lot of choices here, however personally I would not go for a bargain basement model, and instead find something with decent build quality.

All of my below tips are depending on price, but try to hit as many of them as possible within your budget

1. Try to look for a "Business Class" laptop, as they normally have better support, warranty, have less bloat ware and have better build quality. Examples are HP EliteBook, Lenovo ThinkPad, Dell Precision / Latitude.

2. Depending on your storage needs, try to find a notebook with a SSD, whether it's SSD only, SSD + HDD or SSD Cache.

3. Look for a decent quality (matte if you prefer that - I do.) display, not a super crappy TN panel. You can try to find high end TN panels with good-ish viewing angles or IPS displays.

4. Look for good resolution. Anything above 1366x768 (which, by the way, should go die in a hole) should be good.

5. If you're not looking at an Ultrabook, see if you can purchase a model with good battery life if that's important to you. If you pick a business class laptop like mentioned above, you can normally opt for a 6 or 9 cell battery with it.

A Thinkpad should fit most of the criteria quite well.

What's so bad about 1366x768?

[whatthe_fuzz]

hd4000 is meh at best. I would wait a little while longer for haswell to appear with the hd4600

[pcman2000]

A Thinkpad should fit most of the criteria quite well.

What's so bad about 1366x768?

 

Too low for any decent productivity. In 2008, I could walk into a mainstream "big box" store and find laptops with resolutions around 1440x900, lower end ones at 1280x800 and high end ones at 1920x1200. 

 

Now most of what I see is 1366x768, as the manufacturers simply don't care and put in shitty TN panels, and customers are clueless and have never seen the difference a 1080p screen or IPS makes. All they care is that it's above 1280x720, as all the marketing guys can just call it "HD".

 

1366x768 is really only acceptable below 13". I'm not saying mainstream notebooks need a retina display at 2560x1600, I'm saying that mainstream notebooks should at least be 1600x900, enough to fit 2 webpages, word documents etc. side-by-side?

[Glenwing]

Agreed... I am using 1366x768 right now.  It is quite horrid.  I can barely fit the post above me inside the view of the screen.

[Deleon.David]

thanks everyone you've been great

[CwGoh]

Personally, get a 1600 X 900 screen and a Haswell processor. You might want to see if you can easily upgrade the WiFi card and hard drive if you want to do that down the road. 

[pcman2000]

Personally, get a 1600 X 900 screen and a Haswell processor. You might want to see if you can easily upgrade the WiFi card and hard drive if you want to do that down the road. 

 

This.

 

If you're planning on using Wi-Fi alot, it's more than worth it to ditch the included 1x1 WiFi adapter that comes with most laptops and replace it with a Intel Ultimate-N or something.

[CoolBeans]

You won't be able to play anything on intergrated maybe an APU if you want to do more gaming.

[CwGoh]

This.

 

If you're planning on using Wi-Fi alot, it's more than worth it to ditch the included 1x1 WiFi adapter that comes with most laptops and replace it with a Intel Ultimate-N or something.

 

Yup. The Intel 6250 is like 10 bucks on eBay and it can provide about 100Mbps on the 5Ghz band. So worth it.

[WoodenMarker]

Too low for any decent productivity. In 2008, I could walk into a mainstream "big box" store and find laptops with resolutions around 1440x900, lower end ones at 1280x800 and high end ones at 1920x1200. 

 

Now most of what I see is 1366x768, as the manufacturers simply don't care and put in shitty TN panels, and customers are clueless and have never seen the difference a 1080p screen or IPS makes. All they care is that it's above 1280x720, as all the marketing guys can just call it "HD".

 

1366x768 is really only acceptable below 13". I'm not saying mainstream notebooks need a retina display at 2560x1600, I'm saying that mainstream notebooks should at least be 1600x900, enough to fit 2 webpages, word documents etc. side-by-side?

I personally don't require it or think about it much when I'm on my laptop wince I don't use it for too long or important media things.

 

You make some nice points though. I can't wait till resolutions beyond 1080p are standard.

[pcman2000]

I personally don't require it or think about it much when I'm on my laptop wince I don't use it for too long or important media things.

 

You make some nice points though. I can't wait till resolutions beyond 1080p are standard.

 

Samsung now has a 3200x1800 Windows 8 tablet with wacom digitiser. I really hope this trend continues, as for the last decade Apple has basically been the one pushing display resolution / quality.

 

Apple had a 1920x1200 LCD in 2002, a 2560x1600 LCD in 2004, the Retnia 960x640 iPhone 4, and of course the rMBP at 2880x1800.

 

I really hope that PC manufacturers start to push higher resolutions and IPS panels without Apple having to do it first, as it's so hard to get a decent display in a PC laptop (even the high end ones *achem* razer blade *achem*)

[Glenwing]

You need to flash a hacked BIOS to upgrade the WiFi card on a Lenovo machine, Lenovo uses a WiFi card whitelist.

 

If you're going to get a WiFi card though, get the Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260, might as well :P it's about $25, same as all the rest.