Laptop Purchase: Advice/Suggestions?

A

AlexRT

New Member
Hi everyone. I will be in college next year, and I need a laptop for desk space reasons. I was wondering if anyone has some suggestions for a reliable, state-of-the-art laptop that is light enough for me to be able to carry around with me.

Having foolishly downloaded Limewire on my current computer at home, I have unfortunately grown accustomed to frequent problems/freeze-ups. As such, though I do not plan on installing Limewire on my new laptop, I would like for it to have enough memory (I think memory is the right word here) to last.

I really do not require much, other than the Microsoft package (Word, Excel, Powerpoint) as I will most likely use the laptop to takes notes in my classes, iTunes, AOL Instant Messenger, a Poker program, and some spyware/antivirus/firewall programs. I'm not much of a gamer, so I won't need anything of that sort.

Price is not really an issue, as I have made enough money this summer to afford whichever laptop I may choose.

As of right now, I am leaning towards buying a Dell laptop, though I will certainly appreciate whatever help or suggestions anyone can give! :)

Thanks, Alex
 
Its kind of hard to give a good suggestion when most people on these forums would spend as much as they could to get as good a system as possible. I myself always have trouble spending under $2000 CAN on a system and I usually feel the need to spend at least $2500 CAN lol but I cut it around $2200. I personally shop at dell because I have had great service when I had a problem and they gave me no hassle next day the thing was fixed. If you seriously don't need to use anything other than what you have you should get something with a probably a Pentium M good battery life and 512Mb of ram. No more than 1200-1300 with warrenty and taxes probably.
 
since you will be taking notes you must have good battery life. i highly recommend a dell inspiron 600m because it gets nearly 5 hours of battery life and weights a little under 5 pounds. i currently am using one right now. they have the best customer service when it comes to exchanges or defective parts. not to mention the 600m is a beast and can play any game out in the market.

i wouldn't recommend sony vaio's. my gf has two of them and are both broke. one had to be exchanged but only through a best buy warranty. sony warranties shouldnt be trusted.
 
Thanks alanuofm.

I also believe good battery life is a very important quality. Currently, the Dell Inspirons that I have been looking at is the 9300 and the 2200. Do you know anything about those?

Also, my school recommends the Dell Latitude over the Dell Inspiron; I am looking into the Latitude D610. What do you (or anyone else) think?
 
the 9300 is quite heavy and is not at all portable. i have an inspiron 9100 and would know all too well about it. the 2200 is a celeron M which is not at all fast or recommended.

since price is not an issue and i assume you will be bored sometimes and want to play some video games or watch a movie, i suggest you pack on the inspiron 600m with as much as possible. i currently have a 600m and a 9100. the pentium M laptops with centrino have very good battery life and will play any of the latest games. i am running counter-strike (high video demanding game) on my sisters laptop and i am running nearly 250 fps. for the price of the 600m you can't beat. also if you order under the educational department instead of the home department you get an additional 4 to 12% off any sales that are currently running. i saved another 50$ off my laptops.

http://www1.us.dell.com/content/default.aspx?c=us&cs=2236&l=en&s=eep

thats the link for the education department.

latitudes are nothing special and are very ugly.
 
probably the cheapest laptops you can find in the market and the best quality. desktops are iffy but their laptops are great!

a lot of places require 10+ pixels to be burnt out before you are eligible for an exchange. i had 1 burnt out pixel and i called them. i told them i needed a computer for college and couldn't wait for a repair. they airmailed me a brand new laptop and gave me a box to ship back the damaged one. my cdrw modular bay port went bad a few months back and i sent it in on a wednesday, it was fixed on thursday and shipped out and i had it by friday.

all you need is the mail in service. with the speed of their service you dont even need the at-home.
 
Last edited:
i never used one. my friend however owns a photography place and uses them for editing all his photos. they look pretty sweet. 15.4 inch widescreen so the laptop is probably pretty large.
 
You guys can go with your Dell's, I'm sticking with my Avertec :P It's served me well and so has the one my friend got about a year ago.
 
My friend's cyberpower laptop is awesome, he got it like last year, and i have decided to get one from ibuypower, since those places are almost identical, i am hoping i will like it as much if not more then his.
BTW, its got a PM 1.6 1gb pc3200 5400rpm 80gb hdd 256mb X700 (awesomeness) and a dvd burner
 
The_Other_One said:
You guys can go with your Dell's, I'm sticking with my Avertec :P It's served me well and so has the one my friend got about a year ago.
Click to expand...

i like dell because of its great product and warranty. i dont know any other places that would mail you a whole new computer because of one burnt out pixel. they also pay for shipping both ways. most other companies require you to pay for shipping the computer to their place of repair. it cost 50$ to ship a 10 pound package via DHL or ups.
 
Ok, well i went with the Dell Inspiron 600m. I had narrowed it down to that and the Dell Latitude....thanks again for all your help
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top