[diyguy]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

I am looking at this laptop:!

Have a look at this http://www.ebay.in/ulk/itm/201513108230 and using the 8-12%off coupons you can make this a better deal. I have purchased a i5 G50-80 from here in Dec for 29k. If you look some more you can get a better deal. I do not think you need to spend 50k for your rig for the work you mentioned but hey, it's your money

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

I am looking at this laptop: http://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-Ideapad-...5729786&sr=1-7

Please help!

If you enjoy playing games please look away. The graphic card has 4gb of vram, but the GPU itself is not that great. Have a look
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Rad....142637.0.html
At a similar price point, i love the lenovo yoga 500 series laptops. Lightweight, pack some good punch, and the folding party trick!
Also, the full hd touchscreen makes a big difference as compared to the 1366x768 resolution on the others.

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by diyguy

Have a look at this http://www.ebay.in/ulk/itm/201513108230 and using the 8-12%off coupons you can make this a better deal. I have purchased a i5 G50-80 from here in Dec for 29k. If you look some more you can get a better deal. I do not think you need to spend 50k for your rig for the work you mentioned but hey, it's your money

Hi,

Thanks a lot Sir!

The link you have given seems to have been broken.

I was only looking up laptops on Amazon and Flipkart but now will search eBay too! One thing I want to make sure is that it's quite future proof, and I this laptop will be a keeper.

Originally Posted by kkkkkaran

If you enjoy playing games please look away. The graphic card has 4gb of vram, but the GPU itself is not that great. Have a look
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Rad....142637.0.html
At a similar price point, i love the lenovo yoga 500 series laptops. Lightweight, pack some good punch, and the folding party trick!
Also, the full hd touchscreen makes a big difference as compared to the 1366x768 resolution on the others.

Hi kkkkkaran,

Thanks a ton!

I will surely have a look at the Yoga. But I do like using traditional laptops, a lot.

I am also thinking about dropping the dual booting plan. A VirtualBox makes a lot more sense. I need a laptop which will be able to run VirtualBox without glitches.

Also, have a long desire to try out an SSD on a laptop.

The help is very much appreciated. Thanks again!

[diyguy]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

was only looking up laptops on Amazon and Flipkart but now will search eBay too! One thing I want to make sure is that it's quite future proof, and I this laptop will be a keeper. !

The link works for me, but here is the pic of the item

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by diyguy

The link works for me, but here is the pic of the item
Attachment 1477629

This one seems to be the same laptop with a lower price tag:


Also what's 'Dual Boot: No', supposed to mean?


Thanks,
Neel

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

This one seems to be the same laptop with a lower price tag:
Attachment 1477640

Thanks,
Neel

I was wrong, extremely sorry! The pricier one has 16 gigs of RAM.

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

Hi kkkkkaran,



Thanks a ton!

IMO, avoid virtualbox unless you absolutely need to run both OS at the same time. Incase you get one with an SSD, or decide to swap , it takes under a minute to swap from one OS to the other. Im slightly older than you, but still a student, and do a lot of coding. And trust me, nothing beats native environment. My macs 256gb ssd has been split into 2 for dualbooting between windows and mac OS .

[mukul32]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

I am looking at this laptop: http://www.amazon.in/Lenovo-Ideapad-...5729786&sr=1-7

Please help!

That configuration does seem very good, especially a 6th gen Skylake i5 processor at that price, but I've never heard of the AMD Meso XT graphics that it says it has. And 4GB graphics memory does sound very healthy on paper, but 4GB under 50k means the actual GPU may not be very potent. Still, overall that's a great machine.
You can also check out the HP Pavilion AB032TX, which also has a 1080p screen, 8 gigs of RAM and 1TB HDD, but it has Nvidia Geforce 940M 2 GB graphics, which I feel is quite good for the price. And it also has Bang&Olufsen speakers! (Yes, A8L!!) It has a 5th gen i5 5200U though, but it is almost as good as the 6th gen 6200U. I'd suggest you to compare between the graphics performance of both and decide. Also check out other options from Asus, Dell, etc. But I feel these two must be among the best at that price.

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by mukul32

That configuration does seem very good, especially a 6th gen Skylake i5 processor at that price, but I've never heard of the AMD Meso XT graphics that it says it has. And 4GB graphics memory does sound very healthy on paper, but 4GB under 50k means the actual GPU may not be very potent. Still, overall that's a great machine.

e.

Lenovo uses weird names to refer to the GPUs.
The actual GPU is an AMD R7 360 in this particular model. Would compete with an nvidia 920m in terms of performance.

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by kkkkkaran

IMO, avoid virtualbox unless you absolutely need to run both OS at the same time. Incase you get one with an SSD, or decide to swap , it takes under a minute to swap from one OS to the other. Im slightly older than you, but still a student, and do a lot of coding. And trust me, nothing beats native environment. My macs 256gb ssd has been split into 2 for dualbooting between windows and mac OS .

What SSD options do I have in my price point? And what does 'Dual Booting: No' supposed to mean?

BTW, glad to have another coder onboard.

Originally Posted by mukul32

That configuration does seem very good, especially a 6th gen Skylake i5 processor at that price, but I've never heard of the AMD Meso XT graphics that it says it has. And 4GB graphics memory does sound very healthy on paper, but 4GB under 50k means the actual GPU may not be very potent. Still, overall that's a great machine.
You can also check out the HP Pavilion AB032TX, which also has a 1080p screen, 8 gigs of RAM and 1TB HDD, but it has Nvidia Geforce 940M 2 GB graphics, which I feel is quite good for the price. And it also has Bang&Olufsen speakers! (Yes, A8L!!) It has a 5th gen i5 5200U though, but it is almost as good as the 6th gen 6200U. I'd suggest you to compare between the graphics performance of both and decide. Also check out other options from Asus, Dell, etc. But I feel these two must be among the best at that price.

Thanks a lot!

The Lenovo also has a backlit keyboard. The graphics card is what makes me wonder about its capabilities.

Originally Posted by kkkkkaran

Lenovo uses weird names to refer to the GPUs.
The actual GPU is an AMD R7 360 in this particular model. Would compete with an nvidia 920m in terms of performance.

The laptop mentioned by BHPian diyguy, available on ebay.in, seems to be my best bet.

Originally Posted by diyguy

The link works for me, but here is the pic of the item
Attachment 1477629

This machine impresses me a lot. Any links of reviews of this laptop that you can provide, please?

Thanks,
Neel

[Sherlocked]

Guys, my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 15r N5010 i5 just gave up. The culprit was the motherboard. Dell SVC is quoting 11k for it. Spending this much amount on a 5 year old laptop doesn't make much sense to us so we have decided to buy a new laptop with a budget of max 30k with good battery backup.
Usage will be strictly basic i.e. net surfing and occasionally watching HD movie and TV shows.

So I'm assuming core i3 with inbuild Intel HD graphics will be sufficient for us. What say?

How is this HP model. Any reviews? Currently retailing at 26k on Amazon.

HP 15-ac122tu 15.6-inch Laptop (Core i3 5005U/4GB/1TB/DOS/Intel HD Graphics)
It has a 5th gen core i3.


TIA

[TheStranger]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

Guys, my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 15r N5010 i5 just gave up. The culprit was the motherboard. Dell SVC is quoting 11k for it. Spending this much amount on a 5 year old laptop doesn't make much sense to us so we have decided to buy a new laptop with a budget of max 30k with good battery backup.
Usage will be strictly basic i.e. net surfing and occasionally watching HD movie and TV shows.

So I'm assuming core i3 with inbuild Intel HD graphics will be sufficient for us. What say?

How is this HP model. Any reviews? Currently retailing at 26k on Amazon.

HP 15-ac122tu 15.6-inch Laptop (Core i3 5005U/4GB/1TB/DOS/Intel HD Graphics)
It has a 5th gen core i3.


TIA

For the use you mention, the config seems to be more than adequate. Do check on HP's Support website what drivers are available (for which OS - Win 7/ 8/ 10).

Intel HD graphics will be ok for playback of 720p to 1080p content (the 4 GB RAM helps) as also the fact that you can go for a 64-bit OS install.

The only cons seem to be the 720p resolution screen (no full HD viewing pleasure) and no VGA port (may cause issues when attempting presentations/playback) to older projectors which do not have HDMI.

[Sherlocked]

Originally Posted by TheStranger

For the use you mention, the config seems to be more than adequate. Do check on HP's Support website what drivers are available (for which OS - Win 7/ 8/ 10).

Intel HD graphics will be ok for playback of 720p to 1080p content (the 4 GB RAM helps) as also the fact that you can go for a 64-bit OS install.

The only cons seem to be the 720p resolution screen (no full HD viewing pleasure) and no VGA port (may cause issues when attempting presentations/playback) to older projectors which do not have HDMI.

We are okay with no VGA port as of now and HDMI port will be more than sufficient for us.

And about the screen clearity - coming from my earlier Inspiron which had Nvidia graphic card, I agree Intel HD will definitely be a step down and to find out how much I guess I'll have to pay a visit to a HP store. But rest assured, the laptop won't be used for gaming or video editing or other heavy duty usage.

We need a silent and cool laptop, a lappy which boots fast and doesn't hang much will keep us more than happy.

Also any idea how much battery backup to be expected from HP laptops with above specs for 50% web surfing and rest video playback? My earlier Dell was a sucker!

TIA

[kkkkkaran]

Originally Posted by petrolhead_neel

What SSD options do I have in my price point?
Thanks,
Neel

Hi Neel,
At that price point, you won't find any options for an SSD. But, probably a few months down the line, save up 7-8k, swapping the hard disk for an ssd is a very simple job. The hard disk from the laptop can be used as an external hdd by putting it into a casing which should be available for less than 1000 rupees.

Coming to dualboot :no, what they may mean is that it doesnt have a dualboot out of the box. The UEFI is quite restrictive when it comes to installing linux, so the installation gets a little painful at times. But post setup, you will not have any issues.

Do PM me incase you have any queries :-)

Karan

[TheStranger]

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

....Also any idea how much battery backup to be expected from HP laptops with above specs for 50% web surfing and rest video playback? My earlier Dell was a sucker!

TIA

The specs say a battery life of 5 hrs...but i would take it with a pinch of salt. IMO, you can expect 3 to 3 1/2 hrs of battery life with your usage pattern.

There are some ways of prolonging battery life...like turning down screen brightness, turning off WIFI/Bluetooth when not using them etc, but they would not have a big impact anyways.

Do check at the HP store if there is any option for a extended battery pack. It may add extra juice at the cost of some weight increase.