Hey guys,

I'm in need of a laptop, and I was thinking we could just start an entire laptop suggestion thread for whoever needs it.

Anyway, here are my conditions:



* Country of purchase: USA

* Budget range: Anywhere really, as long as it's good and will last through college (I'm a highschool senior now). Let's not exceed 1100 or 1200.


* Purpose (netbook, ultraportable, mainstream, gaming, desktop replacement, etc.): College. I'm going to be doing Mechanical Engineering if that helps at all. Light gaming. Movies internet etc (the usual).


* Screen size preference: 13 - 15 inches.


* OS preference (Windows/ Mac/ Linux): Windows (or mac, but I'd know which one to get if that were the case).


* Gaming requirements (example games and desired fps/settings): I don't care too much about gaming -- but I would occasionally like to play a game or two. Doesn't have to be the best graphics or anything.


* Performance requirements (video, CAD, etc.): I'd be doing CAD


* A great keyboard


* A great touchpad/mouse buttons

I want at least 500 gigabites of space, too. A computer with both SSD and traditional hard drive would be awesome -- but not necessary.

I'm going to suggest the Intel Core I5 laptop from HP. It's the laptop I have, and it works great. It has 750 GB on the hard drive and good graphics quality on the screen. The keyboard and the touchpad are both also very good. My computer works almost as good as new, and I currently have: Crysis 3, Total War: Rome 2, Skyrim, Total War: Rome, Just Cause 2, and Modern Warfare 3 all on this computer. So, for light gaming, it should definitely be ok. It does pretty good with 3d (NVIDIA graphics card), but I can't remember if you need to download DirectX for that. Either way, that's free. Also, there's an option to get this computer with also a touchscreen. Probably useful for animating. Here it is: http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/thematic/intel-core-i5-computer.html

You could go for the Asus Vivobook S550cm (the one I have) It has a 15.6" 720p touchscreen TFT lcd display, a 3rd generation i5, 8 gigs of ram and a 2gb nVidia Geforce GT 635m (my unit does atleast) It's $1000 in Australia, but not sure about USA.

You could also get an Acer aspire V5 instead, Same specs, but with a backlit keyboard and a slightly newer graphics card.

They both have large multitouch Windows 8 touchpads.

Hope this helps.

Quote from poisonchocolate

Also, there's an option to get this computer with also a touchscreen. Probably useful for animating. Here it is: http://shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/thematic/intel-core-i5-computer.html

Lol, actually, I have a touchscreen, and to be honest, for animation, it's like animating on an ipad. Unless you have a stylus, it's really hard. Anyway, a touchscreen doesn't have any pressure sensitivity, and has compatibility issues with flash. I'd recommend a mouse or a wacom tablet for animating.