I'm gettin' me a laptop...

[Cerberus2k7]

And I was wondering if you guys could help me pick one out. :D And no, don't go all $7,000.00 Voodoo style on me, i'm looking for something pretty cheap, and yet powerfull. I'm also a college student mind you, so I do have a pretty limited budget. I've been looking at the Dell notebooks and i'm going to also look into Alienwares. Any other suggestions you guys know of? Thanks.

[ashenfang]

well if your on a tight budget, then don't go alienware. Those IMO are a rip off. Dell is probably your best bang for the buck. Check into Centrino's, they get very good battery life, as well as pack a good punch for processing power.

[Cerberus2k7]

Well, the Alienware I built is $2,641.00. And i was like "wah?!" But the Dell I built on the other hand...is $2,077.00. :D So I might go with that. But! What's the diff between the Centrinos and the Pentium M series? Is one like the mobile celeron and the other simply the mobile P4s? If so, wouldnt that mean that the Centrino series has no cache?

[CrazyP]

Originally posted by Cerberus2k7
Well, the Alienware I built is $2,641.00. And i was like "wah?!" But the Dell I built on the other hand...is $2,077.00. :D So I might go with that. But! What's the diff between the Centrinos and the Pentium M series? Is one like the mobile celeron and the other simply the mobile P4s? If so, wouldnt that mean that the Centrino series has no cache?

they are the exact same processor.

centrino is just a brandname that means the chipset, wireless nic, and pentium m are intel's

if the laptop doesnt have one of those three things, its not a centrino

[Remove]

Circuit City usually has good deals on a regular basis on their Toshiba laptops. Not really gaming rigs but after you reformat the hdd and get rid of all the BS software on there, they are pretty good all around systems.

[Dc5e]

another thing with dell is that the ram upgrades are EXPENSIVE!!! sometimes its even cheaper to get the smallest amount of ram from dell and buy your own ram separately... just check up on the prices before you choose.

[Cerberus2k7]

Dell right now has that free 512 upgrade(2 DIMMS) And i'll look at Circut city sometime, and i'll look at the Centrinos. :D But I found this beast on ebay! Link (http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=3463136856&category=42202) This sucker screams sex! :p

[ashenfang]

Originally posted by Dc5e
another thing with dell is that the ram upgrades are EXPENSIVE!!! sometimes its even cheaper to get the smallest amount of ram from dell and buy your own ram separately... just check up on the prices before you choose.


hmm...I don't think that is entirely true. Dell's can accept, kingston, crucial, corsair, and PNY memory modules. You can find them on ebay all the time for around 40 bucks for 256

[mage_x]

i hear the emachines a64 3000's are pretty nice.

http://www.ocforums.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=264715

[Cerberus2k7]

I thought Gateway bought out emachines?

[Dc5e]

Originally posted by ashenfang



hmm...I don't think that is entirely true. Dell's can accept, kingston, crucial, corsair, and PNY memory modules. You can find them on ebay all the time for around 40 bucks for 256

oops, i meant the dell memory upgrades on their website... like from 256mb to 512 is like $125 more....

[Ge|atinousFury]

I'm a college student also and I decided on the Sager 5680. The only drawback is that the batteries are pretty much nonexistent on this lappy (on a full charge the battery lasts about an hour). With that said, I'm always near an outlet so I never ever have to run off of the battery. I use it in my apartment, when I go back to my hometown on some weekends, at the university libarary for studying, lab, etc. and everywhere has an outlet. Some people might see weight as an issue, but my girlfriend has a new Dell 8600 and mine really doesn't feel much heavier on my shoulder.

You can configure some awesome Sagers at www.pctorque.com for about 2k. I absolutely positively love mine and I do not regret the purchase one bit. I was after speed and I got it :)

Just to give you an example of what I got, my 5680 has:

P4 Northwood 3.0GHz w\ Hyperthreading
1024Mb PC3200 DDR RAM
60GB 7200RPM HDD
24x CD-RW
UXGA LCD screen
ATI Radeon Mobility 9600 Pro Turbo (and this thing comes standard too...at Dell it's a big dollar upgrade)

That said, if it's extended operating time off batteries and minimal weight that you're after, then this probably isn't the laptop for you.

Hope this helps:)