Need a Laptop for Business School, Gaming and General use. What should I get?

[FoxSay]

Hey folks!

A family member is looking to get a new laptop to use during his business education, and also wants to game with it. I figure he's going to need at least a dual core i5 CPU, the quad core would probably be best, graphics card with at least 2.0GB VRAM, at least 8 GB DDR3/DDR4, USB 3.0, and some way to output to television screens would be nice, too. Obviously, he wants to last, so he'll need an absolutely superb cooling system to keep the internal components comfortable.

Does that sound about right? Are there any other specs you would suggest, especially concerning the cooling system? I'm not sure how to point in the right direction, so advice on brands and models are much appreciated!

 

[yronnen]

For business ed, you need a laptop that can run office: Word, excel (very important), and powerpoint. You may need to run some statistics software here and there, but that's it.

The specs you've mentioned looks ok, but I think that the laptop should have good resolution (e.g. >720p) otherwise working on those large excel files will become a headache (talking from experience). Finally, since you move around a lot as a student and carrying plenty of books, you may want to look for a light laptop - so a gaming laptop might not be a best fit.

 

[boosted1g]

For this they are looking in the $900 range or higher.
I would look first at a Lenovo Y50.

Do note that the U and the Q in laptop processors are very different. The Q is the better model and closer to normal desktop setup (i3 = 2core/2thread, i5 = 4 core, i7 = 4core/8thread).

 

[FoxSay]

He's expecting to spend at least $1,000 on the laptop. I think the price range is $1K - $1,400. Although more easily portable is preferred, size is at the bottom of the list. The screen should definitely be more than 720p--a high-res screen is probably what we'll go for, and thanks for the tip, boosted.

Basically we want it to:

• 
  ■ Run media and games like a monster
  ■ Last at least five years in excellent working condition
  ■ Process quickly (for data and calculations, Excel, etc.)
  and
  ■ Handle multiple open programs and a large amount of tabs simultaneously

 

[boosted1g]

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/lenovo/y-series/y50/

 

[skitszo]

The problem with laptops is they usually come with 5400 RPM mechanical drives.... very limiting for performance.

maby you can look into a refurbished business machine with 2 hard drive bays and run SSD boot drive then mechanical storage. If not then plan on SSD drive with mechanical storage. or a hard drive kit to turn your disc player into a hard drive bay.

 

[boosted1g]

The problem with laptops is they usually come with 5400 RPM mechanical drives.... very limiting for performance.

maby you can look into a refurbished business machine with 2 hard drive bays and run SSD boot drive then mechanical storage. If not then plan on SSD drive with mechanical storage. or a hard drive kit to turn your disc player into a hard drive bay.

I did that on a laptop of mine, put the original HDD in caddy in DVD bay and added an SSD drive.

Of course can always get the WD black SSD drive and have 120gb ssd and 1tb drive in one.