Laptop advice

[Ezzzzy1]

I guess I am out of the laptop loop. Not too far out but technology has moved so fast since my last purchase that I figured I would get some advise from yall.

Currently I have a Sony Vaio and I love it. Its my second Sony and I havent had a problem with either (until this one started having charger port problems).

The problem is that I prefer to stay with Windows 7 (am I crazy for thinking this way?) My current laptop is a 15.5" i5 with 250 SSD. I honestly dont think I could go back to a conventional HD after being spoiled with the SSD.

Couple of questions:

Can you put a SSD in any newer laptop?
What are the top rated laptop brands now days?

Most of my work is with the Adobe Suite and trolling the CSC :lol: Ive heard that the i7 is a better processor (thats what I run on the big PC at the shop). Maybe someone can go into a little detail about hyper threading? Supposedly that is the difference between i5 and i7. Or does it even matter with the newer processors?

Edit: Maybe the i3 and the i7 have hyper threading but the i5 doesnt?

Throw me what you got!

[birchyboy]

Yes, you can put an SSD into a laptop. They should all be one of two sizes. Some newer ones are slimmer than others, but you can can get an adapter tray for that.

I use i7's and i5's at work. I7's are much better at Excel. They are also hyper-threaded so they can act as more processors. I don't think the i5's do that. I'm currently working on a proof of concept for my company. They have been buying Xeon processors for their math geeks and I'm proving that i7's are much better in certain cases. 5-6 times faster.

[salsashark]

Having relegated my Vaio to be a streaming PC (only way to catch Broncos games in MD), I replaced it last year w/ an ASUS.

Birchy nailed it w/ his answer, so the only thing I can recommend is to NOT waste your money on a touch screen laptop unless you go full on Lenovo yoga or some other hybrid machine. I found a great sale and thought that it would be neat. In actuality, I haven't used it once...

As for Adobe, I've always stood by the "keep throwing ram at it until it works" mentality :lol: Although, our corporate IT overlords weren't happy when I did this to my work pc and wouldn't let the local kid touch my machine. He had the amazing ability to screw up everything he touched.

[Matrix]

15.5 is a good size. I opted for the "bigger is better" mentality this last time and went for the 17 inch. It might as well be a desktop at that point.

[birchyboy]

I bought a 13.3" Dell hybrid (Inspiron 13 5000) at Microcenter. i5, 8gb of ram, 500gb hdd. It is very nice and light. It is a touch screen and I have used it as a tablet a couple times. I might upgrade to an SSD, but it's performance has been very good.

[bulldog]

I am with you EJ; went to a SSD drive a few months back (on my desktop) and bets upgrade I ever made for the money.....I'll never go back.I am no pc expert, but I have got some great deals from the Dell Outlet. Even bought a "scratch and dent" through them and the desktop came and I could not find a tiny scratch or dent. Worth a check http://www.dell.com/us/dfh/p/?ST=dell%20outlet&dgc=ST&cid=256574&lid=4562297&acd=123098073120560

Their Coupon Page: http://www.dell.com/learn/us/en/22/campaigns/dell-coupons-codes-us-outlet

[TFOGGuys]

All but one of my laptops is a Dell. My netbook is a Gateway because it was dirt cheap. My primary laptop for home is a 17 inch 2nd gen Core i7 machine w/8 gig of RAM, which is basically a desktop replacement. I'll be upgrading from a hard drive to an SSD this week. It's utter overkill for web surfing(I usually have 20-30 tabs open in Chrome), makes a good multimedia PC, and absolutely rocks at things like video transcoding, where multithreaded processing works really well. The downside to that horsepower is that it weighs about half a million pounds, and battery life is +/- 2 hours.

[Ezzzzy1]

Yeah, im set on a larger laptop. Screen size and 10 key are mandatory.

So, if I bought a pretty well equipped computer that was lacking HD size I could easily figure out what SSD that will work and drop it in? Then what? Just reload the operating system?

Can you load Windows 7 on a factory Windows 8 machine?

[birchyboy]

Yeah, im set on a larger laptop. Screen size and 10 key are mandatory.

So, if I bought a pretty well equipped computer that was lacking HD size I could easily figure out what SSD that will work and drop it in? Then what? Just reload the operating system?

Can you load Windows 7 on a factory Windows 8 machine?

If you like the O/S, you can get an imaging software to duplicate your old drive to the new one. Some manufacturers, WD maybe, let you download a copy from their site. I don't think are any hardware issues going back to 7, but you'll need a license key. Some installs will come with a downgrade license.

[Ezzzzy1]

Does anything with this laptop stand out? Good or bad?

I will probably change out the HD but the price is right for something on the more powerful side

HP ProBook 450 G2 - 15.6" - Core i7 5500U - Windows 7 Pro 64-bit - 8 GB RAM - 1TB HDD
http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ProBook-450-Newest-Intel-Broadwell-i7-Processor-Full-HD-8GB-ITB-HDD/301508071812?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4633481184

[birchyboy]

ProBooks are good; more business oriented. Microcenter has them if you want to get it locally or touch/feel/try it before committing.

I had to choose between the Inspiron convertible and the ProBook. It was a tough call, but I went with the Inspiron because of the weight.

[Ezzzzy1]

Good idea, I will go check them out today!

Thanks man!

[koop]

you might want to look at the Lenovo outlet site.

http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/

Their business lines are the T and X series. I've had two X series (a 240 and X1) and love them. Just ordered a T series for the wife.

[Ezzzzy1]

you might want to look at the Lenovo outlet site.

http://outlet.lenovo.com/outlet_us/

Their business lines are the T and X series. I've had two X series (a 240 and X1) and love them. Just ordered a T series for the wife.

Thanks!

[Ezzzzy1]

Went ahead and got the HP ProBook 450. Yanked the HD and put in a SSD. Now that I have things more or less how I like them with all the programs I run installed this thing is a beast!

Thanks for all the input from everyone. :headbang: