Most of my movies are on DVD and Blu-Ray. I have hundreds of them. I'm not a fan of streaming or downloading movies. They are mostly still not true HD because of compression, and we watch movies on my dad's 106" screen, where it's actually noticeable. They just don't look, or sound, right. Mostly, I want a burner for home movies though. We have a lot of family that is not tech savvy. They have dvd players, but not the computers or internet speeds to deal with movies, and they love movies of the kids.DevilAlumna wrote: Do you really have that many blu-ray movies that having a DVD drive to watch them on your laptop matters a lot? I can't remember the last time I bought a physical copy of any entertainment form (making an exception for some reference books, I'm old school there.)
To specifically address some of your decision points: Video/photo editing is processing intensive, so I'd go for the middle one of your three i7 choices. I always believe the "best of breed" option is overpriced, no matter the item you're considering, hence my middle option; that said, for RAM, I'd say get the most you can. $200 to go from 8GB to 16GB doesn't strike me as too bad, and although you may be able to upgrade aftermarket, you wouldn't be saving that much. I have no opinions on the networking card. I'd look for reviews to see if there's any appreciable difference in features or quality/problems.
You seem determined to buy now, but I still encourage you to wait until the Win8 hardware comes out. I think if you intend to keep this machine for >3 years, you'll be wanting Win8, and forthat, you'll want a touch screen. You can find touchscreen laptops now, but Win8 will be coming commercially available at the end of this month. Most of the focus to date has been around tablet (ipad) hardware,u so actual laptops haven't gotten much press, but HP, Dell, Lenovo have all started giving previews of what's to come. And even if you decide you still want the current HP model you're eyeing, my guess is its price will have dropped even more once the new stuff is available. YMMV.
Ugh, touchscreen laptops? Part of the reason I want a new laptop is because my ipad drives me crazy sometimes. My big fingers just can't hit the right thing all the time. If that's the best they've got for the new generation of computers, no thanks. I'll stay in the past.
