Help?

[user87]

Hello, can anyone help me pick out a laptop for school use? I'd mostly be using it for typing up papers, internet, and listening to music, and I can go about as high as $1,200 USD. Mostly, I want a laptop that I can keep for a REALLY, REALLY long time, and has good (great) battery life. Thanks in advance.


Specs:

*Intel Celeron, Pentium 4, or equivalent AMD processor at 2.6 GHz or faster CPU
- or -
Pentium M processor at 1.4 GHz or faster CPU
*512 MB or more RAM
*20 GB or larger Hard Drive
*Minimum: CD-RW/DVD combo / Recommended: CD/DVD-RW Optical Drive
*128 MB or larger USB keychain portable drive recommended for use instead of floppy disks Portable Drive
*16-bit stereo sound or better, shielded stereo computer speakers (to save space, consider getting a display with built-in speakers) Sound
*32 MB or more Video Memory
*Laptop displays should have a resolution of 1024x768
*10/100 or 10/100/1000 Base-T wired Ethernet card Network
- and -
a 802.11b/g wireless card Network
*Internal 56k bps, V.92-compliant, modem is recommended for student systems and staff/faculty home systems Modem
*Windows XP Pro (XP Home is not recommended) OS
*Microsoft Office 2003 Standard
*3 year parts & labor is highly recommended

 

[damasta55r]

Compaq R4000!!!!

 

[The_Other_One]

Are those specs from a school or something? Some are just stupid. 32M for video memory? You wouldn't beleive what I've done with my old computer with it set on 8M! And 512M RAM? Of course I'd reccomend more, but 256M would do fine!

I have an Averatec 3270 I'm very pleased with. It's a Sempron 2800, DVD-RW, 512M RAM, WiFi, etc etc... The only downfalls would have to be the battery life(about 2 hours with wifi, kinda short for some people) and the video is crap. It's not a gamming machine, but works great for productivity stuff. Oh, and it's a 12" machine, so quite little. Averatec has some 10" models out too, but I'm not sure of the price. Mine ended up being just over $800 after taxs and the rebate I got.

Now, if you really want good battery life, look into the transmeta processors. They are harder to find, and can sometimes be more expensive, but I've heard of some laptops getting around 6 hours on batteries with them! Of course, these are slower than other processors. You have to decide what you really want, performace or battery life.

One last thing, on one of the newer Averatecs(a 15" model) I saw a power saving button. No clue what it was(no, not just disabling wifi, that was another switch) Maybe underclocking it? Might be worht a look too...

 

[nexgentec.com]

Pentium M

If you are looking for long battery life then you best bet is a Centrino Notebook which has a Pentium M Processor. Also the screen size has a lot to do with battery longevity. I would not get anything bigger then 15" I have seen some nice laptops with a 14" LCD, small and light. I would consider Gateway, HP, and Dell.

Good Luck,
http://www.nexgentec.com/