New to laptops, In the market in 5 months

asanderd

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Hello, I'm going to be in the market for a laptop sometime within the next 5 months, but I have no idea what to get nor look for. I am comfortable on a desktop, so I plan on buying a docking station, keyboard, mouse and a decent set of speakers for my desk. I basically want all the the power of desktop, in the portability of a laptop. I am disabled so sitting at my desk can get rough. Basically what I want is to use it for everyday use, email, facebook wordprocessing, online video streaming (netflix) and youtube. Do light video editing for youtube. Photo editing. My biggest concern is that I am a big fan of the Sims games, and I want to be able to have the base game and 7-9 expansion games as well as some Stuff Packs (new furniture, floors, walls but no worlds) I was speaking online with a family friend who said I would need 16 gb of RAM.... I am on a budget and would love to pay under $1000. I don't want a Macbook because A.) They are freaky expensive and B.) In my honest opinion... Apple is all name. I have heard so many times that they are over rated, I can't say that as I have never used a Apple product, but still. Right now we have an HP with Win 7, my aunt has HP win 8 so I am quite comfortable on both OS. In my old computer, we put new ram sticks in, could I get a way with a $400-500 computer with a $150 16 gb stick pack? What is a good solid brand of laptop? I was origonally gonna just go out and blindly buy a HP, because we've had no problem with our or my aunts HP desktops, but I figured I should ask people who actually know what they are talking about lol
 
Hello there. I just wanted to find out a little more on the reason why you are choosing a laptop over a desktop.

According to this:
I am comfortable on a desktop, so I plan on buying a docking station, keyboard, mouse and a decent set of speakers for my desk.

Will you be using it primarily on a desk? I did read that it can also be rough for you being on a desk.

I ask because of the next part:
I basically want all the the power of desktop, in the portability of a laptop.
can be very hard to achieve since you sacrifice power for portability and gets more expensive the more powerful the laptop. So is the portability a must?

As for the 16GB ram comment, I don't think that amount is necessary. It's great to have as it helps with the editing, but if your only doing light work, you should be fine with 8GB or so.
 
Hello there. I just wanted to find out a little more on the reason why you are choosing a laptop over a desktop.

According to this:


Will you be using it primarily on a desk? I did read that it can also be rough for you being on a desk.

I ask because of the next part:

can be very hard to achieve since you sacrifice power for portability and gets more expensive the more powerful the laptop. So is the portability a must?

As for the 16GB ram comment, I don't think that amount is necessary. It's great to have as it helps with the editing, but if your only doing light work, you should be fine with 8GB or so.

Portability is a must. I won't be taking it anywhere unless I have family in the hospital, so it will be at home, but I want a laptop because I have degenerative disc disease, basically the cushions (discs) in between my vertebrae are slowly breaking down. Sitting in one place for too long get very painful. Because I cannot work, and have my mom to help with house work I have an insane amount of free time on my hands. The computer is where I spend a good amount of my time. When my back starts to reject my computer chair, I can go to my recliner and from their my bed and then the cycle just repeats. I want to be able to just pick up my computer and take it with me, to my bed or recliner.

I guess saying that I want the power of a desk top isn't what I should have said. I want to be able to do everyday internet stuff, stream netflix, do light editing of videos with just a simple Windows Movie Maker program, touch up photos and the have my sims games. That is pretty much it. As far as storage, I do plan on buying an external hard drive so as to not clutter the computer, and I'm not worried to much about battery life as It will mostly be plugged into an outlet.
 
Truthfully, what you describe as what you do with your computer, I think 4G of RAM would be plenty. I assume you currently have a desktop computer, how much RAM does it have?

Your computing needs are pretty average so I don't think you need to buy a particularly high end laptop. I would recommend a mid-range model, at around $700.
 
Honestly I'm not sure what is in either of them. But you don't think 7= expansion packs wont bog it down and make it laggy? What is a good brand? I've liked what I seen in the HP Pavilions and Toshiba Satellite i.e; Backlit keyboard and number pad. Is there anything I should be sure to particularly stay away from?
 
Expansion pack wise, i think the gpu on the laptop would matter a lot more than the ram to ensure it isnt laggy or low frame rate.

Edit:
I havent recommended one since I dont know laptops and prefer not to steer you wrong.

Hopefully someone else more knowledgeable catches this thread :p
 
for the video and photo editing you'll need a half decent GPU (graphics processing unit). So make sure when you buy a laptop it comes with a video card (the GPU), so you can run all the graphics intensive applications smoothly.
 
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