building a Notebook

[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 I am basicly looking for something that is fast, and by the time I become a Senior, it won't be totally worthless/outdated (hints why i want 7200rpm HD, 512 ram, big vid card)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.

 

[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.

 

[B16]

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

 

[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.

 

[phunky.buddha]

* > Dell

 

[tab]

Originally posted by Calesta@Aug 3 2004, 12:32 AM
* > Dell

[post=371792]Quoted post[/post]​

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.)

 

[phunky.buddha]

Originally posted by tab+Aug 3 2004, 12:46 AM-->

Calesta

@Aug 3 2004, 12:32 AM
* > Dell

[post=371792]Quoted post[/post]​

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.)

[post=371804]Quoted post[/post]​

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.

 

[posol]

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.

 

[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

 

[asmallsol]

Originally posted by corvetteguy@Aug 3 2004, 09:40 AM
and look at Sony, Tobishas or IBM's but i would stay away from dells compaqs HPs and emachines

[post=371873]Quoted post[/post]​

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.

 

[phunky.buddha]

Originally posted by pissedoffsol@Aug 3 2004, 07:56 AM
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.

[post=371866]Quoted post[/post]​

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.

 

[B16]

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

 

[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.

 

[posol]

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...

 

[posol]

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.

 

[CRX-YEM]

Originally posted by corvetteguy@Aug 3 2004, 09:40 AM
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

[post=371873]Quoted post[/post]​

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

 

[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?