Laptop for college

I'm heading off to college and have no idea what laptop to get. I still have the rig in my sig, and am taking it there. However, I want to have good laptop still, it's not just for surfing the web and papers.

I want to get a good laptop to play games with, but it doesn't need to be the top of the line, because my current rig can do the job.

My main problem is that I am having a hard time finding good comparisons for the various video cards that have come out lately. When I do get a lead, iut seems there are so many laptops that are similar, so I dont know the one with the best setup - I dont want the best RAM and graphics card jsut so the cpu bottlenecks everything. So, I'm gonna continue to scour the internet for clues about what's best, but if any of you have suggestions for me, I'm here to listen.

A short list of what'll I'll be doing

Some image creating and editing
programming
games

My budget tops off around $1000

uhh, why do you want a laptop if you said you know you are going to take your current rig? Unless your going to do some gaming in class

And to answer your question... GO WITH HP! *shameless plug (my Dad works for HP)*

i want to be able to go to the library, out of my room to do work

what about the entry level macbook? for $999 it sits right at the top of your budget and is an excellent computer; portable, and the 9400M is good enough for some casual gaming.

woca said:

I want to get a good laptop to play games with, but it doesn't need to be the top of the line, because my current rig can do the job.

My budget tops off around $1000

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As the owner of a few current generation laptops (all under six months), the product I am most enthusiastic about is the Dell XPS 1530, the keyboard has a decent feel about it, the build quality is decent and with the 9 cell battery option has reasonable battery life
Its a solid performer with a decent build quality imho

With your budget this is the product I would buy and use any change to spec it up, as a 15 inch laptop is is the maximum size I would classify as being portable, the connectivity is great with the usual selection of HDMI, USB etc along with card reader slots and a remote control.

I also have a wakbook, Asus, Alienware as well as the XPS and when you take into consideration the fact that I dislike Dell product quality in general, for a laptop from this company to impress me so much that I reccomend it should mean its worth a look.
Its simply worth every penny they ask for it, a bargain product

Personally I would go with either a 14" Dell Latitude, Thinkpad, or HP business model. One of the big reasons is you can get next day service for dirt cheap, ~$100. No, you won't be doing a lot of gaming for it but for toting it around campus for school work they are hard to beat. With next day service you won't be down for long if something goes bad. Personally I would go with an E6400 with a T400 coming in close second.

I echo Unseens comments in that the XPS 1530 is a great machine. I bought my wife on last year and she absolutely loves it.

i will probably never buy a mac

i think i found the one im looking for

Acer Aspire 5739G

woca said:

i will probably never buy a mac

i think i found the one im looking for

Acer Aspire 5739G

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As someone who has owned a current model Acer Laptop during in the past year I would advise looking at one before purchase, I do not believe that acer procucts have the build quality to survive the knocks of a college life well.

What's wrong with Macs, Woca? I mean, if you can afford them, why not?

x30Jx said:

What's wrong with Macs, Woca? I mean, if you can afford them, why not?

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i play games

any other suggestions? i really like that one, so you can get an idea of specs

im really looking for at least 4 gigs of ram, most have that now. i want it to be ddr3 but life will go on.
i don't want a processor below 2.0 ghz.
I want it to be portable so I think the max screen would be 16", preferably not over 7 pounds
graphics card - idk, I am having a hard time finding comparisons and it hurts when i think i get it but then one has ddr3 or ddr2

i like this one but both ram and graphics use ddr2 and it's bordering on not being portable
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220559


PS - unseen, i'd rather get the acer and spend money on a warranty then pay dell a for their brand name. Getting one from dell also breaks my budget a bit.

double post sorry
but which of the two i have linked do you think is better
the asus is 50 dollars more, has slightly bigger screen and hd. the gpu uses ddr2, idk about the RAM

the acer uses a ddr3 gpu, and has ddr3(idk if they have to be the same, i'd assume no)

woca said:

PS - unseen, i'd rather get the acer and spend money on a warranty then pay dell a for their brand name. Getting one from dell also breaks my budget a bit.

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A friend of mine just bought a dell e6400 for less than $1000 'scratch and dent' from dell outlet. She says there are no scratches or dents and u can get the next day warranty cheap.