Laptop recommendations?

[Tim Murray]

So, I want a laptop for college in a month. I want a machine with a Pentium M, obviously, but other than that, I'm pretty loose. There are two real requirements:

1. Screen. The screen must be easy to read and have a nice resolution. Widescreen is preferred.

2. DVD burner.

Right now, I'm leaning towards a custom HP laptop for about $1600. 1920x1200 screen, DVD burner, 1.5Ghz P-M, 512 megs (oh yeah, 512 megs is a must), WinXP Pro, 40 gig drive. Anybody else have any recommendations?

 

[ERP]

I own 3 laptops, a dell, a sony and an IBM.

If you can afford it go IBM, there is simply no comparison on build quality.

Also, make sure you know how your going to use it 7lbs doesn't sound like much until you have to lug it around all day.

 

[Tim Murray]

If you can afford it go IBM, there is simply no comparison on build quality.

The affording it is the problem. IBMs are about $400 more for similar specs.

 

[digitalwanderer]

Are there any real gaming laptop video cards yet?

I recomend Alienware, btw.

 

[epicstruggle]

dells are nice. for good deals on hardware go to www.gotapex.com Also dont buy the ram from dell/hp/... by it separate on your own. You can usually save a bundle.

epic

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Of Every laptop I've ever owned, I like my IBM laptop the best. Weight personally was a large part of my buying decision for the laptop I bought while in college. I don't know how much it matters to you, but personally if I was going to buy right now I'd go for a IBM T4x with a sxga+ screen (1400x1050). The downside is that they don't come with any of the new highend gfx cards afaik, which means if you are going to use this as your gaming machine, you might want to look at something else. Still, ~4.5lbs is really nice for carrying to class or group programming sessions.

Nite_Hawk

 

[Helevitia]

I use an IBM laptop everyday for work and it is simply the best laptop I have ever used. The build quality is ouststanding. As a matter of fact, I dropped my laptop on Friday onto concrete from about 4ft. It landed on the back right corner. The PageUp key popped off and I thought for sure it was fucked. It still works perfectly. The battery life is 3 hours typical. I can squeeze 4 hours out of it if I try. It will play 2 DVD movies back to back. I played a 3D game once, it drained the battery in about 30 minutes(maybe longer).

DAve

 

[Tim Murray]

hmmm... I can get a laptop with a Radeon 9600, 512 megs of RAM, 1920x1200 widescreen, dual-layer DVD writer, and a Centrino for $1650, thanks to a 20% off coupon at gotapex... oi, decisions...

 

[Dave Baumann]

I'll tell you what - make sure you can see the screen (and preferably compare) before buying them. I bought a Sony Viao last year, and although the screen is only 1024x768 res the lighting and contrast has to be the best I've seen on any laptop yet - I can't think of the number of people that have told me the same. I use a Compaq at work and although the res is so much higher, it just cannot compete on how it looks.

[edit] another thing to consider - if you want to play games - is that they will look sucky if you are not using the native res. A 9600 at the full res may choke a bit with the sizes you are looking at - you'll have to weigh up the importance to you there.

 

[Tim Murray]

Gargh... can't decide. Need to explore some more today. Vaios are nice, but like ThinkPads, they are bloody expensive.

The two things the HP has going for it are a nice keyboard (tried one out, pretty deep) and it's lighter than the Dell. The laptop isn't really going to be for games, either--I was curious about how much it would be with the 9600. It's about $100 less with a 64 meg 5200.

let me rephrase--it's a BAD thing if it's for games, really. Carnegie Mellon has campus-wide wireless, and I would be a Doom 3 addict very quickly...

 

[PC-Engine]

Personally I'd get a Gateway M series.

 

[Frank]

http://www.uniwill.com/

They make real good clones. If you cannot afford an IBM, look at these. A lot of large stores sell some of these models.

 

[elroy]

Have you thought about going barebones and building it yourself? Have a look at the Compal CL56 or Mitac 8050D. notebookforums.com are a good place to find lots of info, piccies etc. (sorry to plug other sites Dave, but I've founf that site really useful)

 

[Nite_Hawk]

The Baron:

Have you considered ebaying one? That's how I've bought my last 3 laptops.

Here's a new-in-box IBM t40 with a 1.6GHz P-M, 1400x1050 sxga+ screen, and radeon 9000 (should be fine if you don't game much) for $1299 buy it now. That's cheaper than what you were planning on spending.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=31554&item=3494682313&rd=1

Nite_Hawk

 

[digitalwanderer]

Baron-

Find Pelly and ask him....

 

[Tim Murray]

Baron-

Find Pelly and ask him....

Occurred to me.

Nite, that laptop has no hard drive, RAM, or DVD drive. That's going to add up pretty fast.. plus, I found coupons and rebates for $200 off HP laptops at gotapex (love you jvd), so a 1.6 P-M with DVD burner, 1920x1200 15.4" widescreen, and 64 meg Radeon 9200 is under $1600. Sounds like a deal to me.

 

[epicstruggle]

www.fatwallet.com go to the hot deals forum, best place on the web for hot deals.

again dont buy ram from the maker of the laptop youll pay more than you would if you bought it else where. Usually you can save 300$ dollars or more.

epic

 

[Nite_Hawk]

Baron-

Find Pelly and ask him....

Occurred to me.

Nite, that laptop has no hard drive, RAM, or DVD drive. That's going to add up pretty fast.. plus, I found coupons and rebates for $200 off HP laptops at gotapex (love you jvd), so a 1.6 P-M with DVD burner, 1920x1200 15.4" widescreen, and 64 meg Radeon 9200 is under $1600. Sounds like a deal to me.

Doh, sorry about that. I should have looked over it more carefully. Still, that's not that much cheaper than what many of them are going for on ebay. You can definately find that system for at or under $1600. It's really up to you though.

Nite_Hawk

 

[Sage]

eurocom makes some really great laptops. they are a canadian company so shipping will probably be expensive

 

[swaaye]

I have a emachines 6805. It's an A64 3000+ (1.8,1024K), 512MB, 9600 64MB, 60GB HDD, LiteOn CDRW/DVD (reads disks very well, much better than Panasonic), 802.11g, Synaptics Touchpad (stay away from Alps!!!), multi-format memory card reader, 15.4" (1280x800) - $1199 after rebates which I did get. Fine machine. I moved up from a little Centrino Sony Vaio V505DX (crap system for a variety of reasons.)

This emachine is a stunning value, IMO. The newer models have more CPU power and a DVD writer. Don't bother ripping on it because it is an emachine. Look at it in person (Best Buy has 'em), and realize it's made by a company called Arima, not by emachines.