Anyone seen any good laptops local?

[pHEnomIC]

I really need a laptop for college. Lookin to spend 1000-1500. I feel like a newb comparing apples to oranges. This new duo core stuff is confusing to me since they dont even list the speeds anymore at a lot of stores. I am also confused by the video card options as well. This is all comin from someone who has built multiple computers. I just havent kept up with current tech lately. Who has the current better setup currently, AMD or Intel? I am a power user so good hardware is important.

Anyone seen any good deals on anything i would like?

Ive seen a couple in my price range but they all seem to have one thing lacking while excelling everywhere else.

Also, do you think i should go 15.4 ws or 17. I feel ive been deprived my whole life w/ a 17 inch screen on my computer as opposed to a nice 19 inch or 21 so i could make up for it by getting a 17 now. A lot of people are tellin me that i should probably just go with the 15.4 because luggin around a 17 to class might be a hassle. (I am not worried about weight of it that much)

I want a huge hd (80gig 7200rpm @least), few usb of course, 1 firewire, 1-2gigs ram, 256meg video card, wireless of course. Decent battery life is required, doesnt have to be insane though.

[JoeliusZ28]

i like widescreens. my desktop LCD is a 19" widescreen and its nice cause i can have two things open next to each other and they are still fairly proprotional. and even if thats not good enough, i can toss more stuff over onto my secondary monitor lol

[thursday12889]

Well I prefer AMD processors, but with all the stuff you want I think you'll be spending more than 1500 bucks. Last I knew most laptops came with 20 gig harddrives, and like 512 ram. I do have a question though, why do you need that much for college? I've had my compaq presario desktop for 6 years now and its still faster than all my friends computers, 256 ram, 404 gig HD, and i think the processor is an AMD Atholon (whatever) 64 rated at like .94 ghz. Video card is like 124meg. It works fine for me I just really don't think you need that much for college. IMO

[pHEnomIC]

I am a power user and my computer is on its last leg. It will be a desktop replacement as well. I need a little more juice than the average user.
Actually i found plenty of things in my range. I found a toshiba for 999 dual core amd, 256m video ram, 1 gig ram, 15.4 ws, free printer, free wireless router, 80gighd, i am thinkin about that just wish it had 2 gigs of ram (not upradeable either).

[thursday12889]

But do you really need 2 gigs of ram? I think thats just alot.

[meissen]

I actually just bought my laptop that I'm on right now. I ordered it direct from Dell through my company's employee purchase program.

Here's the stats:
E1505 Dell Laptop
Centrino Duo Core Processor 1.60ghz x2 (Comparable to a 3.2ghz P4)
120gb HD
1gb memory
256mb ATI Radeon x1400 Video Card
15.4" Widescreen TruLife (i chose the top of the line screen they had)
8x CDRW/DVDRW

It's got a lot of nice other goodies... 5-in-1 card reader (that actually reads xD, my 7-in-1 for my Compaq Gaming Rig X07 had everything BUT xD and it pissed me off), MediaDirect (can play DVDs, photos, music, etc without actually turning the whole computer on), 3year at home warranty, 3 year subscription to McAfee Internet Security, etc. After I pimped it out to what I wanted it to have, it came to 1800 before taxes. After my employee discounts and then the sales tax, it came to 1160. Not a bad deal at all.

Anyway, Jon, seriously if you're interested in the dual core processing, keep your eye on Dell or other companies that put the Centrino Duo into their laptops. Intel just announced at the beginning of this month that they're coming out with QUAD core processing, the Core 2 Duo, and the price of the Centrino Duos will drop because they'll be old news. I was lucky to get mine at a good deal when I did. I actually checked Dell the very next day using the same employee discount and I would've only gotten $200 off that day instead of the $700 that I got off the day before! It doesn't hurt if you sign up for the Dell Financing, either, makes life easier.

[wezeles]

i say toshiba or dell so far i like toshiba the best they have the nicest screen out of all of them specially if you like movies or gaming... but dells you do get exactly what you want out of them too... nice thing is laptops shot right down in price lately... and always look to see if they can be upgraded... my toshiba was only a 512 but to get a full gig version would have been 200 bucks more were the stick was like 50 bucks from them and then a little more for the 40 gig drive... if you know how to do any of the work on it... and laptops are pretty dummy proof on the inside you cant move much but what you can is plug and play... and you can save some cash that way and still have a nice one...

[JoeliusZ28]

QUAD core processing

8-O 8-O 8-O

[phoenix_rising]

I used to build computers for a living and I keep up with them as much as possible. All my friends who are CIS people go with AMD first. P4 and hyperthreading is a joke. Duo core is a joke. Centrino is okay but the rest of intel sucks. Also I wouldn't get anything from Dell unless it was an XPS system because those aren't Dells. The internals and craftsmanship are very different which lead me to beleive they are probably alienware systems rebadged. But if you go AMD you'll be sitting good. I hear the new Turions are great!

[JoeliusZ28]

I used to build computers for a living and I keep up with them as much as possible. All my friends who are CIS people go with AMD first. P4 and hyperthreading is a joke. Duo core is a joke. Centrino is okay but the rest of intel sucks. Also I wouldn't get anything from Dell unless it was an XPS system because those aren't Dells. The internals and craftsmanship are very different which lead me to beleive they are probably alienware systems rebadged. But if you go AMD you'll be sitting good. I hear the new Turions are great!

im the same way... I use AMD for every computer i build, except my own. I still think intel is best if you want to go all out.

[93formulalt1]

Well, I can speak from experience, I also have built my fair share of computers, and I'm not pleased with Intel Pentiums anymore. . . And toshiba's not that great, I'm on my Toshiba laptop right now, P4 3.06 gHz, Radeon Mobility 9000 64mb graphics, 60gb hdd, 5.1 surround compatible, 15.4 widescreen (beautiful screen, bad graphics for gaming) and 512mb RAM. . . It's slow as balls. I can't even play the original Halo on it, its less than a year old.

[wezeles]

thats because its not specifically made for it... gotta get something witha decent video card...did you change your power save settings at all? up the virtual memory and stuff... never had a problem on mine playing games

[93formulalt1]

thats because its not specifically made for it... gotta get something witha decent video card...did you change your power save settings at all? up the virtual memory and stuff... never had a problem on mine playing games

I checked the box that said "Let Windows choose what's best for me" in the Virtual Memory control panel. Any other ideas? I really want to be able to play Grand Theft Auto III at my laptops full resolution. AWESOME graphics at 1280x800, but it's really choppy when I move at all.

[meissen]

you expect to play a decent game on a 64mb card? Yeah right! 128mb at the very least, 256 or a 512mb card is more reasonable.

As for the whole AMD vs Intel... truthfully AMD anymore is like Flowmaster. Everyone buys it just because it's Flowmaster, not because it's good (which Flowmaster isn't *cough* ) To me, paying a couple hundred more for an AMD cpu when I can buy the same Intel cpu rated at the same speed for a few hundred less? Yeah right, I'm going intel. So far I haven't had any problems with either, but price is the main concern for me.

For the record, I just rendered a 3 minute movie on my laptop last night for the first time in Sony Vegas 6.0 .. the rendering took about 5-10 minutes. On my desktop it would've taken the same amount of time. The Centrino Duo definitely gets my thumbs up of approval for having two 1.6ghz processors that can render a video at the same time (if not a little faster) as a P4 3.0 ghz machine. :thumb:

[phoenix_rising]

you expect to play a decent game on a 64mb card? Yeah right! 128mb at the very least, 256 or a 512mb card is more reasonable.

As for the whole AMD vs Intel... truthfully AMD anymore is like Flowmaster. Everyone buys it just because it's Flowmaster, not because it's good (which Flowmaster isn't *cough* ) To me, paying a couple hundred more for an AMD cpu when I can buy the same Intel cpu rated at the same speed for a few hundred less? Yeah right, I'm going intel. So far I haven't had any problems with either, but price is the main concern for me.

For the record, I just rendered a 3 minute movie on my laptop last night for the first time in Sony Vegas 6.0 .. the rendering took about 5-10 minutes. On my desktop it would've taken the same amount of time. The Centrino Duo definitely gets my thumbs up of approval for having two 1.6ghz processors that can render a video at the same time (if not a little faster) as a P4 3.0 ghz machine. :thumb:

Ummm. Correction Brian AMD Chipsets have always been more affordable and Intel sold at a premium. At least AMD is true power not BS Hyperthreading crap. AMD is like a BBC where as a Intel is like a 4 Banger Kia!