LAPTOPS!!!!!!!!! I'M CLUELESS. $100 to whoever helps....................

Student Lounge College Life
1

<p>ok. so i won't give you $100 but i really need your help. i'm not computer savvy at all and i'm going to college in month and desperately need a laptop to buy. here's the minimum requirements given by the university...</p>

<p>-800MHz Intel, AMD, or equivalent microprocessor
-WIndows XP or XP pro
-256 MB RAM
-8GB hard drive
-24x CD-ROM drive
-Ethernet capability</p>

<p>i dont do gaming or any complicated media programs and stuff. i just need something with word, internet, cd burner, dvd, powerpoint...you know, the common stuff.</p>

<p>obviously i'd love something CHEAP, but i'd rather pay more for a better laptop. i'd also love a laptop/notebook thing where you can flip the screen and write on it, but it's definetely NOT necessary. i'm just looking for something reliable with good performance, good warranties, good customer service, and such.</p>

<p>i've looked at dell, hp, toshiba, best buy, circuit city, my school website...everywhere. i just don't know what to get.</p>

<p>please suggest a certain model b/c i don't know where to start if you just say "dude get a dell." i just want more bang for my buck. and if you could, please suggest the best regular laptop and the best flip screen one.</p>

<p>THANKS IN ADVANCE FOR EVERYTHING! </p>

<p>and no i don't want an apple pc, sorry.</p>

2

<p>Your school requirements are quite low, and you could go all the way down to a used $300 laptop if you just wanted the minimum. However, you can get some very nice models from dell for $600 to $700. The "flip screen" models that you refer to are known as tablet PCs and are over $1000, so I don't think they're worth the cost.</p>

3

<p>get an Dell Inspirion 6000, intel centrino technology or w/e. i just got one and i like it alot. make sure you get a cd burner, NOT a celeron processor, a pentium M processor is much faster. upgrade memory to 512 MB, get a 40 or 60 gb hard drive. its confusing at first, but you'll understand it eventually. good luck!</p>

4

<p>For the flip screen ones, consider the Toshiba R15-822 Tablet PC. It's $1499 after rebates at Best Buy this week. It's originally $1599.</p>

<p>TabletPCs aren't that much more expensive than a traditional laptop. Only about $100-$200 more than a comparable one.</p>

<p>I'd recommend the following for minimums.</p>

<ul>
<li>Intel Centrino (which is Pentium M + wireless) 1.6 GHz+</li>
<li>512 MB Memory</li>
<li>60 GB Hard Drive</li>
<li>Windows XP Professional (Home is OK if your school says so.)</li>
<li>40X CD-RW, maybe a DVD+/-RW 4x would be nice.</li>
<li>10/100 Ethernet Card (for your wired internet connection to your university's network)</li>
</ul>

5

<p>I think the IBM/Lenovo X41 Tablet PC (flip screen one) is the best one on the market, it is fairly new.</p>

6

<p>Okay, you have two sets of options. The first set consists of IBM or Fujitsu. They make the best non-Apple notebooks, but at a higher price than others such as Dell, HP, etc.</p>

<p>There are a couple of models to consider:</p>

<p>IBM:
* T43 - 14.1" weights in around 4.5 pounds, 1.83GHz, Sonoma chipset, 512MB of RAM, XGA or SXGA+ resolution, a very good option. It is, however, pricey at around $1500-$1600 for a nice configuration.
* X40 - 12.1" laptop, lightweight, easy to carry around, but small and lacking an optical drive. Only get this if you really need portability.</p>

<p>Fujitsu:
* S6000 - 13.3", 4 pounds or so, nice laptop overall, again something like $1500.</p>

<p>Now, the other options is to go cheap, and by cheap I mean Dell 600m cheap. Dell often has $750 off $1500 deals (50% off) on its Inspiron laptops, which include the 600m. So you can configure a 600m up to $1500, apply the coupon and get the laptop for around $800-850 after tax + shipping. The 600m is 14.1", maybe 5 pounds or so. Another cheap Dell option is the 700m, which is 12.1" widescreen, and also works well with the coupon previously mentioned.</p>

<p>If you want to look for coupons as mentioned, check <a href="http://www.techbargains.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.techbargains.com&lt;/a> and <a href="http://www.gottadeal.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.gottadeal.com&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>In general, look for something 4-5.5 pounds, 12-14" screen, Pentium M, 512MB of RAM, 40-80GB 5400RPM hard drive, and integrated wireless. Centrino and Sonoma are key words (Sonoma is a bit newer, but both are good setups).</p>

7

<p>
[quote]
make sure you get a cd burner, NOT a celeron processor, a pentium M processor is much faster.

[/quote]

Actually, independent tests have shown no difference in performance between the Celeron M and the Pentium M. Celeron M lacks the SpeedStep technology which lowers the clock rate on battery power, so those laptops have worse battery life than the Pentium M. It's unfortunate that they chose to retain the Celeron name for the M processors, since most people are used to associating Celeron with lack of speed.</p>

<p>Since you just need to run very basic programs, I recommend the Dell Inspiron 600m, which you can get for about $700 with 512MB RAM, 40GB HD, built-in wireless internet, a 14.1" screen, a CD burner and DVD combo drive, a light weight of about 5.5 lb, and a 4-hour battery life. If you want a bigger 15.4" screen, which would also increase the weight to about 7 lb, look at the Dell Inspiron 6000.</p>

<p>Also, someone above suggested looking for a Centrino laptop. Centrino just means that the laptop comes with a Pentium M processor and built-in wireless made by Intel. Laptops with just Pentium M processors are not called Centrino but are the same for all intents and purposes.</p>

8

<p>Out of curiosity, what college REQUIRES windows?</p>

9

<p>


</p>

<p>Pentium M has double the L1 and L2 caches as compared to a Celeron M, which does translate to what is effectively faster performance. The fact they retained Celeron name makes sense here since they did almost the exact same thing as with the desktop Cleron - Intel needed a budget processor and an easy way to get one while still retaining the clock speed was to reduce cache sizes.</p>

10

<p>don't get an AMD processor, go for a centrino, don't get a celeron. Get a pentium centrino M. Probably go for a dell.. you can get decent warantee for pretty cheap from them, and i would say THE BEST DEAL. (BTW i'm a mac user) but make sure you get something with A. good battery life B. good portability C. if you CAN try to get one with like an ATI 128 MB video card and try to stay away from intel shared video. i have a 12" screen and its great. screen is decent, but the portability is wonderful. i feel that the 15 in screen is too big.. but get at least a 40 GB hd (you can always buy an external drive later), try to get a decent amount of ram (256 is alright, but 512 would be very decent), but you can always upgrade that later. Um... make sure you get the spill/ drop warrantee. try to spend the most though on things that you CAN'T upgrade later, like video card, and processor speed (but if you aren't doing anything like games don't worry about processor speed and a 64MB card will be totally fine. ) But still get the pentium centrino M, not celeron. But don't forget that a laptop will never beat a desktop for games. Annd... dell has 700$ off coupons quite often. Check <a href="http://www.dealnews.com%5B/url%5D"&gt;www.dealnews.com&lt;/a> for good computer deals</p>

11

<p>oh yeah, don't get a tablet, its really gimmicky and makes your computer cost a lot more money. If you ahve the money get it, but i saw paper notebooks 10/1.00 at the store today... if you know what i mean.</p>

12

<p>It's not real gimmicky. It's not exactly just like notebook paper. Can you use search functions, convert to text, markup digital documents on paper? An average of $100-$200 is not a lot more relatively speaking in technology. It's only a mere 10%.</p>

<p>By your logic, people shouldn't get PDAs and just use a pocket size paper pad instead. Right? You can write all your contact info in there and keep your to-do list and what not.</p>

13

<p>Look into the Toshiba M45 series.</p>

14

<p>Whats wrong with the AMD processors?</p>

<p>I mean right now the Pentium M is the best mobile processor in my mind but any of the current AMD mobiles (like the turion64) are WAY better than the celeron. And when you get to desktops, AMD processors are a much much better deal.</p>

<p>Pentium M>AMD>Celeron
IBM>=Toshiba>Dell</p>