Laptop. Is this good idea?

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>I've settled on getting an HP laptop because it's durable (I accidentally dropped my sister's laptop twice >.< and it's survived both occasions. It's an HP, so that's what I've settled to get because it's cheap and the quality is amazing!) </p>

<p>The Maximum I'm willing to spend is $1,400. I want a good laptop for college and for multitasking. I sometimes play games but I don't care about the best graphics card. I just want an nVidia card to play some games. Anyway, here are the stats I'm looking for</p>

<p>320 gbs of memory (I want this laptop to last for long time)
3-4 gbs of RAM
Blue Ray Disc Reader (my mom wants me to buy a laptop with Blue ray o.0)
HD Screen
Min. 2 ghz processor </p>

<p>But I'm not sure whether to get the dv5t series or the tablet thing everyone's talking about (Yes, I'm an engineering major lol XD). </p>

<p>Also, how much of a difference is a 14.1" and 15.4". Is it very visible difference? Also, is it bad to buy a 17" when you want to carry it to school a lot? </p>

<p>If you any other suggestions instead of a HP, I'm willing to listen. Thanks!</p>

2

<p>Here are some of my thought2:</p>

<p>1). If you want durability, look into the business line of laptops. They might be as flashy or as multimedia feature packed, but they are durable and (usually) come with better customer service. Having dealt with 5-6 HP consumer laptops in the past 4 years, I can say that their quality is mediocre at best. </p>

<p>2). $1400 is plenty to get all of the features you are looking for. One thing to note is that RAM and harddrive are both easily replaceable and upgradeable. Processor and graphics, on the other hand, are not. So if you have to decide between upgrading one or the other, go with higher specs for the non-upgradeable components (particularly if you want to keep that laptop for a long time). </p>

<p>3). If you are using this laptop as a primary computer and you want to use it as a somewhat powerful entertainment machine, then a tablet is not a good choice. Not only is the screen small (I wouldn't want to watch HD on a 12 inch screen), keyboard cramped, and graphics integrated (ATI), but you can't even get blu-ray as an option. Not to mention tablets are generally more expensive (more likely to put you over budget) and engineers generally don't absolutely need a tablet (there is a recent thread on this forum about this). </p>

<p>4). In terms of screen size, yes, I definitely think there is a noticeable difference between 14.1in and 15.4in. My friend has a 14.1in HP, I have a 15.4in HP, and my roommate has a 17in HP. Even though the resolutions for 14.1 and 15.4 are the same, I definitely think my friend's laptop is smaller than mine when I look at the screen. I can tell you for an engineer, screen real estate is pretty important, however if you wish to tote your laptop around, 14.1in might be a better choice. As for 17in, if you are going to carry it around a lot, then you are probably going to want something smaller and lighter. 7-8 lbs of extra weight is no small burden, especially if you are out and about for long periods of time. My roommate never moves his laptop, ever except to go home for extended breaks. I myself don't even carry my 15.4in HP, I use a 12in Lenovo X61 for toting around. </p>

<p>5). Suggestions: </p>

<ul>
<li>I don't know how set your budget is, but you can also look into buying a slightly cheaper primary laptop for around $1200 and then spending $300-400 or so on a netbook for toting around. For example, I was able to customize an HP dv5t with 2.26Ghz processor, 3GB of RAM, 250GB HDD, blu-ray, HD display, and graphics card for about $1200. You might even be able to find decent netbooks for $200 right now.</li>
</ul>

3

<p><em>whispers</em> get a tablet <em>whispers</em></p>

<p>just kidding SBR!</p>

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<p>haha, I'm not generally a tablet nazi. I actually really want one, but can't justify it to myself. :/</p>

5

<p>To be fair I do a lot of work with real estate and loan brokers and they all think it's invaluable so I get in the habit of recommending it too much.</p>

6

<p>Macbook for you. Then max out the ram for like 100$</p>

7

<p>Don't bother spending money on RAM when you're configuring it on HP. Afterwards get 4 gigs off Newegg for under $100. BTW if you plan on using 4gb, make sure you get the 64bit vista.</p>

<p>Don't worry about hard drive space.. Get an external hard drive and store movies and crap on there. </p>

<p>Make sure you get at least the P8400 processor and the 9600GT for graphics. You can't upgrade these things later.</p>

<p>I don't really understand why you would want a bluray drive in a laptop... But that's just my own opinion.</p>

8

<p>No Blu-Ray for macs</p>

<p>and 1400 wont get you very much in a mac...</p>

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<p>17" is way too much..</p>

<p>I have a 15" and its a perfect size, not too big not too small..
Also, 17" laptop will likely be a lot heavier.</p>

10

<p>I've decided on HP HDX 16t with 2.53 dual core processor, 320 Gbs 7200 RPM, and 4 Gb with windows Vista 64 bit system. It's a 16". All of that for roughly $1476. Is that a good deal?</p>

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<p>well 16" is awfully big to carry around alot...</p>

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<p>All I'm going to say is I used to carry a 17" laptop(rather heavy) and my sisters 15.4" laptop (very light to me). So I think 16" would be okay. Anyone carry a 16" before?</p>

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<p>It's not a bad deal, but if you haven't already I'd suggest you get the highest res screen you can. The only thing I'd suggest you not spring for is the 320GB 7200rpm harddrive. </p>

<p>It's $100 more on HP.com but you can get a 320GB 7200rpm harddrive from newegg.com for $90 shipped right now. And if you get it from newegg, you can swap out the 320GB 5400rpm drive that HP gives you, put it into a $20 case, and use it as a portable external harddrive. So instead of upgrading the HP harddrive, for about the same price you can get 2 drives.</p>

<p>Edit: I also checked the RAM prices on newegg. It costs $50 to upgrade to 4GB DDR2 RAM on HP.com. Assuming this new laptop uses the higher end DDR2-800 RAM, you can get a 4GB kit from newegg for $41 shipped. It's not much of a price difference, but you do get 2 extra memory chips if you don't upgrade on HP. This won't really make much of a difference though.</p>

14

<p>I love my 17" screen to look at, but if I had a do-over I'd get a 15". I rarely carry my laptop more than from room to room, but when I do it's cumbersome and heavy. Also, it's impossible to use on a plane because (especially if the person in front of me is reclining) there isn't enough room to open it enough to see the screen.</p>

15

<p>SBR, I bought the 320gbs 7200 rpm already O.O. The thing is I don't know how to insert hard drives and whatnot. Is it really that simple?</p>

16

<p>Yes, inserting harddrives are pretty simple. For my hp dv6200t, it's as simple as opening the cover, sliding it out of the slot, remove the metal tray and transfer it to new harddrive (messing with a couple screws), and slipping the new HDD back into the slot. Same for thinkpads. You won't need anything more than a screwdriver.</p>

<p>You'll need to transfer information from the old one to the new one of course, but if it's a new computer, just get some restore disks and use that on the new harddrive after you install it. The whole process (hardware/software installs) takes 2-3 hours.</p>