asmallsol

Since I am going off to college in about 3 weeks, It is time for me to buy a computer. I have decided that a notebook will be much more practicle. I am looking to spend around 1500 or so.

I am looking for something with....

15.4 inch screen (when I went to bestbuy today, The HD screens were looking pretty nice)
512meg of ram
128mb vid card
pentium 4 or AMD proccesor w/ 2.8ghz or so
Wireless stuff (802.11g card, plus LAN card)
7200 rpm Hard drive however, I don't need 60gig, and thats the smallest one most places has @ 7200
xp pro
at least 2 if not more USB ports.
No extra software (my dad has office pro, and I have a priated copy of PS)

Is blue tooth nessary? Really, I know the basics of most of the crap, but I don't know everything as if it were my car

Anyone have any pointers for other things they might add or subtract. I am basicly looking for something that is fast, and by the time I become a Senior, it won't be totally worthless/outdated (hints why i want 7200rpm HD, 512 ram, big vid card)

As of right now, I basicly only use the computer for Surfing and papers, but I am sure when I get to college, I will be doing CAD and everything else.


I am going into Mech. Engineering (Michigan Tech U. for those who care) so any engineering students, what would you recomend my computer be heavy towards.

__________________
Collin
Material Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University

tab

with a 2.8 gig processor, I'd look for a 533 FSB, and a hard drive with a quick search time. The 7200 rpms is good, but I'd put more emphasis on quick retrieval of info.

__________________
--------------------
--------------------

2003 Chevy Avalanche
Leather, Moonroof, Z71, tow package, bose+six disc, nice.

1992 Accord EX (sold to good friends)
JDM H22A
H22A Auto Tranny w/LSD
I/H/E -- All stainless w/2.5 inch Catback

1968 Oldsmobile Toronado
Project car, 455 ci front wheel drive, nasty.

B16

get a compaq, but we already talked about that in IM :P

__________________
2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8
2004 BMW 325i
2000 Mercedes Benz ML 430
1994 Honda Civic Del Sol VTEC (race kaa)

Sabz5150

Bluetooth is good for wireless connections to cellphones, PDAs and other goodies that bear the Bluetooth logo. It's super short range, about 30 feet at max.

I use bluetooth to sync my Palm and control my XMMS playlist remotely.

If you don't have a need for this, ya don't need Bluetooth.

__________________
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 9 2007-09-24 10:32 /dev/thisissparta -> /dev/null

Calesta

* > Dell

__________________
DO NOT PM me with tech questions! Use the forums!
Intercrew Auto Salon - (972) 485-8688

tab

For a consumer product, they do give you a lot of options on what you want in your computer. Almost hand built.(haven't seen the factory, maybe they are.)

__________________
--------------------
--------------------

2003 Chevy Avalanche
Leather, Moonroof, Z71, tow package, bose+six disc, nice.

1992 Accord EX (sold to good friends)
JDM H22A
H22A Auto Tranny w/LSD
I/H/E -- All stainless w/2.5 inch Catback

1968 Oldsmobile Toronado
Project car, 455 ci front wheel drive, nasty.

Calesta

For a consumer product, they do give you a lot of options on what you want in your computer. Almost hand built.(haven't seen the factory, maybe they are.)
[/b][/quote]

No no no no. You read my arrow wrong. Read it again. I've seen too many problems with Dell laptops and desktops, especially in the last 3 years. Their quality just gets worse and worse- they use cheaper and cheaper parts all the time, and they have a killer contract with Intel (not a bad thing) that allows them to sell whole computers with fast chips really cheap too. Believe me- I've seen way too many Dell motherboards fail just this summer to continue recommending them to people.

__________________
DO NOT PM me with tech questions! Use the forums!
Intercrew Auto Salon - (972) 485-8688

pissedoffsol

dells have dropped. they got too mainstream, and now its like APC. there's better for the money by far.

i do, however, own a dell laptop. and, well, i love it. i paid about a grand for it, brand new, p4, 2.5 ghz, 30gb, 512, dvd/cdr, xp home, blah blah.

couldn't beat the price.... so i jumped on it.
garg1121 on ebay was the seller... hes got god deals from time to time, and was real good to work with.

TurboMirage

never had a problem with ANY of the latitudes i owned.

the only reason i got rid of each was to get a faster one.

__________________
Home of the RPW built 2000 Lancer CC Coupe.

See what is done to the little Evo5.

"If you don't like what I've done with my car, I will gladly refund all the money you put into it."

corvetteguy

Lets put it this way, your not finding a new quality laptop with 2.8gz 128mb vid and 512megs of ram with wireless option for 1500 bucks you better step down about 1ghz or so and about 256megs of ram less for that much and a 15.4 screen, no way...you can probrably find an emachines laptop for that much, but don't expect it to work for more then 3-4 months..my buddy bought 1 with 2 years warrantly,it died, motherboard was bad, they sent him another one...hardrive was bad...and nows he is waiting on another one....but if you wanna try emachines

notebook 1

You could get a compaq with those option for around 1500, but i never though compaqs to be quality computers....

or you can get some thing like this
notebook

If i was you i would look into something in the 1.6ghz range with 512ram, built in wireless is not a critical option, plus you can always buy a pcmcia card or a USB wireless card...and look at Sony, Tobishas or IBM's but i would stay away from dells compaqs HPs and emachines

__________________
2005 Scion TC

asmallsol

From what I have read here and Cnet.com (actuall coustomer responce) I will agree with the dell. Emachines, of couse. Most of them are using Celeron procerssors. You cant expect much out of them. My dad has owned 2 Compaqs (HP now owns them) and havn't had the best of luck with them. Our first one blew. The motherboard sucked, always had problems with it. Our newer one is a little better, but still has had a few problems here and there.

I have looked at some sonys and have some with alot of the stuff I am lookin for.

Here is one...Best buy sony Vaio

Vid card is a 64, not that fast of a HD.

__________________
Collin
Material Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University

Calesta

Yeah, Dell's cheap- and they're honestly a good value- but Dell is the primary supplier of computers at UT, and working IT on campus is a headache when you're sitting there trying to diagnose a problem and it comes up as a dead motherboard. You don't ever expect a board to die, but now it's just too common with Dells lately.

To be 100% honest, about 30-40% of the Dells (laptops and desktops both) that I've worked on this summer which had any problem at all ended up having something wrong with the motherboard. Our old p2-300 and p3-450 machines keep on truckin', but the newer laptops and P4 desktops from the past 2-3 years are all crap.

__________________
DO NOT PM me with tech questions! Use the forums!
Intercrew Auto Salon - (972) 485-8688

B16

i love my compaq(hp) couldn't be happier

__________________
2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8
2004 BMW 325i
2000 Mercedes Benz ML 430
1994 Honda Civic Del Sol VTEC (race kaa)

Battle Pope

Dell, Emachines, Compaq/HP, all of them are crap. If you want a nice notebook, pick up a Sony, Toshiba, or maybe a IBM. Peep Newegg and see what they got - great prices and service.

http://www.newegg.com

Also, Don't expect to find a notebook with everything you listed for under 1500 bucks. It ain't happening. 2 large is a more realistic estimate for ALL of that stuff.

__________________

pissedoffsol

funny you say that mike--- my dads dell just crapped out last week, and it was the mother board.

B16

hmm... guess its a good thing my work bought me this one then... :P

__________________
2005 Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution 8
2004 BMW 325i
2000 Mercedes Benz ML 430
1994 Honda Civic Del Sol VTEC (race kaa)

pissedoffsol

at work, we use hp/compaq exclusively...

my machien is pretty damn quick... and i must say they have some pretty good service.

but nothing beats building your own box.

unfortunately, laptops don't really have the buildibility factor

TommyTheCat

Dude, went to MTU. You don't need a special computer to do CAD. You'll be stuck using Sun systems all day; and even when you use a PC you're using CATIA (ie expensive, no hacked versions). But you'll learn to love Suns until you're a junior....or go insane.

Trust me, at Tech, you find a copy of Mathematica (math prog used in all of the labs for Calc's, literally found on cd's in the dorms' hallways and basement floors) and just use that. I did all of my calc lab work at home, much nicer.

And don't waste too much money on a nice comp. It's really not worth it unless you *have* to play games on your pc. My old roomate's piece of crap Samsung laptop had some ATI card in it that was too good, he couldn't play CS (*shudder*) for more than 30 min before it shut off due to heat.

__________________
Tommythecat had many a story to tell, but it was a rare occasion, such as this, that he did.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
http://www.woostercollective.com/

CRX-YEM

Untrue, I just purchase this past week a Dell inspirone 9100 2.8GHz, 512MB ram, 128MB vid card, 1600x1200 15.4" monitor, 80GB hdd, CD-R/DVD, built in wireless, XP Pro, and a free printer for $1500

__________________
Dennis

Buy my stuff plz...
Mondaswap For Sale - MPFI, 88-91 CRX, 92-95 Civic Parts

Please don't PM/Email/IM me for technical support. Make a Post!!!

91 CRX DX, 03 Civic EX

"There are 10 kinds of people in the world: those who get binary and those who don't."

"Of all my imaginary friends I don't think there was one I didn't end up having to kill"

TDaddy

Well..we have 2 toshiba laptops...paid pretty much nothing for them so we couldn't beat that...we haven't had any problems whatsoever. My mom had a compaq and never had any problems with it... maybe this helps?

__________________
Never send a foot to do a hand job.

"Arguing over the internet is like the special olympics...even if you win, you're still retarded."

"You can't polish a turd and call it something." - Steve Watson
BAR # N5371070 ~~~It's California legal BITCH!!~~~
<span style=\'font-size:14pt;line-height:100%\'>Come <a href=\'http://www.101deals.com/Forums/index.php?act=idx\' target=\'_blank\'>Here!</a> And say what you want! Anything goes!!! </span>

integraslut78

I know I will get made fun of because I said this but here goes ..................

Macintosh G4 Titanium 1.2GHZ

Maybe in 3 years they may have the G5 laptop out but I doubt it.

__________________
DC Squad Member # 0631

I used to have my rides in this section but there are too many thieves out there trying to jack. I HATE THIEVES

Battle Pope

Uh... IIRC he said he actually wants to run some apps...

__________________

Calesta

What did I tell you man? That's kinda funny, really- even though it sucks for your dad.

__________________
DO NOT PM me with tech questions! Use the forums!
Intercrew Auto Salon - (972) 485-8688

asmallsol

Some of the new macs are GREAT computers, however, if no one is using them, its worthless. No software compadiblity. It's the same way with Lenix (sp?) I would love to use them, but since the software availbilty is scarce, it's not an option for now. If either of the two were more mainstream, I would sure as hell go with them, but until then, I have to stick with the POS windows system.

Also, problems that I see with macs, is not just software, but for the price, they blow. They cost 40%+ more then a windows system, and there speeds are not even the same.

__________________
Collin
Material Science and Engineering
Michigan Technological University

pissedoffsol

What did I tell you man? That's kinda funny, really- even though it sucks for your dad.
[/b][/quote]

yup, i couldn't pin point it.... i though it was a weak power supply... cuz it would turn on briefly, then fade out...
no POST beeps for MB errors either...

so he ended p on the phone for 3 hours with the tech support inidian chick who you couldn't understand... and basically broke down the entire thing, rebuilt it one piece at a time, and they finially sent a guy out after all that. on the phone they said it was the board and ram chiips... o h well... it was free... and only a couple days of down time.