Yup~ That one is without touchscreen

Aiyo, trust us la bro When you buy, just make sure you check the specs properly (though you won't get it wrong also apart from the Touchscreen/non-touchscreen, since the specs are fixed already lol
You are not the 1st one we recommended this notebook lol, and definitely not the last

Manufacturer websites are known to be slow in updates, and inaccurate, apart from those which sells online

Definitely the Z500 since it runs on a Mobile processor
You might want to upgrade the RAM right away at the shop/COD since its not easy to upgrade yourself.
Can contact devour, he is very experienced with upgrading already iinm haha

Yeah I am aware of the specs

FHD on 15" screens are often more comfortable for editing
Photo and video editing would benefit from greatly from a powerful CPU and lots of RAM (and of course a good screen)
Can try these:
15.6"
Asus N550JV-CN077H, i7-4700HQ + Nvidia GT750M + (1920x1080; IPS matte)@RM3699[2.7kg], 4GB, 1TB, W8, backlit keyboard

Dell Inspiron 15R (Special Edition), i7-3612QM + AMD HD7730M + (1920x1080; anti-glare) + 32GB SSD + 1TB HDD(5400rpm)@RM3199, 8GB, backlit keyboard optional, W8

Lenovo Y510p, i7-4700MQ + Nvidia GT750M(GDDR5) + (1920x1080)@RM3099[2.7kg], 8GB, 1TB, W8, red backlit, swappable ODD, 120w psu, 2 yrs

MSI
GE60-2OC, i7-4700MQ + Nvidia GT750M(GDDR5) + (1920x1080; anti-glare)@RM3599,8GB, 750GB(7200rpm), W8, steel series KB
GP60-2OD, i7-4700MQ + Nvidia GT740M + (1920x1080; anti-glare)@RM2999, 4GB, 750GB, W8, steel series KB

Since you are not into gaming, I would recommend going for the MSI GP60-2OD or Lenovo Y510p. Use your remaining budget to extend warranty to 3 years; upgrade RAM to 8/16GB; and most importantly, swap the HDD to an SSD.
THe SSD will bring about an extremely huge performance gain in load times, will save you a lot of precious time

This post has been edited by [PF] T.J.: Sep 20 2013, 11:40 AM

Ahh, no worries, even the Nvidia GT740M is quite capable of mid settings in most current games yo
And its the weakest one among the lot recommended to you

Definitely not haha
For more details, please read my siggy, the one on Haswell

How about this one?
14"
Dell Inspiron 14-3421, i3-3217U + Intel HD4000@RM1399[1.99kg], Win8SL, 2GB, 500GB(5400rpm), 4-cell

*use remaining budget for warranty extension to 3 years
*you don't need a Mobile i3/i5 for your usage Unless if your college work involves rendering and stuffs

You are right about performance, i5-3230M is better. But of course with better performance = shorter battery lives haha, especially when on load.

35W vs 15W http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i5-4200...l-Core-i5-3230M
I can't really comment on this since I have not done direct comparisons of the same notebook with different CPUs only lol
But my guess is for normal usage, I don't think you will be able to squeeze out that much battery life in between the two CPUs (perhaps 30 minutes to 1 hour? Just a guess though, need reviews to confirm).

Or maybe lee_what2004 god sifu can help?

No idea on the specifics
Sorry about that, please refer here for more details: https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/2939095/+0&#entry62792241

Most Nvidia-powered machines do have Nvidia Optimus
And the current iGPUs in Haswell are pretty powerful already, who would've thought they could even reached such a performance level?

Assuming you are looking for a proper notebook:
15.6"
Acer R7-571-53338G1T, i5-3337U + Intel HD4000+ (1920x1080 IPS; touch)@RM2999[2.4kg], 8GB, 1TB, W8

Dell Inspiron 15R (Special Edition), i7-3612QM + AMD HD7730M + (1920x1080; anti-glare) + 32GB SSD + 1TB HDD(5400rpm)@RM3199, 8GB, backlit keyboard optional, W8

Lenovo Y510p, i7-4700MQ + Nvidia GT750M(GDDR5) + (1920x1080)@RM3099[2.7kg], 8GB, 1TB, W8, red backlit, swappable ODD, 120w psu, 2 yrs

MSI
GE60K, i5-3230M + Nvidia GTX660M + (1920x1080; anti-glare)@RM2899, 4GB, 750GB(7200rpm), W8, 2 years warranty
GP60-2OD, i7-4700MQ + Nvidia GT740M + (1920x1080; anti-glare)@RM2999, 4GB, 750GB, W8, steel series KB

Please follow the format on the 1st page
Hard to recommend you without knowing what you are looking for

If only between these two Asus. Then go for the S551LB, it has a newer, Haswell processor, which is more powerful than the Ivy Bridge i5 in the S550CB, although not by much, it will still be useful for your engineering softwares.
Other Spec-wise, both are pretty similar

Thanks in advance for the help man
We usually have a pattern in recommending (the same things all over and over again) haha
Just need to catch that pattern

Tawau? Lovely place, good seafood

Grats on your purchase man
Windows 8 comes with Windows Defender (Microsoft Security Live Essentials), which is pretty good already haha, can just stick to that one when your 3 years of Mcafee runs out

Oh, I didn't know that O_O
Thanks for the input

Can consider these:
15.6"
Lenovo
G500S, i3-3110M + Nvidia GT720M@RM1499, 2GB, 500GB, FreeDOS
G500S, i5-3230M + Nvidia GT720M@RM1699, 4GB, 500GB, FreeDOS

FreeDOS though

Pretty much this one, but its a Dell
15.6"
Dell Inspiron 15, i3-3227U + AMD HD7670M@RM1499, 4GB, 500GB, Linux; W8SL@RM1599

Yeah, it will be a bit faster if you disable bloatwares that run during startup
And the "sluggishness" is because its running on a standard 5400rpm HDD, which is the slowest

+1, can consider this one as well if you don't want a 15 incher:
13"
Samsung Series 7 Ultra, i5-3337U + Intel HD4000 + 128GB SSD + (1920x1080; anti-glare)@RM2999[JBL][1.46kg], 4GB, W8