Hello Guys!
Since my HP Crapbook is absolutely unusable, I decided to shop for a new Laptop.
My budget is $1200 and I get the education discount.
This is what I need/want:
RAM: 8 gigs is the bare minimum
Video Card: Must be able to run indie games very well.
Size: Has to be between 12 and 14 inches. Low weight.
Storage: 128 SSD. Ideally it should also have space for a traditional harddrive for more storage, but this is not a deal breaker.
Battery: 5-6 hours is the bare minimum
Screen quality: I cant stand 720p.
Availability: I can wait until september, after that it will be very hard.
Reliability: My 2007 iMac is going strong, I expect my laptop to last at the vary least 5 years (I'm willing to replace HD, RAM, and battery during that period).
Here is my typical usage:
I take all of my classes on Monday and Wednesday, so this means having class from noon to 10PM -- all back to back with the exception of one 45-minute break-- so battery life and size are must-haves. The other days of the week I work regular office hours on my laptop. I travel short distances to attend many events during the week, which I'm required to take notes and some of these can last up to three hours.
I use the MS Word and Excel extensively, and I'm guaranteed to have 10-15 tabs open at all times for work. Next semester I'm going to start working with statistical packages for my classes (mostly R, SAS, and Minitab).
I really like this new MBA, but the screen resolution is a huge turn off. I really wish it had the 15 inch MPB's resolution (1600x1050). But then again I'm coming from a ****** 720p HP, so anything is an improvement.
I found a laptop that meets all of my requirements, but I'm uncertain about the battery life since its a Ubuntu PC (I heard from many sources that Ubuntu kills the battery):
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1
I would upgrade it to a 120GB SSD + 1TB traditional HD and 8GB of ram, which would cost $1304.
This is exactly what I want.
So my question is should I go with the System 76 PC, get the 13'' Air, wait for the 13'' haswell MBP, or maybe bite the bullet and get the 13'' haswell MBP when its released?
Since my HP Crapbook is absolutely unusable, I decided to shop for a new Laptop.
My budget is $1200 and I get the education discount.
This is what I need/want:
RAM: 8 gigs is the bare minimum
Video Card: Must be able to run indie games very well.
Size: Has to be between 12 and 14 inches. Low weight.
Storage: 128 SSD. Ideally it should also have space for a traditional harddrive for more storage, but this is not a deal breaker.
Battery: 5-6 hours is the bare minimum
Screen quality: I cant stand 720p.
Availability: I can wait until september, after that it will be very hard.
Reliability: My 2007 iMac is going strong, I expect my laptop to last at the vary least 5 years (I'm willing to replace HD, RAM, and battery during that period).
Here is my typical usage:
I take all of my classes on Monday and Wednesday, so this means having class from noon to 10PM -- all back to back with the exception of one 45-minute break-- so battery life and size are must-haves. The other days of the week I work regular office hours on my laptop. I travel short distances to attend many events during the week, which I'm required to take notes and some of these can last up to three hours.
I use the MS Word and Excel extensively, and I'm guaranteed to have 10-15 tabs open at all times for work. Next semester I'm going to start working with statistical packages for my classes (mostly R, SAS, and Minitab).
I really like this new MBA, but the screen resolution is a huge turn off. I really wish it had the 15 inch MPB's resolution (1600x1050). But then again I'm coming from a ****** 720p HP, so anything is an improvement.
I found a laptop that meets all of my requirements, but I'm uncertain about the battery life since its a Ubuntu PC (I heard from many sources that Ubuntu kills the battery):
https://www.system76.com/laptops/model/galu1
I would upgrade it to a 120GB SSD + 1TB traditional HD and 8GB of ram, which would cost $1304.
This is exactly what I want.
So my question is should I go with the System 76 PC, get the 13'' Air, wait for the 13'' haswell MBP, or maybe bite the bullet and get the 13'' haswell MBP when its released?