Q. Low-Mid Price Range Laptop Question

[mithindrail]

Hello All,


I am looking for a new laptop but am limited for now. The purposes will be university work, penetration testing lab (virtual box + tools) and programming. My question is: Is it better to have a laptop with an Intel i7 and 8GB RAM with an Intel 3000 HD Graphics or to have a i5 4GB/1GB dedicated with nVIDIA 610M or something low like that? I plan on installing Linux right away so I am limited but I will make it work - just looking for some pointers.

[fluxdaemon]

If you're going to be running virtual machines and not really any games, I would say go for the i7 with the 8 gigs of RAM and don't really worry about the graphics

[proxx]

NO STOP.

This is optimus technology.
If you plan to run linux please take my advice and dont buy optimus.

[fluxdaemon]

If you're planning to run strictly Linux I would say stay away from Nvidia completely for now

[p_2001]

If you're planning to run strictly Linux I would say stay away from Nvidia completely for now

um... Shit
.. I did not know that 4 days ago..

[fluxdaemon]

I just say that because Nvidia has terrible support for Linux because they don't see much money in it

Linus said it best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVpOyKCNZYw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[namespace7]

You don't need a dedicated graphics chip in your laptop if you are not doing much gaming or motion graphics/3d modeling work. Programing and other tech tasks don't need a powerful chip at all, and intel i7 HD graphics 3000 is more then enough to run any usual application. You can even run some older games on it from before 2010 on lower settings. And actually, the graphics card you mentioned is a piece of shit anyway, won't make much of a difference. Maybe might improve gaming performance by around 10%.

[Snayler]

You don't need a dedicated graphics chip in your laptop if you are not doing much gaming or motion graphics/3d modeling work.

You can use a graphics card to enhance your computer processing speed, let's say, for cracking hashes.

@OP: Despite what I just said, stay away from optimus. I made the mistake of buying one and now I have to boot windows when I want to use the card's processing power (which is not much anyway).

[mithindrail]

Ok, I will go with the 8GB but now my question is: is there a preference between HP and ASUS? What Brand is the best in your opinion? Thanks a million!

[proxx]

Bad experience with HP, cheap shit parts etc.
Good experience with ASUS, never uses anything else really.

[Snayler]

Bad experience with HP, cheap shit parts etc.

They make nice heaters, though.

[proxx]

Indeed.
Someone I know well had one of these.
Nothing but heating problems, we unscrewed it.
Tiny tiny tiny little made in china crap fan.

It was dead after 1 year and we replaced it.

[theellimist]

Bad experience with HP, cheap shit parts etc.
Good experience with ASUS, never uses anything else really.

Yeah I second this, I have never really got behind HP. They seem like a good deal, but don't last long and just are in general cheap quality. I swear by ASUS, I have never had problems with ones I have used and they have been pretty nice.

[namespace7]

I don't like HP at all. ASUS are more economically and more efficiently designed.
Also, lenovo laptops are quite amazing. Have never seen better engineering and structure then in a lenovo thinkpad laptop. I still have one somewhere from 6 years ago. And its working without any problems. Never had to fix it. Of course they are a bit more expensive.

[Skidrow_Beaver]

I just say that because Nvidia has terrible support for Linux because they don't see much money in it

Linus said it best
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVpOyKCNZYw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

LOL
 
But to help with your question i would go with the i7 with 8gig RAM
 
And i prefer Asus to HP