Build Your Own Gaming Notebook
A light (-5 lbs) but wide (15"+) notebook?
Looking around for a laptop, cause my current one (a Dell Vostro 1000) is dying in it's fourth year (no battery, screen falling off). #1 My main want it something durable. The guts of my Dell, other than being outdated seem to be doing okay, but the plastic body is creaky and broken off in horrible places, and it has missing keys and a taped down shift key, again the fault of touchy plastic. I'd like for a new one to last me a good five years, inside and out, before I have to start looking again (ignoring the battery which I expect will need replacing before then). #2 Specs-- At least an i3 processor, and at least 3GB of RAM, though 2 GB would be an improvement on what I have, so 2GB with the option to upgrade it would be okay too. Harddrive size isn't important. I store almost everything externally, and might switch the HDD for an SSD anyway. A webcam. #3 Size-- I would love something thin and light but with a bigger screen. An optical drive isn't mandatory. I don't see why a bigger screen would have to make for a much heftier machine. I mean the screen is what, 25% of the power? You make the screen 50% bigger, it's only a 12% increase in battery needs. What I want is one that's 15" or more and 5 lbs or less, but you guys tell me if that's possible. #4 cost-- less than $800 I would loooove a matte screen, but I know they are the minority. I would also looove a long battery life, but who wouldn't. Note-- I'm gonna be installing Ubuntu anyway, so the OS and how it works with the computer isn't too important. Also of Note-- 90% of my computer use is just web browsing. The rest is movie watching, word processing, photo editing. And I'd like to be able to edit videos occasionally without my laptop overheating. I don't really ever play games. The best I've found so far-- Lenovo ThinkPad Edge E420, Dell Inspiron 14R, ASUS U43JC, or maybe a refurbished Macbook? Let me know if any of these are terrible, or obviously if you have any better suggestions. I feel like there are simultaneously way too many options and not enough. And how much do you think I should expect to pay for what I want? Another question-- has anyone used a System76 laptop? I wouldn't exactly fit the lightweight wish, and their battery life is apparently sad, but if the build quality is great, I'd still consider them. Let me know! Thanks, if you read all this! :)
Public Comments
- dell insperion. its ubuntu certified. I use it and everything works great. Compiz works awesome and it's ridiculously fast. Disable unity desktop since it's total crap and use AWN instead since it's sleek and uses practically no system resources. plus dell/bestbuy will ship it or install Ubuntu in the store for you so you dont have to install it yourself and they will test it and install needed addons/updates before you use it. I love linux and will never use a mac or win machine ever again. system 76's are good but they have relatively cheap bodies. Dell has been making more robust machines for the last two-three years. the one you have is one of their more brittle models so you shouldn't have a problem with the inspiron.
