I'm finally getting a laptop! (Help, please?)

[Momiji]

Since I'm graduating high school in a couple of months, I just found out that I'm getting a laptop for college.

Anyway, I know nothing about laptops, so I thought it would be a good idea to ask all of you computer geniuses what I should get. I know what I WANT, but I don't know exactly what it is.

Anyway, I'm looking for:

• A decent processor and video card, nothing way over-the-top is necessary
• A battery that lasts a decent amount of time
• Windows XP
• A fairly large hard drive
• Wireless capabilities
• Oh, and one that can play DVDs too. I don't know if that's standard issue nowadays or not. x_x

Basically, whatever makes it last a while is good. Also, I don't know much about hardware, but something that won't overheat is nice too.

As for price range, I was told that it would be best to make sure it's under $1000, but I'm sure I could go over if I promise to pay back however much I went over.

Anyway, I'm sorry I don't know what to ask for, and what I'm asking for isn't very specific, but I'm hoping I could get some recommendations here. Thanks in advance!

[Kes]

Well, I'm not going to be much help since you said both Windows XP and around $1000, and I'm an Apple whore, but you may want to specify what you mean by a "fairly large" hard drive. That being said, from what I understand if you can find a good computer that fits everything else, external hard drives are fairly inexpensive, so you may want to look into that.

I'm almost certain that you'd have a hard time finding a laptop that <i>doesn't</i> have wireless and at least DVD playing capabilities.

[Peegee]

Get a Dell or HP. 3 year warrantee and it will do what you need it to do.

[Momiji]

Well, I'm not going to be much help since you said both Windows XP and around $1000, and I'm an Apple whore, but you may want to specify what you mean by a "fairly large" hard drive. That being said, from what I understand if you can find a good computer that fits everything else, external hard drives are fairly inexpensive, so you may want to look into that.

I'm almost certain that you'd have a hard time finding a laptop that <i>doesn't</i> have wireless and at least DVD playing capabilities.

A lot of the programs I run don't work on Apple computers, they're Windows-only.

As for hard drive space, what is good nowadays? This old cinderblock I'm using only has 2 40GB hard drives. I'm assuming that's rather poor to today's standards.

Also, I'd like to know what video cards, processors, drivers, etc. I should get.

[o_O]

For a longer battery life, get a smaller screen. A 15.4" screen is likely to have reasonably good battery life these days. Any larger and you'll probably haemorrhage battery time.

For the CPU, I'd get a dual-core. I'm loyal to AMD's processors, but I hate to admit that Intel's dual-cores are very competitive in price and performance. I would never buy an Intel single core, ever.

For a not-too-over-the-top graphics card, have a look at lower-end 8-series, or higher-end 7-series nVidia cards. I wouldn't buy anything from AMD/ATI in the GPU department just yet. If you plan to play games on it, don't get less than 256MB, and if you can squeeze it out of your budget, a card with a "GT" (or GTS/GTX ) on the end is the way to go.

A note on hard drives - you'll pay a lot more for an external drive than for an internal drive of the same capacity. I would go for the largest internal drive capacity you can afford.

Wireless and DVD burners are pretty standard these days.

Personally I wouldn't spend my money on XP, and there isn't a thing they can do about that. Read into that however you will.

[Aerith's Knight]

I have a external hard drive of 500 gigs(USB) for 100 dollars.. i dont think it would be so cheap to put one of those in your laptop.

another thing on battery life.. dont kid yourself thinking it will last for four hours.. normally you can find plugs anywhere anyway, so i wouldnt worry about it.. and besides, your laptop cant run on full power without an AC source.. at least not long.

[Momiji]

For a longer battery life, get a smaller screen. A 15.4" screen is likely to have reasonably good battery life these days. Any larger and you'll probably haemorrhage battery time.

For the CPU, I'd get a dual-core. I'm loyal to AMD's processors, but I hate to admit that Intel's dual-cores are very competitive in price and performance. I would never buy an Intel single core, ever.

For a not-too-over-the-top graphics card, have a look at lower-end 8-series, or higher-end 7-series nVidia cards. I wouldn't buy anything from AMD/ATI in the GPU department just yet. If you plan to play games on it, don't get less than 256MB, and if you can squeeze it out of your budget, a card with a "GT" (or GTS/GTX ) on the end is the way to go.

A note on hard drives - you'll pay a lot more for an external drive than for an internal drive of the same capacity. I would go for the largest internal drive capacity you can afford.

Wireless and DVD burners are pretty standard these days.

Personally I wouldn't spend my money on XP, and there isn't a thing they can do about that. Read into that however you will.

All right, so overall, what do you suggest? Only this time, exactly what should I get, and how much should that cost? I'm sorry, I'm not sure what I'm talking about here...

[Aerith's Knight]

Take either a Intel dual core.. or a AMD chip.

Take the video card he suggested(or something in that region), just stay away from intergrated.

Try to get as much internal memory as possible.

15.4 inch screen is large enough, 17' is awsome though.

An IBM laptop would be in the range of 1500-2000 dollars(they are expensive but impossible to break)
A dell laptop would then ring up to about 1200-1500 dollar.(they are just expensive.. i wouldnt go for the service.. because there is none)
A different company laptop would be 1000-1200 dollars(too many companies to reflect on.)

these are rough estimates.. we only talked about the stuff inside of it because that is what you get to choose.. just go to a website or something and browse.. youll get an idea of the prices.

It is possible to get laptops in the range of 600-800.. sometimes even with a dual core.. but the video card would always be intergrated.. and i dont think you can change those.. all very confusing in a laptop.

[XxSephirothxX]

Advice for college: go for portability over power. You should still try to get a Core 2 Duo, I'd say, but go for a small screen (maybe 14") and the lightest model you can find. I have a workhorse, and I never take it anywhere because it's too heavy and just a bother to carry. My roommate's 3 lb. Vaio, on the other hand, goes anywhere.

I'd definitely shell out the cash to get a sleek unit, if I were to do it over again.

[Kes]

Also, keep your eyes open for student discounts and any sort of sale. Just about everyone I know who doesn't have an Apple has the same Dell because they had this crazy good sale last year in the middle of the summer.

[Momiji]

Well, the one I have my eye on is a Dell, actually. I'm pretty sure it's what I'm going to get; it has everything I want and more for a decent price. I don't really care if everyone else has the same one. xD

[o_O]

Unless you're gonna get a Dell XPS, I'd strongly advise against a Dell.

Azar gives good advice too. I stopped taking mine anywhere because it's a 17" screen and consequently, the battery life sucks and it weighs a ton. Not that I bought it for taking to university, but I did for a while, before I got sick of it.

[Momiji]

Unless you're gonna get a Dell XPS, I'd strongly advise against a Dell.

Why? o.O

[Ouch!]

Because Dells are monstrosities. I'm sure Face will give you a more detailed reason.

My suggestion is to look to see what deals your school might offer. I bought my MacBook Pro through my University and got it for $300 less with my student discount. It also landed me a free 8GB Video Nano iPod. If your school offers student deals, you might do well to take advantage of them.

[Rostum]

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As face said, don't go near Dell unless you have enough to spend on a really decent XPS. Every single person I talk to who has bought a mid-range notebook or desktop from Dell have always been extremely disappointed.

But yeah, you'd want Core 2 Duo, late 7's/early 8's nVidia, a decent chunk of RAM (you'd probably get by with 2GB RAM on your budget, maybe...), and an internal HDD that is 7,200RPM (I notice last time I checked at notebooks that a lot of them were 5,400RPM which is just bleh).

You should get an external HDD later down the track to store stuff on, but I wouldn't say it's completely necessary with your budget currently.