A Laptop For College

[bigandy]

Okay, so I really have no clue when it comes to notebooks. I've looked over some stuff at CNET (like the Notebook buying guide as well as taking a look at some reviews), but I'm still pretty lost.

I would like to be able to do some gaming. That's not my number one priority, but I would like my laptop to be up to the task when I pop in a game, so a decent video card and a good amount of RAM would be necessary, as well as a good sized screen. I also would like it to be fairly portable. That doesn't mean it has to be a featherweight, but I don't want it to be a big ol' honking laptop that's going to give me a hernia when I try to pick it up to take it someplace.

Taking a look at this processor comparison page, I like the fact that the Pentium M doesn't kill the battery so fast, but it does seem like it's a bit pricey. I also like the P4 Mobile because it also isn't such a drain on the battery, but not quite as expensive as the PM. Then again, the A64 looks good as well. I don't have a preference as to Intel or AMD processors, I just want to find the laptop that's going to give me the best performance for the best price.

As far as other features, hard drive size doesn't matter too much as I plan on bringing my 160GB HD with me, and buying an external enclosure for it. I'd like it to have a DVDRW, and wireless capabilities also. But I'm more concerned about the real guts of it (CPU, RAM, video, battery life) than the extra stuff.

I've thought about some of the more "customizable" notebooks like ABS, rather than goin with something like Dell or Sony. So if anyone has any experience with those, or any opinions as far as that goes, I'd like to hear those as well.

I've tried putting in some different criteria on the CNET laptop review search, but many times I end up getting so many results that I don't know where to start. So really, any help you can offer would be very much appreciated.

TIA

[CaptTuna]

On most laptops gaming and battery life do not work well together. Gaming also = more weight. Adding video cards and DVD burners all put a strain on battery life. IMHO a decent ultra portable works best for college. If you want to game do it in your dorm room on a desktop.

[kram 2.0]

I'd say Intel Centrino's Pentium-M is worth the money - it's a very versatile technology. Battery life goes for around 2.5~6 hours but gives you quite a bit of computing power. I would suggest a look at the Dell Inspiron 700m or 9300 series - Dell makes solid all-around laptops which I still highly recommend. The 700m gives you more mobility, but comes with limitations (shared RAM, integrated graphics).

And as a general note, unless you start school soon, I suggest waiting on ordering until weeks before the first day of school.

kram

[bigandy]

Yeah, I know that gaming will drain the battery, but if I was to be doing gaming, it would most likely be in the dorm so I could have it plugged into the outlet rather than going off the battery. As for the battery life, I just don't want this thing to be dying on me all the time when I use it.

That said, thank you for you input, I will definitely take that stuff into consideration.

[EDIT]

Thank you also for your reply Kram. I didn't plan on ordering it right away, but I just wanted to have a rough idea of what I'm going for before the time comes so I'm not scrambling around and making a decision that I might regret.

I will take a look at those Dells you mentioned and see how they stack up to what I'm looking for.

[bigandy]

I took a look at the 9300 and it looks good. I'd still like some input on what people think about the custom built ones from those companies like ABS, Falcon, etc.. I know they can be really expensive, but the ones I was looking at from ABS are fairly decent in price, and have lots of the features I'm looking for. As well as any other suggestions for the more standard, prebuilt notebooks.

[bigandy]

Anybody else? I know the final decision is up to me, but I'd like a little more input before I do make that decision.

TIA

[TennBikeBerk]

I have a Centrino Gateway laptop, and I definitely recommend you go with the Centrino system (Pentium M). Even though the Pentium M's have relativly slow clock speeds, they do deliver. I read an article on Tom's Hardware Guide a while ago about how they think the Pentium M's are what Intel should have spent more time on, rather than continue with the power hungry Pentium 4 line.

[bigandy]

Thanks TeenBikeBerk. I'm definitely liking the Pentium M (I think I'm pretty much set on that). I'm just not completely sure of the other goodies I'd like to have in the system.

[lazyr03]

I'm currently looking for a laptop for college also. So far I'm considering either the IBM ThinkPad T43 or the Asus Z71V.

The T43 does have 64MB ATI Mobility Radeon X300 graphics which is better then integrated graphics. I do like the build and look on the ThinkPads. My friend has a ThinkPad and it is very nice and sturdy.

The Z71V has 128MB nVidia GeForce Go 6600 graphics which is even better then the X300. Plus it has a 15.4" WSXGA+ screen compared to the T43's 14.1" SXGA+ screen, which may be either a good thing or bad thing depending on your preference on portability. I'm not sure on how it looks in real life since I don't know anyone who has one.

Another thing that sets the Z71V apart is the price. With the specs. of Pentium M 1.86ghz, 1GB Ram, 60GB 7200RPM hard drive, DVD-RW Burner, and internal Wireless 802.11a/b/g card the T43 comes to about $2000 on the IBM website. The Z71V is $1600 with the same specs. using Geared2Play.

I do like the the size and weight of the T43 compared to the bigger and heavier Z71V. The battery life on the T43 is also better, I think it's 4 hours+. The Z71V gets about 3 hours or so. I'll probably have to get the Modular Bay battery that swaps with the DVD-RW drive to get a longer battery life with the Z71V.

Right now I'm leaning towards the Z71V mainly because of the price difference and the better graphics.

Hope this helps!

[Lamilia]

Originally Posted by bigandy I'd still like some input on what people think about the custom built ones from those companies like ABS, Falcon, etc.. I know they can be really expensive, but the ones I was looking at from ABS are fairly decent in price, and have lots of the features I'm looking for.

This should help http://legitreviews.com/article.php?aid=56 I don't know exactly where you can find them I was looking for that myself but I wasn't really looking that hard

[bigandy]

That Asus sounds good, lazyr03. I hadn't really thought about the second battery, I may have to consider that as well. I'm not really too interested in the IBM notebooks for the simple fact that they are too expensive. They are good laptops, but for what you get and what you pay for, I'd much rather go with someone else who still makes a good quality notebook, but I can get more bang for the buck.

Hmm, I didn't really find too much on that site Lamilia.

I'm still quite open to suggestions/opinions, so if you've got any thoughts, let me hear them.

[ryan21]

Toshiba satellite laptops are a good choice. They have 8-12 different ones too so I'm sure you can find one that fits your needs. The 17 inch widescreen looks great, I have a friend that has the same thing. As far as battery life and weight, I'm not sure, but you can probably find that out on CNET or Toshiba's own website.

[bigandy]

Thanks Ryan. I'll check out those Toshibas.

[Jaggannath]

I have a Dell Inspiron 9300... it's very big and quite heavy for a laptop, something I didn't consider. It's battery lasts just under 4 hours for word processing, or about 3 hours for gaming. It's a good laptop, just heavy.

[Prew]

If gaming is important, dont forget to check out the Alienware laptops and the Falcon Northwest Fragbooks- and also pctorque.com sells the Sager gamng laptops

[Statica]

Nothing but the best to say about Toshiba's. Something to consider with laptops is proper inclusion of operating system CDs, driver disks and recovery CDs. I hate manufacturers who put the operating system or recovery disk on partitions on the hard drive.
The issue with Toshiba's though is their relatively lower battery life. About 3 hours tops on most that I've tried. But other than that, these prompted me to go with Toshiba consistently
a) Decent weight
b) Good recovery solutions (OS, recovery disks on CD, very good support lifecycle on website for drivers)
c) Good telephone support
d) Decent amount of fringe features (flash drives, a good number of USB ports etc)
e) Relatively non proprietary hardware - most Toshiba's even ship with a scaled down, dedicated version of Linux as the "media player"

My most recent Toshiba purchase was over Sony VAIOs (too much proprietary stuff, OS on hard drive partition) and Dells. I wouldn't touch HP/Compaq.

[Floppyman]

As I say to everyone who goes to college and is looking at a computer, if you're going to a sizable institution check to see whether they have a special discount with majors manufactures. For example, here at PSU you can save quite a bit since the University has a special deal with IBM, Dell, and Apple. I know at my home institution (smaller school) you can also save at least 10 percent off a new Dell. Hope this helps.

BTW, the IBM T43 is an excellent choice if you can afford it. And yes I'm partial towards IBM notebooks since I have never had any trouble with my 6 year old Thinkpad.

[bigandy]

Thanks Jaggannath. The 9300 is one that I have been favoring, so any information I can get on it is very helpful. Is it too heavy to carry around, or was it just that it was heavier than you expected? Like I got at in my original post, I don't mind if it's a little on the heavy side, I don't need it to be ultra lightweight, but if it's ridiculously heavy, that sort of defeats the purpose.

Thanks for the info Prew. I would like to be able to do some gaming, I'm not a hardcore gamer or anything, but I do play some games. So I'm not looking to spend $3,000 on a laptop just so I can get a little bit of gaming in. Plus being a college student, I probably won't have a lot of money to throw around buying new games.

I noticed that a lot of the notebooks I had been looking at came with XP Home, and what I planned on doing was buying XP Pro with the academic discount. Plus this allows me to get the basic install of XP without having to deal with all the extra crap that so many manufacturers put on the systems. I do agree with you Statica, and find the recovery tools on the hard disk very annoying. I find it's much more helpful to have an actual disc.

Rather stupid of me, but I didn't really even think about the things like number of USB ports. Thanks for bringing that to my attention.

That's some great information Floppy, thanks for that. I will definitely have to check out what kind of deals I can get, and I'll be at the school this Thursday and Friday for orientation, so I can look into that.

Thank you all for your input. I appreciate it.

[ric449]

I couldn't find many reviews, but heres some:

http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=2369
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1785172,00.asp
http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_Inspiro...1351063-2.html

[bigandy]

Thanks for those reviews ric. I had checked out the review at CNET. I'm pretty impressed by the 9300 I must say, but not completely set. So again, all input is welcomed.

[babylon5guy]

Hey bigandy have you checked this place out http://www.powernotebooks.com/ they aren't the cheapest but are very helpful and carry top notch hardware, they carry the ASUS line and some other top laptop manufactures, have a lot of info on their site and you can configure your laptop just like you want it.

[bigandy]

I dunno about that site. Maybe it's just because the site design doesn't give me that "professional" feel, and the fact that you can't really customize anything.

A buddy of mine mentioned Sager. They look good, but a little on the expensive side. Any thoughts/experience with them?

Also I was thinking about the gaming thing. It's not possible to install/upgrade a video card in a notebook computer, is it?

The thing is that this is being given to me as a graduation gift, and I was told to pick the laptop I wanted. Now I know that means that I could technically pick anything I wanted, but I don't want this thing to be ridiculously expensive, just because I don't have to pay for it.

[babylon5guy]

Hi bigandy,
You can fully configure a laptop on that site http://www.powernotebooks.com/configure.php?special=132 I think the ASUS is better than the Sager. but if you want a 17" screen I think you have to go with the Sager. You can't get a better rating than this http://www.resellerratings.com/seller1980.html I have two friends who bought laptops there, they love the product and the people that they delt with. Send them an email and ask something, you'll be impressed by the response, Ron Baird is an excellent person to deal with. You can get a top notch video card in their laptops.

[jord533]

i have a 4 year toshiba lap top that is still running fine, the battery is shot though, but i guess that happens. The Toshiba has been very reliable. One of the gaming lap tops i like are the ones made by voodoo, although i have never had one i have heard good thinks about them and love the way they look. they are also very costumizable but have a high price tag. I dont know when they got so expensive i remember them being cheaper. well that might be out of the question then. if i had the money i would probably go with them unless i heard otherwise.

voodoo: http://www.voodoopc.com/default.aspx

also my friends have had bad experiences with sony...fyi.

toshiba might be a better route.

[Prew]

Dell currently has a deal on select Inspirons- $750 off laptops that cost $1499 or more. The 9300 is included in this deal.

[Lardass]

I would like to take this oportunity to say Toshiba are extremely reliable laptops, I have a portege 3440ct laptop and I have had it for a good few years. It runs slow on some up to date applications but on the whole it works fine for my college work and word processing. The battery is still functional and lasts for an hour at least due to the docking station and wireless g pcmcia card. But I rate toshibas 9/10 definately.

[Amazin Caucasian]

I heard alienware notebooks are fantastic, as well as sweet looking, and I can imagine quite customizable. (I think I made that word up but you get the idea...just woke up)

[bigandy]

As nice as the Falcon NW, Alienware, and Voodoo notebooks are, they are way to expensive. Like I said, just because I personally am not paying for this, I'm not looking to get a $2,000-$3,000 computer.

The Toshibas do sound good as do the Dells, so I'm looking at both of those. I am still considering the ABS and Sager notebooks, but I did hear something that the ABS computers don't have a very long life span (only a couple years). So if anyone can confirm or deny this that would be a big help, as they are a little cheaper then the Sagers.

I saw that deal Prew, but it is only good for a couple more days (assuming it is the same one) and I'm nowhere near ready to buy yet.

I am going to be at the school tomorrow and Friday, so I will check out the deals I can get through them while I'm there (as Floppyman suggested).

[bigandy]

My school has a deal with Dell (as well as Apple, but I don't want an Apple), and it looks like I can get 20% off the 9300 (as well as good discounts on pretty much all of the other notebooks as well). I can get XP Pro seperate using a student discount and it's cheaper than having it included with the notebook.

[bigandy]

I can hear the groans already as I once again resurrect this thread, but please bear with me, it's almost over.

After getting back from orientation and now from a week long vacation, I've checked out the site, and I'm pretty much decided on the 9300. What I'm not decided on it exactly what to get as far as individual components are concerned.

Here's what I'm thinking at the moment:

Intel Pentium M Processor 730
Microsoft Windows XP Professional
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen XGA+ Display
1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz 2 Dimm
40GB Hard Drive
8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW)
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800
Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
9-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery
4 Year Limited Warranty plus 4 Year NBD On-Site Service

For $1700. I am also thinking of maybe going with the X300 Mobility, which would drop the price to $1600. I'm thinking that I won't be playing too many games, but is it worth the $100 drop to go with the X300 over the 6800? For some reason I'm thinking yes, but I want to know if the X300 will be able to handle games that I might decide to play. I also plan to bring the 160GB HD from this build and put it in an enclosure, so that is why I went with the 40GB HD, rather than a larger one.

Any responses are welcomed. Thank you all, again.