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NoteBook for Coding

Spun Ducky

Gawd
Joined
Feb 1, 2009
Messages
751
Well I am looking at getting a notebook for school since the older one I have is a bit heavy and large. I am looking at the 12-14 inch screen range with a budget of about 800 dollars or less. My primary use would be for school which is doing programming, installing multple OS's, and various other computer tinking. I would like it to be relatively fast(not an atom cpu) and able to play older games like wc3 and probably the upper limit being half life 2 engine games if possible. Any suggestions or good experiences with laptops in this size range would be helpful thanks.
 
I love my current HP Compaq 2510p, which is a 12" with a 1.2Ghz ULV C2D and great battery life. That said, the GPU is fairly weak (Intel integrated, GMA 950 based) and the 1.8" HDD severely limits your upgrade options. It's within your price range, though -- I've seen them ~$700 with 2+ years remaining on a 3 year warranty on Ebay from reputable sellers.
 
If you can swing the budget a bit higher, and get the student discount + flip free ipod touch, a Macbook Pro 13" would be perfect for you. If not, you can always get the older unibody Macbook 13" on eBay for about $900ish.

12-14"? Check. 13.3"

Multiple OS's? Check. My friend is using Visual Studio within OSX with Coherence in Parallels. Having Terminal built in is also a plus. Running Windows is great in Parallels/VMware Fusion, but with BootCamp, it flies.

HL2/older games? I already play L4D on my Unibody Macbook 2.4 just fine on pretty high settings. The 9400m is no slouch.

Plus, you can't beat Textmate for coding!
 
Might be slightly over your price mark... but a Dell Studio XPS 13 is actually what I bought and has been surprisingly solid. Powerful, light, and OS-friendly (as in I have triple-boot Windows 7, Ubuntu Linux, and Hackintosh OS X) all working perfectly on the system.
 
well after some fiddling around with my bills, financial aid,etc for this school year I've adjusted my budget to 1100 dollars. I am wondering if a tablet pc would be a good idea at all for me? I also have been looking at the ones suggested so far so thanks for the ideas guys.
 
The Dell Latitude XT, refurbished with 3 year warranty, is pretty awesome for ~$800 for a tablet PC. Full magnesium alloy body, extremely well built, one of the best digitizers available. Not very powerful GPU, though -- integrated Intel.

As for if you should consider a tablet -- do you prefer to write or type? Taking notes via writing can be much easier, but for me, personally, I type so much faster than I write (and my writing is very messy) that a tablet doesn't make much sense for me. Those that like tablets are really in to them, though; one of my best friends bought a Latitude XT refurb (looks like new) about 8 months ago, and since then has converted his whole family; they own 4 now.
 
+1 to the 13" mbp

Any/every OS you want. And text mate is really nice.
I couldn't believe Apple put out such a balanced machine at such a great price. Can't believe I payed 1800 bucks for a laptop.:eek:

My school wants all new students to have tablets, but hardly anyone does. I can't see myself ever using one.
 
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