Okay, so to begin with I apologize if you've all read this request in its exactitude millions of times. I hope that my request is unique enough, at least, to make it seem worth posting and therefore worth answering.
Anyway, I'm pretty much computer illiterate and have very little knowledge concerning hardware. I am looking to buy a laptop for my Sophomore semester because my last year of college was hell without a computer (felt like living in the middle ages).
I have $650.00 - $700.00 to spend at maximum. I am a musician and am looking to mainly use protools/cakewalk, and perhaps P2P networks and would like a CD-RW as well. I'm not much of a gamer, but it would be nice if I could work games like The Sims. This, however, I would consider a luxury that would be ultimately unnecessary.
I checked out Ebay and found a company with great feedback called CSR Technologies that I'm sure you're all probably aware of but upon further research I found a lot of reviews that accused them of a great many things and I thought perhaps I should go new and professional, instead. That lead me to the Dell Inspiron 1525, but by the time I'd updated it to the specs I've been advised to (including the pricey Soundblaster X-fi) the price was pretty crazy.
My brother has suggested I get a computer with atleast 160 GB of hard drive space (for music storage, I guess), at least 2GB memory and a Core 2 Duo T6400 or T6600. He's not exactly shown himself to be a computer whiz, though, so I don't take his word as gospel. So to the forums!
If any of you master computer geeks (I use the word with deep respect
) could help me in finding what I need in my price range I would be very grateful.
Anyway, I'm pretty much computer illiterate and have very little knowledge concerning hardware. I am looking to buy a laptop for my Sophomore semester because my last year of college was hell without a computer (felt like living in the middle ages).
I have $650.00 - $700.00 to spend at maximum. I am a musician and am looking to mainly use protools/cakewalk, and perhaps P2P networks and would like a CD-RW as well. I'm not much of a gamer, but it would be nice if I could work games like The Sims. This, however, I would consider a luxury that would be ultimately unnecessary.
I checked out Ebay and found a company with great feedback called CSR Technologies that I'm sure you're all probably aware of but upon further research I found a lot of reviews that accused them of a great many things and I thought perhaps I should go new and professional, instead. That lead me to the Dell Inspiron 1525, but by the time I'd updated it to the specs I've been advised to (including the pricey Soundblaster X-fi) the price was pretty crazy.
My brother has suggested I get a computer with atleast 160 GB of hard drive space (for music storage, I guess), at least 2GB memory and a Core 2 Duo T6400 or T6600. He's not exactly shown himself to be a computer whiz, though, so I don't take his word as gospel. So to the forums!
If any of you master computer geeks (I use the word with deep respect
) could help me in finding what I need in my price range I would be very grateful.