College Lappy

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JonnyK

2[H]4U
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Jul 3, 2004
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I'm going to be going off to college this summer and i'm trying to compare and contrast different styles of notebooks to take with me. I've been looking at the new small macbook a lot, but i really hate that it has no graphics card. But then when i look at computers that have the specs i want, with a graphics card, they are 1-2 lbs. heavier than the macbook and are almost all 15"+.

I customized a dell inspiron with a 15" screen, radeon mobile x1400 256mb, 2gig ram, intel core duo 2ghz, and some other stuff for $1,300. That would be 15"x11"x1" or so i think, and a lil over 6 lbs. The macbook has a 13" widescreen, 2ghz core duo, 512 ram(i would upgrade this to 2gig), and a junk graphics card. I would want to install xp on that with bootcamp i know. To make sure i have a laptop capable of running any apps we use at school. Another reason besides gaming for getting a graphics card is that i would like to be able to install vista and run at full capabilities on the laptop if that ever comes out.

So give me the lowdown if you have had any experience with laptops and carrying them in a backpack or around to classes. Is it a big pain to have to lug around a slightly heavier laptop and it would be worth it to get the tiny macbook, or is it no big deal. Thanks.

also please give me any suggestions on good laptops <$1500.
 
The Lenovo T60 might be within your budget if you have access to EPP. It's 14 with an X1400 I think.

You def don't want anything bigger than a 15.4" widescreen. I've been luggin my Dell 8600 to some classes the past few years, and its been tolerable. It weighs 6-7lbs, and I have no problem carrying it around in a backpack. But if you're a woman, and can't handle it... by all means get a smaller MacBook. :D Btw if you do decide on a MacBook, i'd suggest you wait a while until they come out with a new revision to fix any issues with the recent ones.
 
15.4 models are easy to tote, a lot of people don't have issue with 17"ers either, there are just a lot of small laptop freaks around these forums.

If it is going to be your only computer at college (no desktop back in the dorm room) definately at least go 15.4", using a 13.3" might be tolerable for a few minutes at a time taking notes, but for all use? Well, I guess you could always get an external monitor with keyboard and mouse in your dorm room...
 
i'll be living in a house with some friends and i'll have my desktop i have now, in my sig i think. And i plan on building a new one when the vista hardware is released. But I still want to be able to play games on the laptop, make it really easy for any lans, or being able to bring it with me if i come back home for a week or something. and maybe some WoW in class :p
 
I just bought the T60 for my college career, and I couldn't be happier. Here's my Mini-Review of it. Ignore the $2800 pricetag, It's much cheaper now.
 
Yeah i was looking at those t60's but they seem to be way more expensive than other laptops with no reason for the extra money. Is it just the brand, is the build quality reallly worth it, or are they just overpriced?

I found this new m100 from toshiba and i've been liking everything about it. It seems to have all the same features as the t60 for $500 less since they have a 25% off or something going on right now.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=HHO&coid=-30598
 
JonnyK said:
Yeah i was looking at those t60's but they seem to be way more expensive than other laptops with no reason for the extra money. Is it just the brand, is the build quality reallly worth it, or are they just overpriced?

I found this new m100 from toshiba and i've been liking everything about it. It seems to have all the same features as the t60 for $500 less since they have a 25% off or something going on right now.

http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/cmod.to?seg=HHO&coid=-30598
Click to expand...



lets put it this way -> my mom dropped her IBM t40p laptop and it still works.
 
Yeah, IBM does have quite a large price markup. It goes into largely the name, but also the excellent business-oriented security/setup software, as well as the most reliable building quality in the business. Support also surpasses any other company. So it all depends on how many of those features you actually want to pay for.
 
rayman2k2 said:
lets put it this way -> my mom dropped her IBM t40p laptop and it still works.
Click to expand...

I've dropped my old Compaq and Gateway notebooks, even had the Gateway fly off of the front seat onto the floor board of my Jeep once when I had to slam on breaks, and they still work fine.

heh...I really need a Jotto desk :D


JonnyK,

You might wanna take a look at Acer.
 
Cant go wrong with IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. I refurbish laptops for a living and see first hand how every major OEM holds up, Thinkpads are generally the most rugged and reliable of the bunch.
 
I just got a Dell E1705 got 1346 shipped after a 750$ off coupon, also, you can probably get an EPP discount through your school for an extra 3-12% off.

Mine has
1.83ghz Core Duo
1 gig 533
60 gig 7200
17 inch WUXGA
Intel Proset
256 meg 7900 GS


Thing weighs around 7.5 lbs, and I got a nice carrying bag with it. Battery life is long enough to get you from outlet to outlet at max settings, around 2 hour life on the 6 cell. It is, however, a "desktop replacement" and thus is a bit bulkier, but more powerful and larger than the 1505.

If you go Dell, pay full attention to all rebates, coupons and offers -- with a little searching you can come up with a killer deal.
 
movax said:
Your laptop called. Or, for a bit higher clock speed, this one called too.
Click to expand...

I second that. I've had an Acer TravelMate 8100 (see my sig) since the summer of 05' and it's been running great. I've hauled it around a ton, taking it to class, LAN parties, friends and family members houses, etc. and no problems to this day.

Performance wise, its pretty powerful. I'm going to school for Interactive Media Design, so I use Photoshop and the Adobe suit a lot, as well as Microsoft Office. No problems with those, and no problems running games either. I can run Half-Life 2, Far Cry, World of Warcraft, Unreal Tournament 2K4, Battlefield 2, Doom 3, Quake IV, and FEAR just fine. Some of the games (HL2, WoW, UT2K4) I can run at my laptops native resolution of 1680x1050, while the others run fine at 1400x900 and 1024x768 (depends on how demanding the game is).
 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115239

I like that acer a lot, i was looking at it earlier. I have heard good things about acer notebooks and the price is right so right now this is the one i'm leaning toward. Do you guys know what impact it makes to have 533mhz or 667mhz ram? It comes with 2gig of 533 and shouldn't it be 667 to sync up better with the processor? I'm thinking i should order 2gig of 667mhz ram along with the laptop and sell the 2gigs it comes with on ebay. Is this a waste of time or will it have a positive impact? and do notebooks run in dual channel mode for ram or do they not have that technology?

and i hate that the keyboard is crooked. Is that easy to get used to or does it suck?
 
I'm not sure about the memory thing, but I'm pretty sure you shouldn't bother upgrading to 667 instead of 533 mhz. I don't think the difference would be noticeable enough to warrent going through all that trouble.

As for the keyboard setup, after a few weeks of regular use you'll get use to it. Prior to purchasing the laptop I had been used to typing on a Logitech Elite keyboard but I got used to the laptop keyboard after a while.
 
Go cheap as a whole new generation of procesors and OS's will be comming out soon. Dont spent a butt load now and regret it in 2 months. Look at any dedicated graphics card with a small laptop since its just a college laptop anyway and since its small you most likely wont be doing much gaming.
 
I see what you mean there. But there's always going to be new hardware right around the corner. It comes out constantly. I'm still not sure what to do :p

Finding a laptop is way more confusing than a desktop, this sucks haha
 
Well i finally decided to go with the Dell latitude business notebook. It's under 5 lbs. under my price point, and powerful enough to make me happy. I plan on ordering at least another stick of 512 to bump me up to 1gig ram but otherwise it should be plenty fast.

Latitude D620 Intel® Core&#153; Duo T2500 (2.00GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core

LCDs 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel

Memory 512MB, DDR2-533 SDRAM, 1 DIMM

Internal Keyboard Internal English Keyboard

Graphics 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache&#153;

Hard Drives 60GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM

Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive

Operating Systems Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media

AC Adapter Dell Combination Auto/Air/AC Adapter

Optical Drive - Modular 24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD&#153;

Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-Band Mini Card

Resource CD Resource CD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers

Batteries 6 Cell Primary Battery


Total $1,296.76

after $350 off for dell small business deal and $40 off for free shipping.
 
JonnyK said:
Well i finally decided to go with the Dell latitude business notebook. It's under 5 lbs. under my price point, and powerful enough to make me happy. I plan on ordering at least another stick of 512 to bump me up to 1gig ram but otherwise it should be plenty fast.

Latitude D620 Intel® Core™ Duo T2500 (2.00GHz) 667Mhz Dual Core

LCDs 14.1 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ LCD Panel

Memory 512MB, DDR2-533 SDRAM, 1 DIMM

Internal Keyboard Internal English Keyboard

Graphics 256MB NVIDIA® Quadro NVS 110M TurboCache™

Hard Drives 60GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 5400RPM

Floppy Drive No Floppy Drive

Operating Systems Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition, SP2, with media

AC Adapter Dell Combination Auto/Air/AC Adapter

Optical Drive - Modular 24X CD-RW/DVD w/ Cyberlink PowerDVD™

Wireless LAN (802.11) Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Dual-Band Mini Card

Resource CD Resource CD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers

Batteries 6 Cell Primary Battery


Total $1,296.76

after $350 off for dell small business deal and $40 off for free shipping.
Click to expand...



sweet, i hope you enjoy!
 
Yeah i'm looking forward to playing around with it. I'm interested to see how the non-gaming graphics card can handle the games i plan to play on it. I figure even if it doesn't play games very well the card was not a lot of extra money and it should enable me to run vista if i choose to do that.

And i just ordered a second stick of ram from newegg so i'll have 1 gig from the get-go :p

I wonder if i'm going to get very many calls from my bank haha, i just got my debit card in the mail today, deposited a ton of money, and spent it all in the same day lol.
 
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