[EYJAYJAY]

i also have a question.. i'll be buying my first laptop and im gonna be in my senior year in college. got 3 more years of grad school too. so, ill definitely be using it for school work. however, i do like to play games and with some nice pc games coming out i'll need good graphics card but i am absolutely lost when it comes to that. i dont need a top notch graphics card, but i would like one that's above average that will provide me with good gaming experience. any recommendations? and can someone tell me what you would look at in a graphics card that tells you if it's good or not? (hope that made sense) and how many gigs of ram should i get?

[Godotology]

My brother needs a laptop in a few days because he is going on a trip. When September comes around, I'll be taking it to university. I won't be needing it for intense gaming or photoshop. My parents and brother went to the local store and are interested in the LG R405 for $1199 CDN. The store called it a "special" but I noticed that directcanada, canadacomputers and NCIX offers it for roughly the same price. I can hardly dig up any info on the quality or build of the LG brand itself and this particular laptop. Do you have any experience or knowledge to help me make this decision? Are there alternatives that you would recommend with better "value" and roughly similar specs/price?http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?d...amp;cid=896.500That's a link to see the specs. I would've put it here, but it got unaligned and hard to read.

LG is a very good brand, in fact, I would regard their line as being a higher end. But they are pricey for what you get.I'm not too familiar with how Canadians price their laptops but the specs seem decent, and its a new Santa Rosa (Centrino Pro) model instead of one of the older core 2 duo ones.

quick questioni'm wondering which would be better overall between these 2 specs..intel core 2 duo 'centrino duo' 7300 2.0 ghz with a Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (shared)or aintel core 2 duo 'centrino duo' t5350 1.5 ghz with a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GSif one were to choose one given these 2 options, which would one get?and also, i'm looking for a laptop with santa rosa that is less than $1600 to be used for gaming, graphic design, at least 2gigs of ram, hard drive size doesnt matter

what laptop are you looking at that has 1.5ghz? I don't see too many places offering it except for Dell. if you're into gaming, then by far, the 2nd option.. just try to get at least 1.8ghz processor.

i also have a question.. i'll be buying my first laptop and im gonna be in my senior year in college. got 3 more years of grad school too. so, ill definitely be using it for school work. however, i do like to play games and with some nice pc games coming out i'll need good graphics card but i am absolutely lost when it comes to that. i dont need a top notch graphics card, but i would like one that's above average that will provide me with good gaming experience. any recommendations? and can someone tell me what you would look at in a graphics card that tells you if it's good or not? (hope that made sense) and how many gigs of ram should i get?

get at least 1gb of ram, preferably 2gb. but at the moment i do NOT reccomend 4gb of ram since Vista (32 bit) can't detect 4gbs, and that most manufacturers won't give you a 64 bit vista.I think you should consider your screen size first as it'll tell you what kind of vid card will be available13" to 14" models will only get you the Nvidia 8400G, GS, and GT (from weakest to strongest)while 15.4" models will get you the Nvidia 8600 GS and GT

[litoxshortaii]

has anyone had any experience with the new dell laptops? (:

[Godotology]

has anyone had any experience with the new dell laptops? (:

Unfortunately you won't find anyone with experience with it until a few more weeks when its shipped to consumers. I did order an XPS M1330 which I'll be reviewing at Notebookreview.com. So far, our admins there are quite pleased with their latest redesigns, a definite step up from the old inspirons.

[EYJAYJAY]

get at least 1gb of ram, preferably 2gb. but at the moment i do NOT reccomend 4gb of ram since Vista (32 bit) can't detect 4gbs, and that most manufacturers won't give you a 64 bit vista.I think you should consider your screen size first as it'll tell you what kind of vid card will be available13" to 14" models will only get you the Nvidia 8400G, GS, and GT (from weakest to strongest)while 15.4" models will get you the Nvidia 8600 GS and GT

ok thanks a lot. are those nvidia graphics card good enough for gaming? or are there also better ones? im not sure if you play or have played starcraft but im really looking forward to starcraft2's release, i hope they can handle the graphics and other good games. and my laptop will most likely have 2gig of ram, i suppose ill upgrade later.. i mean, do you think vista will have an update later to let it detect 4gig?

thanks a lot for your help!

[Godotology]

ok thanks a lot. are those nvidia graphics card good enough for gaming? or are there also better ones? im not sure if you play or have played starcraft but im really looking forward to starcraft2's release, i hope they can handle the graphics and other good games. and my laptop will most likely have 2gig of ram, i suppose ill upgrade later.. i mean, do you think vista will have an update later to let it detect 4gig?

thanks a lot for your help!

they should be. although you ONLY have Nvidia as an option for now, for some reason, their rival ATi has rarely been seen in this year's new laptops.. perhaps due to its merger with AMD.

in anycase, the 1520 from Dell, has an Nvidia 8600GT option, which is a great video card. if you want the smaller 1420, you get the 8400GS which is significantly weaker than the 8600GT, but should probably run SC2 pretty decently. and yes to your second question, they should have an update for it later.

[dann]

hmm yea im interested in seeing how the m1330 holds up

[carol]

I need a laptop for college (like the most of you) and I really love the MacBook but it's not within my budget. After adding everything to the computer, I'd like to spend $1350 max.

Can someone recommend some nice ones? Since I know almost nothing about laptops, I'd want something with decents specs (nothing too extravagent that I would end up not taking advantage of anyways) and something that looks decent. Afterall, one main attraction of the MacBook is how it looks.

I'm looking for one that's around 12-13". And this laptop needs to last me six years . Can someone post up pictures of the options for me with the price? Thanks. If this was too vague, feel free to ask me questions

[Godotology]

I need a laptop for college (like the most of you) and I really love the MacBook but it's not within my budget. After adding everything to the computer, I'd like to spend $1350 max.

Can someone recommend some nice ones? Since I know almost nothing about laptops, I'd want something with decents specs (nothing too extravagent that I would end up not taking advantage of anyways) and something that looks decent. Afterall, one main attraction of the MacBook is how it looks.

I'm looking for one that's around 12-13". And this laptop needs to last me six years . Can someone post up pictures of the options for me with the price? Thanks. If this was too vague, feel free to ask me questions

with that budget you can still go for an older Macbook (with a core 1 duo processor), although I'm quite sure you can get a newer Macbook for less than $1350 too. are you in college? Apple has student discounts that'll make it cheaper.
as for lasting 6 years.. I highly doubt you will keep it around for that long. Most people tend to change every 3 years.. no more than 4.

If you're willing to move to a little bigger (14"), the new Inspiron 1420 can be had for less than $1350 with pretty good specs if you combine it with that university discount. its just a bit ugly..but you get alot of great specs.

[EYJAYJAY]

by the way, ive never owned a laptop before. but i believe it does heat up pretty easily doesnt it? especially when u are playing games, downloading, or using photoshop for photography. what should i get for a good cooling? and around how long should i have it on before turning it off?

[Godotology]

by the way, ive never owned a laptop before. but i believe it does heat up pretty easily doesnt it? especially when u are playing games, downloading, or using photoshop for photography. what should i get for a good cooling? and around how long should i have it on before turning it off?

yeah, although it depends on the laptops too. Some laptops generate more heat than others.. particularly those with a GPU inside. and yes, playing games or doing something CPU intensive would generate more heat.. downloading things or using photoshop, probably not so much.

I personally don't use a cooler, but just make sure that the surface you put it on, allows good circulation of the air and vents. putting it on the carpet, blanket, etc will hinder the air flow and make it hotter.

also, take note that some laptops don't really have good "legs".. i.e the lil stubble under neath the laptop that lifts it higher in order to provide circulation. I usually see really small legs on Apple notebooks. The Sony Vaio FZ I'm using right now (temporarily) has some pretty decent legs. Some laptops that have extended batteries that stick downwards, also provides some decent lift.

[dann]

I need a laptop for college (like the most of you) and I really love the MacBook but it's not within my budget. After adding everything to the computer, I'd like to spend $1350 max.

Can someone recommend some nice ones? Since I know almost nothing about laptops, I'd want something with decents specs (nothing too extravagent that I would end up not taking advantage of anyways) and something that looks decent. Afterall, one main attraction of the MacBook is how it looks.

I'm looking for one that's around 12-13". And this laptop needs to last me six years . Can someone post up pictures of the options for me with the price? Thanks. If this was too vague, feel free to ask me questions

yeah, like range said, you can definitely afford a macbook. you could buy a high end one for $1300 (withh a $200 student discount) and get a free ipod nano too

http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebO...macbook/macbook

[Lowlar]

I need a laptop for university. I'll be doing a computing course including programming such as Java and I just want a laptop that runs efficently as I may be using more than one application at once. I also want to be able to store and download music, photos and perferibly portable

Please can someone recommend a laptop for me within the budget of $1400.

[Godotology]

I need a laptop for university. I'll be doing a computing course including programming such as Java and I just want a laptop that runs efficently as I may be using more than one application at once. I also want to be able to store and download music, photos and perferibly portable

Please can someone recommend a laptop for me within the budget of $1400.

Any laptop can do what you want. Theres also lots of laptops that fall within $1400.
if you want something portable, I think you should get something under 14". Try the Macbook (with student discount) or the new Dell XPS M1330 (definitely need that university discount to get it under $1400 and cut down on some of the nicer features. if you want great build quality, then the Lenovo X61 is sturdy and very light but it has no optical drive

[watcher]

in the market for a notebook, and was wondering if you had any suggestions.

uses: web, ms office apps, adobe apps (dreamweaver, photoshop, acrobat, flash cs3, etc), media player (music/video)
budget: flexible, but preferably < $2000
specs: preferably core 2 duo processor, 2GB RAM, 100GB+ HD, vid card anything vista capable, 13.1~15 screen size (pref 14.1 or smaller)
preferred brands: dell, lenevo, hp, sony
other: touch screen capability a plus; att wireless broadband capable a plus;

i can compromise here and there. nothing is a hard limit, as i am not fully sure how much power i'm really going to need. i'm going to be using my laptop to do everyday stuff like check email and watch video, but also double up as a lightweight dev environment to write small to medium sized internet software applications. i will likely be running sql/web servers on top of running my newly created apps.

thanks in advance for any recommendations

[Godotology]

in the market for a notebook, and was wondering if you had any suggestions.

uses: web, ms office apps, adobe apps (dreamweaver, photoshop, acrobat, flash cs3, etc), media player (music/video)
budget: flexible, but preferably < $2000
specs: preferably core 2 duo processor, 2GB RAM, 100GB+ HD, vid card anything vista capable, 13.1~15 screen size (pref 14.1 or smaller)
preferred brands: dell, lenevo, hp, sony
other: touch screen capability a plus; att wireless broadband capable a plus;

i can compromise here and there. nothing is a hard limit, as i am not fully sure how much power i'm really going to need. i'm going to be using my laptop to do everyday stuff like check email and watch video, but also double up as a lightweight dev environment to write small to medium sized internet software applications. i will likely be running sql/web servers on top of running my newly created apps.

thanks in advance for any recommendations

thats a good budget and you certainly can afford a variety of options. However I would advise you to go for the Dell XPS M1330. it's built better than Dell's regular Inspiron line. its 13.3".. and its very light. Get the LED version as it has a better screen and longer lasting brightness than compared to an LCD which grows weaker faster. remember that when it comes to Dell, you can haggle with the operator. Lenovo's T61 is another alternative, great build..but is actually kinda heavy and fat for a 14" laptop. While Sony has some nice 13.3" and 14.1" models, I advise against it.. their latest update to their SZ line doesn't even use the newest Intel processor and overall, you pay for alot more for something more inferior to the XPS.

[watcher]

how can you tell whether or not a notebook has the newer core2duo processor? isn't the older version named the same? havent bought any hardware in years... not sure what is what anymore... haha

edit: what do you think about the sony cr series? it's fairly new...

[Godotology]

how can you tell whether or not a notebook has the newer core2duo processor? isn't the older version named the same? havent bought any hardware in years... not sure what is what anymore... haha

edit: what do you think about the sony cr series? it's fairly new...

the newer ones have a Centrino Pro sticker that has purple lettering. The older Core 2 Duo just says "Core 2 Duo inside".

CR is okay but there's surely much better value out there.

[cowsgomoo7225]

Is there a big difference between Centrino Duo and Centrino Pro? Which should I be looking for if I just need a good basic computer for homework?

[EYJAYJAY]

well i went to bestbuy today and found a laptop that i like and almost bought, but decided to wait just a bit to check on prices @ other places and also to see what your opinion is. currently only bestbuy is selling this model: Acer Aspire 5920.

here's the link to bestbuy
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1179876462320

notebook review (3 reviews so far.. all 3 saying its excellent)
http://www.notebookreview.com/price/defaul...cer+Aspire+5920

ive never used the brand before so im not very sure about the quality of acer. but everything looks good, 2 gig ram, nvidia8600GT graphics, duo core processor...etc. best buy selling it at 1300 (not on sale), do you think this would be a good laptop for me to get?

(also, i believe you cant upgrade graphics card in laptops right? so would i be able to get 4gig ram in there later on?)