So, I got this for my mother (she's working a lot in Autocad and other office-related things) a new laptop to be used as a desktop.
She doesn't really like using a desktop for several different reasons, and her old laptop (nearly 5 years old) is starting to show signs of croaking on top of being pretty damn obsolete.
So I convinced her to get this:
http://www.asus.com/Notebooks/Versatile_Performance/K93SM/#specifications
Yes, that's a 18.4" 1920x1080 screen ;)
Selections/addons/changes/upgrades:
Intelᆴ Coreル i7 2670QM Processor (quad-core @2.2GHz base, 3.1 turboboost, 6MB cache)
16 GB DDR3@1333
60 GB Intel 330-series SDD for OS/apps
750 GB standard HDD for data
no OS preinstalled (I had a different license that I could reuse)
...plus a decent carry bag and a wireless mouse (but those didn't cost much).
Windows 7 Ultimate 64bit finishes completely booting up in 38-40 seconds from the moment I push the power button on a turned off machine (full boot, no hibernation, no sleep modes, fair and square).
Autocad 2006 starts in 5 seconds, Autocad 2012 in about 15 seconds.
Windows experience indexes (7.9 is max value) : 7.4 processor, 7.6 memory, 5.4 aero, 6.7 3D graphics, 7.9 primary HDD.
Before taxes (which are pretty high around here), everything combined costed the equivalent of 927 USD.
My brother started to complain about this being too expensive, and that I should have convinced her to get something more modest, but he was basically arguing about a smaller form factor (17.3" instead of 18.4", when autocad screen space is a great benefit), only 8 GB ram tops, and no SSD at all.
But even then, we would have been talking about maybe 700$ instead of 927$ before taxes.
Anybody agree with him that the extra 227$ (or thereabouts) were wasted money ? :P