<p>Let me first apologize for potentially wasting your time with another "I need a laptop for college!" thread. I've been browsing through CNET.com for reviews and profiles of different laptops and their performances. It has proved to be a very valuable website, yet I am still in search for more advice! I don't plan on getting a laptop until weeks or months from now, but I can never start my search too early!</p>
<p>Anyway, to the point: I'm still unfamiliar with what is the "norm" concerning laptops, but I was thinking of a 15'' screen, 80 GB HD, 1 G RAM, and the touchscreen feature would be great. Are these all reasonable features for a laptop? I will mostly be using it for typing things up, going online, and even playing a few games (I'm not a gamer though). I found the touchscreen feature to be useful, because the touchpad mouse can be very annoying sometimes.
[ul]
[li]Would a 15'' screen be sufficient for potentially watching movies, etc.?</p>[/li]
<p>[li]I currently have 1 G RAM on my desktop computer, and I have experienced no problems at all when accessing/engaging multiple programs, doing my work, etc.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]I probably won't use the 80 GB HD, but I've been told that it is a good idea to always have more HD space than you expect to use--for performance/speed purposes, as little of an effect this might present.</p>[/li]
<p>[li]I'm not looking for the latest, greatest video card but rather one that is sufficient in playing movies, etc. relatively quickly. Any suggestions? What are the average models (bits) for these video cards? What is the highest/lowest bits (?) for graphics cards?</p>[/li]
<p>[li]A relatively lightweight laptop is also desired. Any information on this would be greatly appreciated![/ul]</p>[/li]
<p>I've been searching around for laptops, and though I've only really seen a few different company models, I'd like to read about more. I recently looked at Averatec and thought they had interesting options. Has anyone used an Averatec laptop? What are your opinions on it/them?</p>
<p>One last thing--is it possible to get the aforementioned specs on a laptop that is under or between $2000 to $2100?</p>
<p>Thanks in advance for all the insight and help while I go through this difficult process of choosing a laptop!</p>
<p>You can actually get a laptop like that for under 1k.</p>
<p>I got my laptop a week ago, from dell:
15.4" widescreen
80 gb Hard Drive
1 gig ram
128mb video card
Duo core 1.66 ghz CPU (you want duo core)
PRICE: $950! (It was the E1505 model)</p>
<p>Dell.com had a $400 off 1 day sale (you can find a sale like this almost everyday if you search hard enough). Thats pretty much what you wanted except for the touch screen. If you REALLY want a touch screen, you'll need another $500, to me that's not worth it.</p>
<p>As far as performance, the specs you mentioned are pretty good, but you seem to be a movie lover (like me), so i suggest you get a laptop with a DEDICATED video card. Most of them come with "integrated video," which basically means it has NO video card, and to play video your sytem shares with the 1 gig of system memory. Integrated = bad. A dedicated 128mb video like i got would serve you well. 256mb is overkill, don't bother with it unless you plan on playing the newest 3-d computer games.</p>
<p>yea i'd also recommend the e1505, i think im gonna get that like flyinv</p>
<p>i like how u can order it with a 9cell battery, which is good if ur going to be away from an outlet often.
also, its kinda light - like a little over 6lbs</p>
<p>it'd be a good match for u, if u dont really NEED the touchscreen feature</p>
<p>I looked through Dell.com and came across the E1505 and other models. However, I feel as though Dell offers few distinct models (7) for laptops--or is this actually a handful of models?</p>
<p>Sorry to pose seemingly trivial questions, but I get so picky sometimes! Thanks a bunch!</p>
<p>P.S.- I just realized that the "tablet PC" that obeserabbit was referring to is the same thing I was thinking of when I referred to the "folding" screen! Anyway, does Dell offer any of these? I'm having a hard time finding tablet laptops.</p>
