what kind of laptop to buy for basic needs?

[bball_1523]

what kind of laptop for basic needs and games?

I am looking at a budget of $500-600

I will mainly need it to sometimes take along with me to school or to travel to places. I will mostly be surfing the internet, listening to music and doing schoolwork. I wouldn't mind being able to play games on it too, but a super graphics aren't required.

Here are the things I want:

- good battery life
- 15-17 inch
- good enough videocard
- reliable

what do you think?

[keith_mahoney]

When I was looking at getting a laptop I found the forum over at notebookreview.com to be excellent.
Beyond that sorry I couldn't begin to tell you what laptop to look at in that price range. But I love my lenovo T-60 the build quality is second to only a toughbook. It is solid with an awsome keyboard.

[glc]

You are in the wrong price range if you want one that will play games. All you are going to get is something with chipset integrated video. You might be able to find something with a mobile Sempron and a basic addon video chip, but battery life will not be good.

[bball_1523]

what's the cheapest price for a good enough video card?

[glc]

There are no decent gaming laptops under $1000. You need to examine your priorities.

[bball_1523]

Originally Posted by glc There are no decent gaming laptops under $1000. You need to examine your priorities.

lol, so is $1500 about the minimum for laptop with good graphics?

I guess I can try to let go of the graphics card.

What is good battery life?

[glc]

You can get "good" graphics in an entry level laptop - you just can't get strong gaming performance. The Intel Centrino system can get you about 3 hours on the battery.

[bball_1523]

Originally Posted by glc You can get "good" graphics in an entry level laptop - you just can't get strong gaming performance. The Intel Centrino system can get you about 3 hours on the battery.

what about the core 2 duo's? How long does it usually take to recharge?

[glc]

Core 2 Duos use the Centrino system.

[bball_1523]

Originally Posted by glc Core 2 Duos use the Centrino system.

oh haha, I thought you said celeron, I misread your post, sorry

[thefultonhow]

3 hours is kind of a generalization -- it really depends on the size of the battery, the screen's brightness and efficiency, and any other components (7200 rpm hard drives, powerful graphics cards). I see everything from 1.5 hours to over 5 hours from Centrino/Core 2 Duo systems. Most $500-600 laptops will be towards the low end of that spectrum, because they often use pretty cheap batteries. But if you can get a 9-cell battery in a Centrino laptop with integrated graphics, you will probably get decent battery life.

[glc]

To give you an idea, I just ordered a laptop for a Xmas present. I took advantage of a coupon deal - $225 off any Dell Inspiron over $949. I optioned out a E1520 up to $964, so the end cost was $739 plus tax, free shipping.

Specs:

Core 2 Duo T5250
2GB DDR2-667
Intel GMA X3100 video
80GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD
CD/DVDRW
Intel 802.11a/b/g wireless
9 cell battery 85Whr
1 year mailin warranty
XP Home

This is better than an entry level laptop, but it still is not a strong gamer due to the integrated video.

[bball_1523]

Originally Posted by glc To give you an idea, I just ordered a laptop for a Xmas present. I took advantage of a coupon deal - $225 off any Dell Inspiron over $949. I optioned out a E1520 up to $964, so the end cost was $739 plus tax, free shipping. Specs: Core 2 Duo T5250 2GB DDR2-667 Intel GMA X3100 video 80GB 5400 RPM SATA HDD CD/DVDRW Intel 802.11a/b/g wireless 9 cell battery 85Whr 1 year mailin warranty XP Home This is better than an entry level laptop, but it still is not a strong gamer due to the integrated video.

what makes this laptop so much more expensive than those 400 dollar ones?

[glc]

Tell you what - spec out anyone else's laptop with the same components and see what you come up with.

[thefultonhow]

Originally Posted by bball_1523 what makes this laptop so much more expensive than those 400 dollar ones?

The $400 Acer this weekend had a Celeron M processor (single core, with no power management, resulting in less battery life), only 1 GB of RAM, a combo drive instead of a DVD burner, and Vista Home Basic rather than XP. I'm guessing it also had an inferior battery and an inferior chipset.

There was also a $400 Toshiba with an AMD Athlon 64 x2 TK-53 (much worse battery life, although decent performance and dual-core) and only 1 GB of RAM, although it had a 120 GB hard drive. It also had Vista. 1 GB is not enough RAM for Vista, so it would end up being pretty slow.

Both of these had mail in rebates, which are often not sent in, making them actually cost $550. Even if you sent the rebates in (and they are always a pain), you'd pay tax on $550.

BTW, the Vostro 1500 (approximately the same computer as the Inspiron 1520) is currently $639 at Dell Small Business with the following options:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5270 (1.4GHz/800Mhz FSB/2MB cache)
Genuine Windows® XP Home Edition
15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA LCD Display with TrueLife™
2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHz, 2 DIMM
120GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
8X CD/DVD Burner w/ double-layer DVD+R write capability
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
Dell Wireless 1390 802.11g Wi-Fi Mini Card
85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Year Limited Hardware Warranty with Mail-in Service

It even has a dedicated graphics card!

[pctime1]

I think you can get a Dell or Toshibia .