posted
I may be going back to school, and my desktop is fairly old, so I am interested in hearing about laptops. I know a decent amount as an end user regarding desktops computers, but I really don't know much about laptops.
I know that most laptops out there, even the cheap ones at Wal-Mart, can do the basics I would need. However, I would like to screw around with some games, like WOW, and do some multi-media stuff as well.
What should I be looking for, both pros and cons? I know laptops run hot, and that some of them come with integrated graphics cards (which I have heard suck), and I would like to have at least 3GB of memory so that Vista doesn't kill me.
I saw a few decent ones at Best Buy for about $599-$700, and that is about my potential price range, providing I get my financial aid for school....without that I will stick to pen and pencil .
I have a bluetooth dongle I could use with my laptops, but it would be nice to have it enabled so I can leave the dongle at home connected to my desktop machine. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
When I was buying a laptop, it was pretty difficult to get one with a decent non-integrated graphics card for much under $1,000. That seems to have changed for the better, though, especially given the merger of ATi (maker of the Radeon line of graphics cards) and AMD (Intel's primary competitor in the CPU chip market.) I'd still steer well clear of Intel's integrated graphics. Most Nvidia and AMD graphics that are integrated into the board won't provide stellar performance, either, but those at least will probably play three year old games at decent frame rates. Be slightly leery of any computer that borrows system memory for graphics use.
A firewire (IEEE 1394) port is a nice thing to have for multimedia purposes, as it's still the port most digital camcorders use to connect.
As I've said before, while I have great affection for Best Buy, their prices often aren't the best. I'd recommend taking a glance at sites like TigerDirect, NewEgg, and Fry's.
I'll glance at a few things and see if I can get more information.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Blayne Bradley
unregistered
posted
just remember that anything thats XV00 (where V is greater then or equal to 7) is a decent card. Same applies for Nvidia. I'ld avoid trying to get anything with mid to low range cards go for a hi end that way your not kicking yourself later when you want to play something better.
An Intel Core2 Duo is generally the best CPU you can get or the Quad, avoid AMD's if you can.
Be careful to avoid Intel laptops that as sterling said only have integrated intel graphics cards, they suck.
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posted
I went to BB to see what I liked. After looking at both Buy.com and newegg.com, I can say that their sale prices are very competitive. In two of the four laptops I liked they were $10-$20 cheaper than newegg.com, which is the first time I have seen that. And that was without counting shipping costs.
For higher end computers and laptops newegg.com was cheaper though.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Despite my earlier caveat about shared memory, the Radeon 3100 integrated mobile video set seems to be getting good wordof mouth. . Toshiba's Satelite series in particular has a number of laptops in the sub $750 range that seem to feature this video set as well as Vista and 3 GB of RAM.
And while I agree that Intel's chips are outclassing AMD's this generation, I wouldn't necessarily shy away from AMD's chips in a laptop if it meant getting more of the features you want or more memory within your price range. Any dual-core system ought to be able to play WoW (barring bottlenecks from the video chipset), and while Intel kicks AMD's heinie in gaming performance, in some multimedia apps the Intel advantage isn't necessarily apparent. If I had to choose between a Intel CPU with an Intel integrated GPU and an AMD chip with a Radeon integrated GPU, I'd probably go with the AMD. (Of course, if you can get an Intel CPU with a GeForce or Radeon GPU, depending on the spec, that may well be ideal.)
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Also keep in mind that a gaming laptop will be heavy as moon rocks and baby elephants, making in not an ideal choice for a school laptop (ie, one that you'll carry around on your back all day).
I'd get the lightest laptop you can deal with, and stick with XP (Dell still sells machines with XP). Forget the extra stuff required to run Vista.
posted
*nod* For a school laptop, I'd worry about weight, screen quality, and the comfort of the keyboard. Can you type with it while it's resting on your belly? That sort of thing.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
My wife is a touch-typer, so the size and comfort of the keyboard is very important. I found a couple of laptops that would be able to play WOW (with an ADM dual with a Radeon 3100) but aren't crazy heavy. I don't want (or need) a cutting edge machine, and the school functionality of it is far more important than running games on high settings.
Is there anything, other than Intel's integrated chip, that I should be wary of? Any brand with reliability issues?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I prefer laptops with a single long hinge that runs the length of the screen. They break less often.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
I personally distrust Toshibas. I have had tons of problems with power and my friend, who has a different model but still Toshiba had similar problems.
Posts: 2223 | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
You might want to save $30 of your budget or so for a laptop cooling pad of some design.
I have an Acer laptop. It's worked all right, but six months of being the computer for two fairly heavy computer users was a little hard on it. It still works (and it's nearly three years old, now) but it isn't as stable as it used to be.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
Honestly, Just get a macbook. I know that your probably a pc person, but you can play Wow on your macbook, and you get a one year warranty. My harddrive died on mine after six months, and literally I walked it into a store and 30 minutes later I had a new harddrive.
Plus the weight and footprint is just right.
You can't beat that for college.
Posts: 332 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
They are much too expensive. Where did you see that that is the #1 reason for dropping out? I would imagine it is finances, as it has been for about 30 years now.
I am also 38 years old, and adult students are far less likely to bee distracted by silly things like that. I know what I want to do, and nothing is likely to move me from that at this point. The only thing more important than finishing my education at this point is my family, so baring a family emergency I am pretty sure that I will be able to complete one year of classes.
So I got accepted, and will be looking into financial aid next week once my transcripts arrive. I will probably buy the laptop soon after that.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I'll second weight concerns. I have a 17 inch laptop behemoth. I didn't consider weight when I was buying it, and was actually out of school for that semester, so I never really got to take it on a test run during the time when I could have sent it back, but it's far too heavy. It's monstrously uncomfortable walking abound campus all day with this thing on my back, especially with a ton of books and such in there too, and I got my backpack from Dell, so it has tons of extra padding on it (now I know why). I was hoping when I got it that I could take it to class with me and type out notes during class, but the laptop is so large, there isn't a desk in any classroom but one that could come close to actually fitting the thing on it.
If I had to do it all over again, I'd get a much, much smaller laptop. This thing is fine for around the house, but it sucks for portability when you're walking all over a campus. I've considered saving up just to buy a bare bones 14 inch laptop so I had something to take to class with me, but I don't know how I can justify $500+ dollars just for a laptop that can go online and has MS Word on it, which is basically all I'd want. That's one expensive word processor.
Anyway, that's been my experience with gigantic laptops and college life.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Yeah, I am not looking at 17 inch screens. I think most of them were about 15 inches, give or take a little bit.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Ironically, some of the smaller screen laptops are actually more expensive.
My Acer has a 15.4" screen, and it's great for my purposes, and not too much of a bear to haul around. I think a decently bright screen (or perhaps one with an anti-glare coating) is more important to laptop image clarity than sheer size, anyway.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
I looked at a Gateway least night for about $700 that seems cool. It has a 15.4 inch screen, and has everything I want except bluetooth, and I can use the dongle for that if I need to. It had 3G of RAM, and 250G HD, and I think it had a separate video card.....I will have to check up on that to make sure.
Seemed like a decent laptop. Anyone know anything about Gateways?
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I found an HP today for $599 that had 200GB of HD space, bluetooth enabled, with a decent GeForce graphic card. It had a good, 14.2" screen, and ran really smooth. It had an ADM Turion x2 processer.
If it is still on sale when I get my financial aid I will probably buy it. It seems affordable, but capable of everything I would likely ask of I while in school, and probably for a while after.
And TomD...it has the hinge you were talking about too. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
About 5 lbs, maybe a little less. The screen size is what kills most laptops, or that was how it seemed to me. I pretty much was looking at 15 in screens and under for that very reason....as Lyrhawn said, most of the 17 in ones were about 6.5 lbs or more.
It was one of the lighter ones I looked at. CompUSA had some really good deal this week, I just hope the sales are good when I plan to buy.
Then again I don't need it until January, and there are always great deals on laptops for Christmas....
The only concern I have is battery life, and I will check that out before I buy it.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
Do keep in mind that not all instructors or professors will allow you to use your laptop in class. It's worth emailing them and asking them before you bother taking it.
Out of five classes this semester - only one will allow laptops in class.
They are getting really sick of people playing games and updating Facebook during class. Posts: 14428 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Long as you don't also buy a five-pound mouse.
Seriously, my own indecisive pack-rat tendencies tend to mean that my laptop bag has a fair amount of heft to it (USB mouse, keypad, miniature external hard drive, firewire cable, etc.) But I'm sure you're more organized and thrifty, right?
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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posted
This is one of the two I was looking at. This has 4G of memory, which means I should be set for the life of this laptop IMO.
This one is the HP I was talking about. It has 3G of RAM, upgradable to 4 if necessary, and it has bluetooth enabled. It is also $100 less.
I am leaning towards the HP, but I will probably have to wait a few weeks to see what financial aid I get, and to see if I really need one for class. A lot of our learning in on line, and it would be nice to be able to do that wile at school, before walking home. But nice doesn't always mean necessary. Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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posted
I just bought one of the HP Pavilion entertainment kinds - dv6700 I think it's called. I upgraded most of the options so it ended up costing me a little over $1,000, but I really love it. It has a 15" screen and, while a bit heavy, really is not a problem to carry around campus. Other than the fact that it runs Vista, I'm quite happy.
Posts: 1215 | Registered: Apr 2005
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posted
Yes, but it is always full and there is a limit to how long you can use it. Also, it closes about 7pm.
I have a decent computer at home, and could do a lot of it there, but a laptop is more convienant. My computer runs well, but it is old, and I was thinking about replacing it with a laptops even before I decided to go back to school.
We will see. I hate taking notes, and if my teachers let us use computers...and I believe they do....I would take much better notes on it than i usually do. I type better than I write at this point in my life.
Posts: 15082 | Registered: Jul 2001
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