new laptop time, mine's only got days to live...

[PrMink]

It's time to buy a new laptop, requirements:

Media center (films/tv on the move - I commute a lot).
Music (sound system will connect to it)
internet
office management - usual programs for word/excel etc
super lightweight/sleek etc (I commute a lot!)
Long life of reliability.. I'm gonna want this to last 4-5 years, both in terms of hardware & physical durability.

budget is tops £1,000 (no point going over this as I don't need a machine that powerful, would just be a waste of resources.)

Was looking at ultrabooks but I'm beginning to think a macbook air 13" 1.8ghz, 4g ram, 128gig ssd is my best bet (£999)
was hoping there'd be a way of saving money as a long term linux user (I will never go back to windows) by buying a machine with no os & putting my own on it, but this seems to be only doable from small random companies (novatech in portsmouth uk being one, system 76 based in the states being another) but I a couple of google searches indicates that although they're good, they're not great, & if things go wrong, the amount of hassle to go through to get the issue sorted negates the whole point of doing it in the first place.

is a grand on a macbook a waste of money given that I don't use any particularly demanding applications? the only way I'm an intensive user is that my laptop is firing away almost all day every day, whether I'm listening to music, doing work or watching tv etc..

any help mucho appreciated. would quite like to use tomorrow as my excuse to buy as it's my birfday

[GONNAFISTYA]

From what you've specified, I recommend you get a reliable laptop priced no more than £1,000.

[seremtan]

you should easily be able to find a decent machine for a grand (especially since you don't mention gaming). just search on amazon with all your criteria; you should be able to get the results down to a page or so

[PrMink]

Nice one thanks. [THREAD CLOSED]

[PrMink]

I was more after a brand name or personal recommendation, but you know, whatever. If we can get everyone to use google instead of ever creating a thread here we should be able to kill off the community that's left in no time at all

[GONNAFISTYA]

From what you've specified, I recommend you pull your head out of your ass if all you were looking for is an argument between brand-whores.

[4days]

4-5 years with a grand to spend? unless you really want to make the switch to mac, get any £5-700 ultraportable/ultrathin then in 2-3 years, throw it away and get another one for £5-300 with newer innards. dual-booting ubuntu on whatever my little toshiba thing is with no problems - and if you could find a machine without windows preinstalled, you'd still only be saving less than a ton.

[fKd]

i got an asus g74sx, its a nice laptop. so id say get an asus fuck macs.

[SoM]

build your own/customize it

u'll get the parts you want and i'm sure you'll spend less

[shaft]

I suggest an apple.

[obsidian]

I got a 13" MacBook Air a two weeks ago and I love it. There is a lot to love about OS X that makes it a clear plus over a Windows based computer. It'll also run Windows and Linux if that's your thing.

If a Mac really doesn't float your boat and want to stick with Windows/Linux, get any number of multitudes of ultrabooks. Most brands of Windows laptops aren't all that different from each other, most parts run off the same assembly lines. Just stay away from Acer and HP, they are probably the most prone to failure due to mass production and what they deem as "acceptable" failure rates where replacing a defective unit is cheaper to them than investing in more QA. If it doesn't come with an SSD, I suggest upgrading with one, faster performance and I've seen way too many dead laptop HDD's to suggest them on something you'll be moving around all the time.

[Tormentius]

I got a 13" MacBook Air a two weeks ago and I love it. There is a lot to love about OS X that makes it a clear plus over a Windows based computer. It'll also run Windows and Linux if that's your thing.

Good stuff. I've been running my 13" Macbook Pro since the spring and, other than a couple of occasions where I had to use Windows, haven't looked back since.

[Scarface]

Spend the money and buy an alienware m18x. The best $4500 you'll ever spend