<p>I can spend $3,000 on a laptop. What should I get? I was thinking of getting an HP Envy 14 with all the bells and whistles.</p>
<p>Take 2000 of that and use it to pay for your tuition. You do not need a 3k laptop.</p>
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<p>envy 14 will only cost you about $1.5k probs. so you can give me the rest.</p>
<p>Wow. I haven’t really came across any laptops for 3k. Perhaps your looking for a computer and monitor. I doubt you will need to spend 3k on a laptop.</p>
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<p>A little over budget, but some of the features are perhaps somewhat excessive and can be customized down.</p>
<p>Oh wow. Well I agree, there are notebooks out there for 3k+ but at a college level and likely for your use not too many college students will need a notebook at that price as compared to a buisness worker etc… another example would be a person with tons of video games to load that use a lot of space and top notch graphic.</p>
<p>I get to spend $3,000 on a laptop because my college is paying for it. It is a maximum of $3,000, and if I spend less on it, then I actually “lose” that money.</p>
<p>Sony Vaio Z
i5-540M (2.4GHz)
NVidia GT 330M
2x 256GB SSD in RAID 0
Large capacity battery (up to 11 hours)
13.1", 3.1lbs, backlit keyboard, CD/DVD drive
$3300
Sony gives a 10% student discount off that price so it’ll be at $2970.</p>
<p>Forgot to say, I really want to blu-ray player with an HDMI port so I can hook it up to my TV.</p>
<p>Blue ray in a 11-13" laptop?
The Vaio Z has that upgrade but I believe it’s $500 for it.
Maybe just get an external drive?</p>
<p>god dang… I wish I had that budget.</p>
<p>If I had 3000 dollars I would buy one $1000 laptop, 1 HD TV, and swim in the rest I have left. lol.</p>
<p>
Well if you would like to get the most for your money best option is to probably buy an apple and upgrade it to top notch.</p>
<p>I don’t think I’ve ever seen “most for your money” and “apple” used in the same sentence before. They don’t seem to have the option of Blu-ray drives either, so it would be sensible to go for something else.</p>
<p>Would you really hinge the entire decision for your laptop on a blu-ray drive? That seems ridiculous, as in a few years they will most likely be replaced by something else anyway. I think a fully-loaded macbook pro would get you the most for your money. You would have a quad-core processor, a fantastic OS, great battery life, and awesome customer service/reliability. I really don’t see any reason to avoid a mac; just go with the OS you feel comfortable with. (And I happen to see “most for your money” and “apple” used in the same sentence all the time 
)</p>
<p>Quad core processors give you bad battery life because they don’t have integrated graphics.</p>
<p>What’s wrong with the Sony Vaio Z? You can get an i7 dual core on it, it has the same GPU as the 15 and 17" MBP, and it’s smaller and more portable and has up to 11 hours battery life which is more than a 15 or 17" MBP. The only downside is the $2-3k price because Sony decides to put dual SSDs in RAID 0 in it but obviously that’s not a problem for the OP.</p>
<p>Oh, I didn’t see your post where you said your college was paying for it. In that case</p>
<p>Get the macbook pro 15’’
Core i7
256 SSD
4 GB RAM
Nvidia 330M graphics card w/ 512 GB</p>
<p>If I were to choose, go with the SSD over the blu-ray. You’ll use your hard drive every day while the blu-ray will be used occassionally.</p>
<p>I’m voting an Envy 15 and a netbook. Maybe you can buy a blu ray player with what’s left!</p>
<p>I’d choose the Vaio Z. It’s almost half the weight of an equivalent macbook pro, built better (Carbon Fiber vs Aluminum), and much faster. It’s just expensive, which is not an issue for you.</p>
<p>I configured:
Core i5
Blu-ray Player/Burner
4GB RAM
192 GM SSD
large capacity battery
3 year warranty
extra adapter
carrying case
$2,800</p>
<p>Look good?</p>