My school wants me to get a thinkpad but...

<p>I got accepted into unc and they have a so called cci (carolina computer initiative) where they have a line of 4 thinkpad models that they offer with 4 year warranty, loaner service if your's is being fixed and slightly cheaper prices than if you buy the same specced thinkpad yourself.</p>

<p>But even the cheapest one costs 1500 dollars (but that price includes all the warranty and software like word and photoshop, but photoshop not sure im going to use it even) and it's kind of low on graphic power (1100 bucks and it's intel accelerator stuff).</p>

<p>I could get a dell or hp or asus with the right screen size and graphic power (im not planning on intense gaming but i'd like to be able to play decent games at decent settings), for less than 1400 (price of the model i want and with all the software and everything i end up paying 1800, and for that i could get a laptop in the right size with megatron power and still have leftover money), and if i need fixing, the difference in price could cover that...on the other hand it's good to know that my school takes care of everything if i buy their laptop but then again, the price difference makes it less attractive....</p>

<p>Well my university, William and Mary, had a very similar program (they recently changed the program to offer Dells and Macs). I reluctantly bought the Thinkpad due to the urging of my parents. They thought that I’d really be using that warranty, go figure. All I have to say is that if you treat your computers decently then I would just go with your custom laptop. The one time I was grateful for the warranty was when I accidentally spilled green tea on my keyboard, which ended up breaking it. It was a quick fix and after 45 minutes I got my computer back with a brand new keyboard. </p>

<p>My computer, the T60 has awful laptop speakers so unless Lenovo has fixed that be prepared to wear headphones constantly (not really a problem unless you plan on watching movies on it with other people).</p>