Laptop for Grad School: Find the Best Under $1000

[Goalie33]

Hi Guys (and Gals),
I hope no one minds that I posted this in "Academic Guidance", but I figured this is something you all have dealt with... I'm starting graduate school in the fall and I'm looking to buy a new laptop. I will be traveling on the train/bus with it daily so I want something on the lighter/portable side. I also want something a little more durable (I've had problems with Dell/HP in this respect). I will also need it to be powerful enough to handle data analysis (I also will use the Mathematica student edition on it). Lastly, I'd like to stay below $1000.

Obviously, I'm doing my own research, but I hoped someone would have advice on models they loved/hated. Thanks!

 

[Goalie33]

I've looked at Lenovo ThinkPads (x and t series) and some ultrabooks. Thoughts?

 

[twofish-quant]

I will also need it to be powerful enough to handle data analysis (I also will use the Mathematica student edition on it). Lastly, I'd like to stay below $1000.

I have a cheap $200 Android tablet which I carry with me to work, and then an ASUS netbook which I got for $400. My wife and kids are Mac/Apple people. I've tended toward "buy cheap/buy often." If I buy a $400 netbook instead of a $1200 laptop, then I can buy one every eight months.

1) I've found that CPU isn't that important. Even the really cheap laptops have heavy duty CPU's. For really, really compute intensive stuff, you'd be logging into another computer anyway, and I've set up my home machine as a server so that if I have to do something really CPU intensive I can remote log into that.

2) The two important things are keyboard and weight.

3) One of the first things I do with my laptop is to repartition and install Linux on one of the partitions. I use Mageia. Other people do stuff with Ubuntu.

 

[jbmiller]

I would highly recommend getting the asus transformer TF101, also, get the docking station w/ a keyboard to go with it. Its really versatile and has a ton of neat functions that come with it.

 

[Goalie33]

Thanks guys, I'll look into those suggestions.