What sort of laptop I should buy?

L

LovableOne

New Member
Here's my lifestyle:

I'm a college student so I use it to type papers, access my grades, and make online tuition payments.

I mix portability with viewing quality. I will occasionally take my laptop to college with me, but the laptop would stay at home the rest of the time.

I access facebook, youtube, and other video-sharing sites.

Perhaps about 3 out of 7 days, I'll play Runescape for about 2-3 hours. Sometimes its on and off (one week I'll play it, another week I'll stay away from it). I don't mind setting it to low-quality graphics. Most of you hardcore gamers are ROFLing, I take it. XD

I'm a digital art hobbyist, meaning I'm not a hardcore photoshopper or someone who uses Poser 8. I use GIMP with usually 300dpi per piece with plain pencil lineart and the usual cartoon style shading. Sometimes I'll mix it up and go for more realism, but that's very rare.

A laptop that can multi-task would be nice too. One where I can play RS and watch a video with no trouble. Send some of your suggestions and please explain them to me clearly. Also remember to be calm. I seen enough Dell rants to fund the Stimulus ten times over.

Thank you so much! :D
 
voyagerfan99

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
I recommend a nice Dell Latitude. I have an E6500 myself and love it.

p.s. I'm in college too.
 
Flaring Afro

Flaring Afro

New Member
Do you have a tv or will this be your only access to shows? I'd consider at least a 15" if it will be used to view shows a lot with friends. If you have a tv, you could get a smaller one and plug it into that instead.
 
Michael

Michael

Active Member
If you don't mind buying refurbished (direct from Toshiba, the maker of the laptop), the L305D-S5934 is only $369 right now!

I used this model for a little over a year (it was a brand new model 13 months ago) for everything you listed in your first post, and much more, and when I bought it it was $700.

My wife uses this laptop now and occasionally plays multiple Facebook games at once while chatting on MSN Messenger and playing music in the background. The laptop never hiccups or shows a sign of weakness.

For what you get, $369 is a hard price to beat.
 
Michael

Michael

Active Member
The notebook I recommended is as follows:

  • AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 (2Ghz)
  • 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM (Up to 8GB supported)
  • ATI® Radeon™ 3100 (256MB-1406MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory )
  • 250GB HDD (5400rpm)
  • DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R/RW/ROM double layer) with Labelflash™ drive supporting up to 11 formats
  • Atheros® Wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
  • 15.4" (1280x800) TrueBrite Display

For what you'll be using the laptop for, there's no need to make the leap to an i3 or i5 cpu with 4GB+ of DDR3, etc, etc unless you really want to drop the extra cash on the newer hardware. Even runescape runs great in HD (high detail) @ 1280x800, fullscreen with most settings maxed, assuming you have a decent internet connection, since that'll be the limiting factor.
 
D

daisymtc

Active Member
Michael said:
The notebook I recommended is as follows:

  • AMD Turion™ X2 Dual-Core Mobile Processor RM-70 (2Ghz)
  • 3GB PC2-6400 DDR2 800MHz SDRAM (Up to 8GB supported)
  • ATI® Radeon™ 3100 (256MB-1406MB dynamically allocated shared graphics memory )
  • 250GB HDD (5400rpm)
  • DVD-SuperMulti (+/-R/RW/ROM double layer) with Labelflash™ drive supporting up to 11 formats
  • Atheros® Wireless LAN (802.11b/g)
  • 15.4" (1280x800) TrueBrite Display

For what you'll be using the laptop for, there's no need to make the leap to an i3 or i5 cpu with 4GB+ of DDR3, etc, etc unless you really want to drop the extra cash on the newer hardware. Even runescape runs great in HD (high detail) @ 1280x800, fullscreen with most settings maxed, assuming you have a decent internet connection, since that'll be the limiting factor.
Click to expand...

It is true he won't need core i3/ i5. But considering he is in college, and the laptop probably need to last 3 years, core i3 would probably a better choice
 
L

LovableOne

New Member
daisymtc said:
With $600, probably go for 14" - 15.6" core i3 330m, 4GB RAM, integrated VGA?
Click to expand...

I don't mind integrated much, but if it would be possible to get dedicated, I would, but I have no preference as long as it's affordable.

Thank you all for your suggestions! It's really appreciated. I'm still shopping for it, but all your feedback has helped :3
 
Michael

Michael

Active Member
daisymtc said:
It is true he won't need core i3/ i5. But considering he is in college, and the laptop probably need to last 3 years, core i3 would probably a better choice
Click to expand...

I fail to see why the laptop I recommended wouldn't last at least 3 years.

I couldn't justify wasting the money on the newer i3 or i5 builds with what he'll be using it for, especially since the Toshiba L305D-S5934 is a pretty capable notebook.
 
L

LovableOne

New Member
Michael said:
I fail to see why the laptop I recommended wouldn't last at least 3 years.

I couldn't justify wasting the money on the newer i3 or i5 builds with what he'll be using it for, especially since the Toshiba L305D-S5934 is a pretty capable notebook.
Click to expand...

Are the Toshiba's sturdy? I heard from a friend that they're good computers, but they break easily from wear and tear.

Also, this is a minor note, not mad since this is the internet and all and you could never tell, but I'm a female. XD
 
Michael

Michael

Active Member
LovableOne said:
Are the Toshiba's sturdy? I heard from a friend that they're good computers, but they break easily from wear and tear.

Also, this is a minor note, not mad since this is the internet and all and you could never tell, but I'm a female. XD
Click to expand...

Sorry for the late response, I've been busy all weekend.

I put my Toshiba, for lack of a better term, through hell and back and it looks and functions like the day I bought it, with the exception of a few very fine hairline scratches on the glossy, blue lid.
I haven't heard anything about Toshiba being of poor physical construction, and I never experienced anything like that - nor did my sister, who owns a 3 year old Satellite Pro series notebook that's been rapidly abused in a book-bag up to 8 hours a day.

In the year and a month I had my Toshiba notebook, I requested 2 new batteries and 1 new charger.
  • The charger I had become defective from twisting the wire-end at the charging brick for traveling, leading to premature failure. This was my own fault, and I told them that but they offered to replace it free-of-charge.
  • The first battery was a misunderstanding on my part - I thought mine was going bad because it only held a charge for about a hour. It turned out it was Ubuntu not properly setting my CPU threshold, the new battery did the same thing until I finally found information on the web that resolved the issue.
  • The second battery was offered to me free of charge because my warranty was about to expire. They called me in December to make sure I was satisfied with my notebook, and to try and sell me an extended warranty. I told them the only thing I was worried about was the battery, being as it was already 9 months old with thousands of hours of use on it, and they offered to send me one free of charge.
CS was always helpful and rectified any issues immediately, even when it was my own error.
They always told me it could take up to 15 days to get my parts, but I would get them in 1-2 days, with the labels reading "Standard Overnight Delivery" through UPS.

That's my experience with Toshiba during my time with the L305D-S5934, I hope it's in some way useful to you.

Sorry for the gender-misunderstanding :eek:
 
L

LovableOne

New Member
Michael said:
Sorry for the late response, I've been busy all weekend.

I put my Toshiba, for lack of a better term, through hell and back and it looks and functions like the day I bought it, with the exception of a few very fine hairline scratches on the glossy, blue lid.
I haven't heard anything about Toshiba being of poor physical construction, and I never experienced anything like that - nor did my sister, who owns a 3 year old Satellite Pro series notebook that's been rapidly abused in a book-bag up to 8 hours a day.

In the year and a month I had my Toshiba notebook, I requested 2 new batteries and 1 new charger.
  • The charger I had become defective from twisting the wire-end at the charging brick for traveling, leading to premature failure. This was my own fault, and I told them that but they offered to replace it free-of-charge.
  • The first battery was a misunderstanding on my part - I thought mine was going bad because it only held a charge for about a hour. It turned out it was Ubuntu not properly setting my CPU threshold, the new battery did the same thing until I finally found information on the web that resolved the issue.
  • The second battery was offered to me free of charge because my warranty was about to expire. They called me in December to make sure I was satisfied with my notebook, and to try and sell me an extended warranty. I told them the only thing I was worried about was the battery, being as it was already 9 months old with thousands of hours of use on it, and they offered to send me one free of charge.
CS was always helpful and rectified any issues immediately, even when it was my own error.
They always told me it could take up to 15 days to get my parts, but I would get them in 1-2 days, with the labels reading "Standard Overnight Delivery" through UPS.

That's my experience with Toshiba during my time with the L305D-S5934, I hope it's in some way useful to you.

Sorry for the gender-misunderstanding :eek:
Click to expand...

It's quite alright, I forgot to reply for about 8 days XD Thank you for that, I'll consider it!

Don't worry about the gender-misunderstanding. It's the internet, it happens :3
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top