Help with buying two laptops

[Fletch]

[in the UK]

To start off with, I'm really sorry if I'm posting in the wrong place, this is my very first post to the forums here, I've been following LinusTechTips since the NCIX days, never really felt the need to come over here until now, maybe I'll be more active from now.

 

Okay, so I'm a PC guy, always have been, the whole 'portable PC' thing didn't interest me, since my smart phone was good enough for me to get by with my Emails and videos and such, however; now being a University student, it's seeming like it would be a more like a convenient addition to my setup. 

 

So why do I need two? Well... My girlfriend is also looking to pick one up, since her ancient one bricked last year and she hasn't got around to replacing it. I'm the one who usually advises her on this sort of stuff, so that's lumped in with my purchase.

 

So, why the post? I'm knowledgeable with hardware, but know very little about notebooks/laptops, I barely even understand the distinction between the two besides size and weight.

I'd like to know which brands to avoid and look out for in terms of battery life, longevity and build quality, since I really have no clue in this department. I know nothing about the performance of laptop processors in comparison to a PC's, I would imagine much lower clock speeds and/or heat could be a problem, but that's about the extent of my knowledge there, I don't even know exactly WHAT the standard is for core count and frequency in laptops.

 

I have my PC for all the heavy lifting, but I'd still like to be able to open my projects whilst out and about [i study game design/development]

 

Alright, so the requirements for mine are as follows:

 

• To be able to run 3DS Max 2015 [This is the main thing I'd need it to work with]
• To be able to run Unity 5
• To be able to run Photoshop and Flash Professional
• To be able to run Visual Studio 12

If it can run these, I'll be a happy guy, and know that my other software will be fine.

 

I could lug a 17" machine around, but I hear that this size is just uncomfortable and awkward [giggity], so I guess I'm lookin' at 15.6". Resolution doesn't matter much, I don't need 1080p. More concerned about running the apps listed above and below than fidelity.

 

Optionally:

 

 

• A bit of Light gaming, [Dark Souls 2 if possible, but really not a requirement, I'm just a big fan o' Souls ] Much less important to me, but it'd be nice if I could throw hearthstone and a few other small games on.
• It'd be convenient if it could run UE4, but I know this is a much higher requirement than the others, so I'll keep this as optional for now, since it'd bump the price up for sure.

 

 

The requirements for hers are much simpler:

 

• Minecraft
• Hearthstone
• MS-Office
• Gmail
• Web browsing
• Skype

Really, that's about it. She doesn't need anything too beefy, but chances are she'll be taking it to and from work and such, so portability is more of a factor for her with her [i know she won't mind me saying this]; tiny lady arms. [[she does carry a decent backpack around, chances are; a 15.6" machine would fit in her bag, but it'd be convenient if it were a little smaller, I'm sure. It's more the weight than anything else]]

 

Any 16:9 res.

 

Details:

Operating system isn't really too relevant for either machine, if they come with Win8.1; great, less effort for me. If not I'll be wiping the drives and throwing 8.1 on there myself anyway.

 

That also goes for any pre-installed software, any bloatware gets the boot from me, and I can take care of the applications I do actually want, along with security

[since we all have our preferences there.]

 

We'll both by carrying around wireless mice, since we both equally hate trackpads with a passion, so quality of trackpad means basically nothing to us.

 

Manufacturer refurbished machines are totally fine, so long as there's a returns policy and warranty.

 

Budget:

For mine - Lowest appropriate price, I'm flexible for this, but preferably less than £450[700$] if possible. If I need to go higher, I can: but that's what I'm throwin' at ya' right now as a rough estimate.[i am a student after all]

 

For hers - £200 [310$]. Somewhere around this price, not much higher.

 

 

That's basically it. Thanks a ton if you can help me narrow down the search, otherwise I guess I'll just go with my gut and order something that sounds about right.

[shypin]

well i dont think you need a good laptop to run your software

i use a surface pro to run 3ds max / unity / photoshop / visual studio (first gen, core i5-3317u) and they work just fine, although i dont know about flash pro

 

but if you want to have faster render times then you could probably use a laptop with at least a geforce 950M or similar, you can save money buy getting a lenovo y40 (not sure about the model number, just look for one with a discrete gpu), asus rog series or something along those mid range gaming laptops

 

if you have around $2000 to spend then you can get a mobile workstation (i really like the dell m3800, its slim and powerful)

 

for your girlfriend you can probably just get something with an amd apu / core i3 and it will probably work

[Fletch]

Wow, that Lenovo y40 is at a great price point for what it is, really impressed. Looks like they're not sold in the UK though, so I'd have to have one shipped over. Shouldn't be to much of a problem. Any other recommendations around the same price point?

 

Also, would my girlfriend see a big performance increase for the sort of thing she wants to do by moving up to an i3 from a Celeron?

 

For her, these are the two I'm looking at:

The ASUS X553MA- [Dual Core Celeron 2.16GHz]

http://tinyurl.com/qy9zt8m

And the ASUS X551CA-SX222H

http://tinyurl.com/opefj5b [i assume Dual Core i3 @1.8GHz]

[she likes the colour of that particular X553MA, but she'll compromise looks for performance thankfully.]

[TheHeloy]

for your girlfriend i would also go with the i3.

and for you ill would go with an asus n551jx     http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ASUS-N551JX-15-6-Laptop-Core-i7-2-6GHz-CPU-12GB-RAM-1TB-Both-Windows-8-1-/111722802449?hash=item1a0332ad11

 

sorry its a little bit above your budget but its worth the money