Laptop for college?

[ksu98]

Somebody is buying me whatever laptop I want as a senior graduation gift my budget is 1000-1200 dollars. Any suggestions? Also what should I look for in terms of processor speed and Hard drive as well as what amount of RAM should I have many thanks in advance.

[yoga-lika_abana]

get them to buy you one for 800 give me the extra 400.
also get a big ram and a big hard drive. HTH.

[TAFNA Dude]

Are you going to be doing any gaming or graphic editing with it, or just surfing the net/doing homework?

[hemmy]

I'll sell you mine for $600 I need a new 1 with virtualization support

[ksu98]

Are you going to be doing any gaming or graphic editing with it, or just surfing the net/doing homework?

I'd like to do some gaming yes

[fatty fat fat]

buy an ibm notepad. you can get a solid one for like 400 bucks.

gaming? you won't be doing much of that during school. 

avoid a mac at all costs. you don't want to deal w/the crap of getting your mac to work w/a windows based campus.

[ksu98]

lol at fatty thinking i'm going to work at school. I'm thinking about a Sony Vaio. Keep in mind fatty I'm going to cowley county JUCO my first year and staying at home to save money.

[ArchE_Cat]

newegg.com has had some good deals on some awesome sony's lately. I even think Steve Dave picked one up.

[fatty fat fat]

i don't like sony. very cheap build.

you need a labby that you can throw in your backpack and get rough and dirty with. ibm's are perfect for that.

[pissclams]

ksu98, there's some good reading here that should help you decide what's best for you, it's from July of last year but not much has really changed except the prices have gone down-
http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3351

also, check more recent reviews here-
http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3410&p=1

[Skydog]

get a mac.

All the cool kids do it.

[Bookcat]

have Blair Irvin get you a lab top.

[ksucrcoop]

Get a Lenovo tablet PC...Pretty much he best computer you can buy for any type of educational/boring lecture environment.

http://reviews.cnet.com/tablet-pcs/lenovo-thinkpad-x61-tablet/4505-3126_7-32656967.html?tag=mncol;lst

As a current grad student and recent KSU undergrad, I can tell you that the ability to take notes via electronic pen on your PPT slides presents a huge advantage. You will literally save hundreds of dollars over the course of your collegiate career on printing costs if you can just take notes electronically via Microsoft Onenote or whatever other program you use.

Oh, and Maks suk, unless you're into graphic gay porn design.

[waks]

buy an ibm notepad. you can get a solid one for like 400 bucks.

gaming? you won't be doing much of that during school. 

avoid a mac at all costs. you don't want to deal w/the crap of getting your mac to work w/a windows based campus.

Not pimping Macs or anything (but I should be because they are like a bajillion times better than pc's) but I've never had any problems with a Mac on a windows based campus.

Agree with fatty that you need something that durable that won't get &@#%ed up if you carry it in your backpack. Looks are very important. Can't tell you how many times I got a compliment while I was using my sexy computer at the library from a hot sorostitute.

[WillieWannabe]

buy an ibm notepad. you can get a solid one for like 400 bucks.

gaming? you won't be doing much of that during school. 

avoid a mac at all costs. you don't want to deal w/the crap of getting your mac to work w/a windows based campus.

Not pimping Macs or anything (but I should be because they are like a bajillion times better than pc's) but I've never had any problems with a Mac on a windows based campus.

Agree with fatty that you need something that durable that won't get fracked up if you carry it in your backpack. Looks are very important. Can't tell you how many times I got a compliment while I was using my sexy computer at the library from a hot sorostitute.

Yeah, my two roommates have macs, and they don't have any issues with windows-based campus.They have issues with everything being so expensive  I'd say any laptop with at least 2 GBs of RAM and as big a hard drive as you need, 250 GB is on the low end anymore. Dual Core processors are really the way to go right now. There is a new processor out, but it is very expensive. I personally have a Dell and love it and at work i support HPs all day, and they are fine too. Just stay away from Acers, Gateways, some Toshibas, some Compaqs(different than HP). I havent had any issues with Sony, besides them being more name than substance. Good Luck 

[ksuno1stunner]

get them to buy you one for 800 give me the extra 400.
also get a big ram and a big hard drive. HTH.

not going to pimp your asus?

this looks quite sexy though:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166323&type=product&id=1218041149114

[hemmy]

People I work for are a a licensed vendor of Toughbooks, very rugged fatty would like roughing them up

http://www.smoothroad.com/products/toughbook/index.asp

[hemmy]

get them to buy you one for 800 give me the extra 400.
also get a big ram and a big hard drive. HTH.

not going to pimp your asus?

this looks quite sexy though:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166323&type=product&id=1218041149114

this is a v. good deal

[yoga-lika_abana]

get them to buy you one for 800 give me the extra 400.
also get a big ram and a big hard drive. HTH.

not going to pimp your asus?

this looks quite sexy though:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9166323&type=product&id=1218041149114

I should, love that thing.
and omg 6GB DDR2 memory on that hp and expandable to 8
I hope laptops and lcd tv's keep coming down 

[yoga-lika_abana]

<----forgot to mention bought a dell studio hybrid for cheep on eBay and got a deal on an Asus 23.5" monitor through newegg.

now I just need to see if I can expand the ram on the pc its slower than my laptop.

[ksu98]

So what's the deal with the graphics card I'm a big C&C gamer and I need nvidias GEforce to play it so what would be like the best graphics card I could get?

[hemmy]

If you really want to game, this is by far the best bang for the buck: http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp;jsessionid=NYWCYQFFJW41ZKC4D3JFAGA?skuId=9172511&st=Gateway&type=product&id=1218043606827

But desktops are far better for gaming

[Panjandrum]

Somebody is buying me whatever laptop I want as a senior graduation gift my budget is 1000-1200 dollars. Any suggestions? Also what should I look for in terms of processor speed and Hard drive as well as what amount of RAM should I have many thanks in advance.

I just bought this Toshiba about six weeks ago.  It's awesome, and it was only $750.  I'm not a heavy gamer, but it handles NBA2K9 easily.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9164343&type=product&id=1218040476937

Spend $150 bucks getting MS Office, or pocket that and download OpenOffice.org for free (which is what I did).

[pwrcat1]

buy an ibm notepad. you can get a solid one for like 400 bucks.

gaming? you won't be doing much of that during school. 

avoid a mac at all costs. you don't want to deal w/the crap of getting your mac to work w/a windows based campus.

Not pimping Macs or anything (but I should be because they are like a bajillion times better than pc's) but I've never had any problems with a Mac on a windows based campus.

Agree with fatty that you need something that durable that won't get fracked up if you carry it in your backpack. Looks are very important. Can't tell you how many times I got a compliment while I was using my sexy computer at the library from a hot sorostitute.

Yeah, my two roommates have macs, and they don't have any issues with windows-based campus.They have issues with everything being so expensive  I'd say any laptop with at least 2 GBs of RAM and as big a hard drive as you need, 250 GB is on the low end anymore. Dual Core processors are really the way to go right now. There is a new processor out, but it is very expensive. I personally have a Dell and love it and at work i support HPs all day, and they are fine too. Just stay away from Acers, Gateways, some Toshibas, some Compaqs(different than HP). I havent had any issues with Sony, besides them being more name than substance. Good Luck 

Have had my Toshiba for three years now.  Drunkenly dropped it many times while at K-State and it just kept on truckin'.   

[ew2x4]

If you plan on traveling with it anywhere, don't get a 17". Get a 15" or 14". For video cards, get at least a mid-range card (600 or 700). Ram is cheap, so don't let that sway your opinion. HP/Compaq have poor build quality. Dell business, Toshiba, Asus (probably one of the best) are good ones.

http://1toppc.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=N50VN-A1B&Category_Code=AS15&Product_Count=2 is a good example.

Also, The Dell Outlet is a great place to get laptops on the cheap. I got a $3500 Dell M90 workstation laptop for $900 with a 3 year warranty about a year or two ago.

[pwrcat1]

If you plan on traveling with it anywhere, don't get a 17". Get a 15" or 14". For video cards, get at least a mid-range card (600 or 700). Ram is cheap, so don't let that sway your opinion. HP/Compaq have poor build quality. Dell business, Toshiba, Asus (probably one of the best) are good ones.

This.

[ew2x4]

I just looked on Dell outlet and they have some good looking Dell Precision M4400's for around 1K. They come with a 3 year warranty. The Quadro 770 is 9600 GT, but with workstation capabilities.

M4400 Laptop
(System Identifier: ZB2TRV15)

    * Precision Mobile Workstation M4400 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
    * Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business License

System Price   :   $1,109.00

Operating System
Genuine Windows XP Pro with Vista Business LicenseMemory
4 GB DDR2 SDRAM 800MHz (2 DIMMs)Hard Disk Drive
160 GB Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive (7200RPM)Video
512MB NVIDIA Quadro FX 770MWeb Camera
Digital MicrophoneNetwork Interface Card
Dell 1397 802.11B/G Wireless Mini CardSoftware Upgrade
Windows Live
NO Intel vPro Secure Advanced Hardware Enabled Systems ManagementHardware Upgrade
130W A/C Adapter, 3P
6 Cell Primary Battery
125V Power Cord
FIPS Compliant Fingerprint ReaderCertified Refurbished
Certified RefurbishedLaptop Screen
15.4 inch WXGA Anti-Glare Laptop ScreenMedia Bay
8X DVD +/- RW w/dbl layer write capabilityBase
Precision Mobile Workstation M4400 Laptop: Intel Core 2 Duo P8600 (2.40GHz, 3M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)Bluetooth Wireless
Dell Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module

[Thin Blue Line]

One of these should do you good, and will make you the envy of all your friends: