How does this laptop look?

[Zartan]

I want a new laptop for home surfing, saving editing pics and doing video diaries for my kids. Oh and CG. I like the Thinkpads and I spec'd this one out. Feedback?

[Peter.Steele]

Crap.

Few bucks more than that you can get an actual computer.

My laptop - almost 3 years ago - cost me less than that, brand new, at OfficeDepot. It's an i7-2630QM with discrete nVidia graphics and a 750 GB hard drive. The AMD APU crap is just that - crap.

[SMR510]

I would not get a AMD processor in a laptop, even worse that it has integrated graphics.

Why windows 7 pro?

320gb is a small hard drive, drives are so cheap these days you can replace it with a nice drive for about $100 but I would say 500gb is the minimum even then I would want some network storage.

[stilly]

I have to agree, While I love me some AMD in the game machine, in the laptops I prefer Wintels.

$600? BAH. What is the battery life of that thing? If the screen is a 17" then THAT is a dealbreaker. MAYBE a 15" but I still would not buy it.

I would go to Fleabay and hunt one down instead. Much cheaper, free of bloatware and I can do whatever I want to it with a clean conscience.

HEH, 6 cell lion battery... 4+ hours of life and about 2 hours after 6 months... (nah, it might be better than that...)

Nvidia graphics in a laptop. Radeon is too much of a letdown for me, but I can never tell what radeon models are any good because I am an nvidia guy.

[high_revs]

i'd get the 8gb stick instead for $50 more. that way you don't 'throw' away any ram when you upgrade. for your use? some web pages i read say video editing is pretty much par between both cpus but say it should be offloaded the the gpu anyway.

http://versus.com/en/amd-a6-5350m-vs-intel-core-i3-3120m

http://www.tomshardware.com/answers/id-1633543/amd-intel.html

[SMR510]

The downside to AMD in a laptop is that they run so much hotter. Since the chassis is so small and generally heat is hard to get out when compared with a desktop I say get a processor that runs cooler naively (intel). While the integrated graphics on the AMD chips (and intel) has come a long way it is just more heat built in the same spot and again hard to get rid of that heat in a laptop. Moving to a discrete GPU makes it easier to cool (assuming the layout inside is any good) because you can take heat out of both rather than trying to take more heat out of one thing. Aside from that, you generally will get better performance out of the discrete GPU anyways so it is a win win.

Any laptop I bought would have space for 2 2.5" drives, I would throw a SSD in for OS/programs drive and a 1-2TB drive in for storage. Makes Windows lighting fast and loads programs before you even knew you wanted to use it (ok that might be a little bit of a stretch but it is way faster and more enjoyable to use).

[rockblaster]

AMD, a thing of the past

As a tech who has built over 300 computers and repaired a couple of thousand more I don't recommend anything AMD. If this was 2004 when AMD with their socket 939 ruled the roost it would be a different story. I will only build Intel anymore. As far as manufacturer stay away from HP or Compaq as 40% of my laptop repairs involve these brands (HP owns Compaq). Asus and Toshiba are the best, although Sony and Samsung seem pretty good.