What kind of laptop to get?

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-07-31 12:54am

In light of this recent thread, I wanted to ask what sort of laptop I should get for uni. It needs to be versatile and able to handle video, audio, and pictures, as well as being less than $1500. It also needs to last me four (preferably more) years, assuming decent care. I've had a Dell Inspiron recommended to me, and I thought I'd ask you all for opinions. I'm, unfortunately, not terribly knowledgable about computers, so I'd like some better-informed opinions before I make a big decision.

Master of Cards · Post by **Master of Cards** » 2006-07-31 11:22am

How much weight do you want to carry around?

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-07-31 12:37pm

If you're willing to go to the Mac Side, the MacBook is a good laptop. I've always been fond of ThinkPads as well.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-07-31 12:55pm

You should have a warranty that lasts as long as you want the laptop to last, because if something in it breaks after the first year it will be cheaper to replace the laptop than have it fixed, unless you've got that warranty.

Durandal · Post by **Durandal** » 2006-07-31 12:56pm

Dell laptops are shoddy and poorly-built, in my opinion. I'd recommend a MacBook or ThinkPad if you absolutely need to put up with Windows' shit.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-07-31 01:22pm

Durandal wrote:Dell laptops are shoddy and poorly-built, in my opinion. I'd recommend a MacBook or ThinkPad if you absolutely need to put up with Windows' shit.

The macbook is a tad small, only a 13.3" screen, I'd rather take something like an HP dv5000t, 15.4" is a far better screen size in my opinion. But whatever you do, make sure you've got at least 3 years coverage on the parts.

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-07-31 01:54pm

Durandal wrote:Dell laptops are shoddy and poorly-built, in my opinion. I'd recommend a MacBook or ThinkPad if you absolutely need to put up with Windows' shit.

The lower end ones are, but my 9300 is much better built.
Of course it's a 10 pound, 17 inch widescreen DTR machine that's a little heavy to lug around campus all day.

If you don't plan on moving it very much and want a laptop primarily for space considerations, the successor models to the 9300 look pretty good.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-07-31 02:19pm

Durandal wrote:Dell laptops are shoddy and poorly-built, in my opinion. I'd recommend a MacBook or ThinkPad if you absolutely need to put up with Windows' shit.

I also forgot to mention HP corporate line - those are nearly as good as ThinkPads.

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-07-31 02:56pm

Also, do you need a $1500 computer? Could you get a $1000 computer, and save the $500 so you can get a new computer 2-3 years down the line? My fiancee's laptop is having trouble with stuff like the USB ports being finicky, and the wireless card dying, because it's 3 years old, and been toted around a bit.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-07-31 03:38pm

Beowulf wrote:Also, do you need a $1500 computer? Could you get a $1000 computer, and save the $500 so you can get a new computer 2-3 years down the line? My fiancee's laptop is having trouble with stuff like the USB ports being finicky, and the wireless card dying, because it's 3 years old, and been toted around a bit.

$1500 is the absolute upper limit; I'd really prefer to spend much less than that.

phongn wrote:If you're willing to go to the Mac Side, the MacBook is a good laptop. I've always been fond of ThinkPads as well.

I'm ambivalent about this. I'm familiar with Windows, but a Mac is very tempting because not only would it (mostly) eliminate the distraction of PC gaming, it is, as I understand, more stable, less susceptible to viruses, and good at handling multimedia. However, it appears to be more expensive.

Dark Lord of the Bith · Post by **Dark Lord of the Bith** » 2006-07-31 05:48pm

I picked this laptop up for college about a month ago, so I can't attest to it's lasting quality, but I don't foresee it dying any time soon.

It's a Lenovo 3000 C100, from newegg for $650 (after a $100 rebate, which was only good for purchases in June). Intel Centrino M processor, XP Pro, 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, etc. They also have the next step up or so, the N100, with the Core Duo Processor.

This one works beautifully for me, but then again, I don't play many games. Red Alert 2 is all I have installed, and it runs fine, and plays the FMVs very well, better than my mom's aging Dell. I haven't had any major problems (besides the screen being broken when it came; a call to tech support and a few days waiting solved that, with no extra charge to me), the battery life is fine, the speakers of course suck, but that's to be expected, there are keyboard controls for media and stuff. It came with the Corel business programs, which I've used at work, so I'm used to them, and they load a lot faster than the computers at work.

So yeah, as a fellow new college student, I can recommend Lenovos to you.

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2006-07-31 05:51pm

What the hell is Lenovo?

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-07-31 06:33pm

Spanky The Dolphin wrote:What the hell is Lenovo?

Chinese computer company. Currently owns the Thinkpad brand.

InnocentBystander · Post by **InnocentBystander** » 2006-07-31 06:40pm

Dark Lord of the Bith wrote:I picked this laptop up for college about a month ago, so I can't attest to it's lasting quality, but I don't foresee it dying any time soon.

It's a Lenovo 3000 C100, from newegg for $650 (after a $100 rebate, which was only good for purchases in June). Intel Centrino M processor, XP Pro, 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, etc. They also have the next step up or so, the N100, with the Core Duo Processor.

I would avoid anything that says Celeron (not to mention for $100 you can go from last generation to current generation CPU). Plus it only comes with 1 year parts and labor, which as I've said before, might not be wise.

Dark Lord of the Bith · Post by **Dark Lord of the Bith** » 2006-07-31 08:05pm

InnocentBystander wrote:I would avoid anything that says Celeron (not to mention for $100 you can go from last generation to current generation CPU). Plus it only comes with 1 year parts and labor, which as I've said before, might not be wise.

Now, I don't actually know anything about computers, so I probably shouldn't even be in this forum, but what's wrong with the Celeron? I have absolutely no need for anything more powerful, since I essentially use it for web browsing, instant messenging, and word processing. It seems to work fine for that, and I haven't had a single problem with it yet. It's plenty fast enough for me, too. Spending the extra $100 for the modern tech seems like overkill for what I need. Are there known problems with the Celeron that I should have researched more thoroughly?

edit: Fixed a run-on sentence

Post by **Beowulf** » 2006-07-31 08:39pm

Dark Lord of the Bith wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:I would avoid anything that says Celeron (not to mention for $100 you can go from last generation to current generation CPU). Plus it only comes with 1 year parts and labor, which as I've said before, might not be wise.
Now, I don't actually know anything about computers, so I probably shouldn't even be in this forum, but what's wrong with the Celeron? I have absolutely no need for anything more powerful, since I essentially use it for web browsing, instant messenging, and word processing. It seems to work fine for that, and I haven't had a single problem with it yet. It's plenty fast enough for me, too. Spending the extra $100 for the modern tech seems like overkill for what I need. Are there known problems with the Celeron that I should have researched more thoroughly?

edit: Fixed a run-on sentence

For a casual computer user, nothing really. If all you're doing is webbrowsing, IMs and word processing, there's nothing wrong with getting a cheap processor. It's just that people are biased against them, because they are, well, cheap.

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-08-01 12:21am

Dark Lord of the Bith wrote:
InnocentBystander wrote:I would avoid anything that says Celeron (not to mention for $100 you can go from last generation to current generation CPU). Plus it only comes with 1 year parts and labor, which as I've said before, might not be wise.
Now, I don't actually know anything about computers, so I probably shouldn't even be in this forum, but what's wrong with the Celeron? I have absolutely no need for anything more powerful, since I essentially use it for web browsing, instant messenging, and word processing. It seems to work fine for that, and I haven't had a single problem with it yet. It's plenty fast enough for me, too. Spending the extra $100 for the modern tech seems like overkill for what I need. Are there known problems with the Celeron that I should have researched more thoroughly?

edit: Fixed a run-on sentence

If that's really all you're using it for then nothing's wrong with a Celeron, but since the OP's computer needs to hold up for several years, a Core Duo is a much better buy.

Srynerson · Post by **Srynerson** » 2006-08-01 12:35am

Beowulf wrote:
Spanky The Dolphin wrote:What the hell is Lenovo?
Chinese computer company. Currently owns the Thinkpad brand.

To amplify, Lenovo bought IBM's entire PC/Laptop division in 2004: +http://news.com.com/IBM+sells+PC+group+ ... 82284.html

Glocksman · Post by **Glocksman** » 2006-08-01 03:18am

I'm ambivalent about this. I'm familiar with Windows, but a Mac is very tempting because not only would it (mostly) eliminate the distraction of PC gaming, it is, as I understand, more stable, less susceptible to viruses, and good at handling multimedia. However, it appears to be more expensive.

Macs aren't as overpriced as they used to be in comparison to an equivalent Windows machine, but they are still a tad more expensive.
However it's not an outrageous amount.

Plus now you won't pay an arm and a leg for add in upgrade hardware if you decide to add more RAM or something else since Apple now uses bog standard Intel processors and chipsets.
For what you describe your needs as, a Mac might be a good choice but there are cheaper (Dell/Lenovo/HP/etc) Windows only laptops out there that are just as durable, if not as nice looking as the mac.
The one real drawback to buying a mac would be if you have a lot of windows software that you'd have to pay to replace with mac equivalents.

Of course you could run Boot Camp and put XP on your Intel based Macbook, but then you'd have to fork out about $90 or so for an XP Home install disc on top of buying the machine itself.

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2006-08-01 03:33am

Surlethe, if you are looking at a mac, make sure Matlab and all the math programs you will need, can run on mac OSX, otherwise it'll be a paperweight for you.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2006-08-01 09:29am

Ace Pace wrote:Surlethe, if you are looking at a mac, make sure Matlab and all the math programs you will need, can run on mac OSX, otherwise it'll be a paperweight for you.

I'm not sure if Surlethe will need MATLAB, but it does not run on Intel OS X.

Post by **Surlethe** » 2006-08-01 10:10am

Ace Pace wrote:Surlethe, if you are looking at a mac, make sure Matlab and all the math programs you will need, can run on mac OSX, otherwise it'll be a paperweight for you.

Good thought. It appears, after preliminary inspection, that I'll be able to run Mathematica and some LaTeX front on a Mac. I'll have to go back and make sure they support the Intel OS X, though.

phongn wrote:not run on Intel OS X.

I probably won't be using MATLAB for a while, but yikes; I wasn't aware there were differences in program availability between Intel OS X and the other OS X systems.

Glocksman wrote:Macs aren't as overpriced as they used to be in comparison to an equivalent Windows machine, but they are still a tad more expensive.
However it's not an outrageous amount.

Plus now you won't pay an arm and a leg for add in upgrade hardware if you decide to add more RAM or something else since Apple now uses bog standard Intel processors and chipsets.

Okay; it's nice to know I'll be able to add more RAM to the computer in the future.

For what you describe your needs as, a Mac might be a good choice but there are cheaper (Dell/Lenovo/HP/etc) Windows only laptops out there that are just as durable, if not as nice looking as the mac.
The one real drawback to buying a mac would be if you have a lot of windows software that you'd have to pay to replace with mac equivalents.

Of course you could run Boot Camp and put XP on your Intel based Macbook, but then you'd have to fork out about $90 or so for an XP Home install disc on top of buying the machine itself.

The nice thing about being a college student is that I apparently get a discount on Windows shit.

Lisa · Post by **Lisa** » 2006-08-05 01:57pm

I'm currently switching from windows to mac for a number of reasons.

I currently us an acer aspire 5002 as my main laptop. I would be using my G4 iBook but there are complications in my life that prevent me from using it (computer works fine and does everything I want).

My only complaints with the aspire are (besides windows) heavy (it's not in the desktop replacement weights but it's not a feather weight), case plastics (crack) and the keyboard (I miss the preleveno thinkpad keys). I've ditched some of the included software but some is required to use the laptop. The wireless button is also a pain, too easy to hit.

All laptops I've used these days are WARM. (apple, acer, gateway, toshiba!, averatec, ibm)

Before my acer I had a toshiba satellite a70. BIG HEAVY and short battery, I was not satisfied with it.

the 15.4 screen also makes a big impact on battery. My late partner had a gateway that had the smaller screen but the battery life was near double the acer and triple the toshiba. the apple battery lives are practically legendary.

and then there is weight, the extra inch or 2 of screen can significantly add weight.

another option if the regular screen for the laptop isn't big enough is get a second display that is big enough for usage at home/dorm and still be fairly light for travel. a smaller laptop will go through less wear and tear in your travel to and from class.

Until leveno took over think pad they were bullet proof. Now they're just not up to snuff of the thinkpad name

I used to do dell support, and from the constant problems people had I wouldn't trust one.

HP/Compaq are nice, almost bought one but felt the acer gave me better bang for my buck, techsupport being done by some third party company in another country was also distasteful.

In your situation for school I'd go with a smaller laptop (13"-14") and pick up a display for use at home, a 19" can be had under $300 and will probably hook up to your ps2/xbox as well. Each laptop is different, go to a store and try them, what I like in my laptops you may hate. see if you can take them out of the locks and sit down and try them for a few minutes you are spending probably what ammounts to a month or so of a paycheck on one (hey almost like getting married), it makes sense to try it out. you wouldn't spend 1000-1500 on a car with out taking it for a test drive.

edit there are also ed discounts for lots of mac stuff including hardware

Praxis · Post by **Praxis** » 2006-08-05 05:54pm

I'd recommend a MacBook if you're not a heavy gamer. The Intel GMA 950 graphics chip works well for casual gaming- it can play Half-Life 2 at absolute minimum settings, and can play *most* games on the market on low-to-medium settings, just don't turn on antialiasing. But don't expect 60 FPS w/4x AA @ native resolution.

Education discounts will save you $50-$100, and you can save $100-$200 buying the system on Apple's refurbished store with the education discount.

Also, buy a new Mac before September 16th and students get a free iPod Nano w/rebate (which in my experience has always come through with Apple).

Regardless of whether you buy a Mac or not- get a Core Duo. Actually, since the Core 2 Duo just came out and will be shipping in laptops by the end of this month, you might want to wait and get a Core 2 Duo (20% faster at the same clock speed and 64-bit). But don't settle for less than a Core Duo.

Glocksman wrote: Plus now you won't pay an arm and a leg for add in upgrade hardware if you decide to add more RAM or something else since Apple now uses bog standard Intel processors and chipsets.

You never did...I bought standard 200-pin DDR RAM off of newegg IIRC for my mother's PowerBook, the type listed on Apple's "What RAM should I buy?" pages. I removed my old Pismo's hard drive and used it in a standard PC external hard drive casing. They've always used standard RAM, standard hard drives, and overall entirely standard hardware except for the processor and GPUs (required Mac Edition cards), but you can't upgrade those on most laptops anyway (since the processor is soldered in).

Master of Ossus · Post by **Master of Ossus** » 2006-08-05 11:52pm

If you're a Costco member, I would consider this system:

http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.as ... v=&browse=

This is a pretty solid laptop for $1000.

Processor & Memory:

* Intel® Core™ Duo Processor T2400 (1.83GHz) with Centrino® Duo mobile technology
* 2MB L2 cache
* 667MHz front side bus
* 2GB DDR2 SDRAM (2 x 1GB)

Drives:

* 120GB SATA hard drive (5,400RPM)
* SuperMulti 8x DVD±RW drive with Double
Layer Support

Graphics & Video:

* 15.4" WXGA BrightView widescreen display; 1280 x 800 native resolution
* Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950; 128MB dynamically allocated video memory (shared)

Communications:

* Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WLAN
*
Integrated 10/100BASE-T Ethernet LAN
*
Integrated 56K modem

Note the 2GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, and Core Duo processor.

It is a Windows system (MCE), obviously, but it is technically significantly better than a Macbook in the same price range. I think it's clearly worth looking into. Also, unless your school wants you to go with XP Pro, the MCE has some fun features, including a remote control in this case.