MKader17

I know this cool guy named Matt2 who is doing it.... One of those things I've always wanted and I assume it will make the laptop faster and more fun to use.

Might be worth it but not super special. I really don't like HP though.

Thanks, there is actually a cheaper one that is listed for $430 with a 500gb drive. I'm thinking of offering a lower price for it and then replacing that drive.

Do you want to play ANY games? I would never go without an optical drive..... but if you have a desktop, then maybe you can network those as a pretend optical. What are the HDs on them? I like SSD if you are not going to store a lot of media. More than a GFX card or ram it will speed up your OS and apps. Is the "any games" comment directed at the graphics processing? If so the only game I've been playing is League of Legends. I am able to play it on my current laptop on lower levels at 29 fps; would make a real gamer cringe I'm sure, but it works for me. I once opened my optical drive and thought, "oh shit, here is the CD for that game I played a year ago!" The other two have a 640 and 750gb 5400rpm drives that I will plan on removing about a month after I get the laptop.

Alright Matt2, Stefan here is what I've come up with. Lenovo IdeaPad Z370 13" - 2nd gen i5, 4gb memory, intergrated graphics, 60gb ssd 4.4 lbs, $450 Asus U36E-RAL7 14" - 2nd gen i7, 8gb memory, integrated graphics, 4.94 lbs, $500 Asus U36SD 13" - 2nd gen i5, 4 gb memory, NVIDIA GT520M, 3.66 lbs, $575 (no optical drive, but no big deal) The first is my "original". It's the cheapest, doesn't look as good, but a solid all around performer. The others do not have SSD. The second is great with the i7 and memory, Its just got a bigger screen and more weight I love the last one because it is lighter, looks the best, has it's own graphics card and is the lightest, but of course it is more expensive. I can also just drop another 4gb stick to get to 8gb and it also has a huge battery.

And thanks! I went to Best Buy this morning and checked out their laptops. I really thought the Samsung and Asus devices were the nicest with Lenovo coming in 3rd. All the Toshibas were meh, and I wasn't feeling the HP's or Dells (mostly their looks) I was surprised though that some of the laptops there had 3rd gen i5's and weren't too expensive (still out of my current range). Also, I'm starting to notice that it is likely I can get the same or slightly better 15" for the same price as a 13". However, I really prefer the 13" (no homo).

Damn that looks nice! My roommate and I just built an i3 server. No SSD but he has like 5.5 TB's of storage.

I really want to agree, but I feel like I had the best possible setup (Transformer Prime w a Keyboard dock) and there were so many things that bothered the crap out of me. 1. Keyboard Size - While I got used to it, I couldn't really type much without a few major screw ups. I also had to be sure to turn off the track-pad because it was very sensitive. 2. Multitasking - The Prime couldn't handle multitasking like my old laptop still can. On the Prime I couldn't hook up a mouse and go tab opening crazy like I do on a laptop because it would probably crash. Also the time to move from one program to the next and back to the original is just slow. 3. Word/Excel alternatives - I could easily use a nice alternative, but with Word, it would likely screw up my formatting if I wanted to save it and I tried doing excel once on it and OMG nightmare. Re-reading, I agree with what you are saying, but the difference may be right now that I'm trying to fill 2 voids with one purchase. Currently, I can not take my laptop anywhere and that has been the biggest issue. I don't currently need to be mobile as in walking around computing; I just want to be able to close it (something I can't do now), take it somewhere and open it up. I also get the advantage of better processing, and more storage. Most of my mobile computing I can perform on my phone. Also, a 13" laptop isn't that small. I use my gf's 13" mac all the time without issue (other than the fact that I think my lesser equipped Dell is actually faster). The only other thing I would consider other than a laptop is a Nexus 7. I think it is the right size for light screen typing, reading books, couch lounging surfing. I would also love to set it up in my truck like I originally wanted to do with my Prime. However, I can see myself getting much more useful things done with a real laptop and again my phone easily fills the vehicle setup void at the moment.

I'm in the same boat, but has to support back track 5, and have a friendly wireless chipset. After some eBay research I'm looking into a Lenovo Thinkpad Z370 or a Toshiba Portege. For my ~$400 budget I can swing a second gen i-5 Lenovo, but only a first gen i3/i5 Toshiba. The Toshiba is about a pound lighter and looks nicer though, but both seem to have a good keyboard and trackpad and I don't like to pass up on performance. I wish I could "give up" the optical drive for a thinner laptop at a cheaper price but all those are just more expensive.

Just sold my Transformer prime and I'm throwing around the idea of buying a laptop. On craigslist I have my pick of various i3/4gb/15" laptops for about $300. I was really wanting to buy a 13" but I didn't find any that were cheap. My idea was a 13" with an i3/i5/i7 and possibly upgrade the hard drive to a solid state to have something cheap and fast to be able to take places. any ideas? The reason I want to do this is my current laptop will no longer close or stay off the charger for more than 10 min (AKA- it's a desktop)

Can't freaking wait for tomorrow. A&M plays its first game in the SEC against Florida. We are probably going to get demolished...

only thing i've tried on are those crazy huge sony's.. http://www.amazon.co...c_df_B001RB24S2 felt comfy as fuck let me know what you find, i also looking for a pair but i'm not in a hurry to buy. I worry about headphones that say they are for "extra bass"

Decided to do the Zaph bargain mini build. Will be my first attempt at building a crossover!

Holy cheap speakers! Any of them worth the buy? http://www.parts-express.com/cat/speaker-buyouts/3380

I'm also looking into doing a little audio project in the house and mounting some speakers out to the sides of my TV in the house. Anyone have good ideas of what to setup?

So I'm in the market for some comfortable headphones. I think I would be most comfortable with over ear headphones. I won't really do critical listening. I just want to use them for work when another guy is in my office and when I'm at my house and my roommate is watching TV.

Google is so cool. Because of them I am able to stream a a live event hosted by YouTube on my TV played through Google TV. I'm even able to stream HD through a 5Mbit connection.

Because of all the QB's available and my not getting a top pick I didn't pick up my first QB until the 8th round.

Whiskey helps with everything. Touche x2 the whiskey helped me pick Shaub too early ( I ended up being 10/10 pick). A Luck Backup doesn't seems to bad...

Fantasy Football draft tonight. I'm thinking steak and whiskey makes you pick the best.

I really can't see that being the best fit. For the price you mentioned you could do 6 12" Gcons, 4 15/18" Icons, or 3 15/18" Xcons. I'm not sure why you want so many small woofers and most Type R setups I have heard were loud but sounded terrible. Based on the Type R enclosure recommendation I assume you have about 10 -16 cuFt to work with. 3 Xcons or 6 Gcons would work well in that. I just don't see where having more low quality parts would out-do the high quality parts in this situation.

Applying for Jobs..... My favorite thing!

So you never stop drinking?

So I realized I just left my office with that dog GIF up. It would have been funny if someone walked into my office while I was gone.

Sorry, just no way to stay up on shows if I want to keep customers happy. Speaking of.... Headed home to make lunch (backstrap today) and watch the last episode of season 4