Laptop for college

[limpport]

So I'm looking for a laptop for college, and I need suggestions.

I brought it up with my parents, and they were planning on getting me one for graduation. They want to know what to get me. I'm sorta leaning towards the stereotypical Macbook-for-college, but the only way for that to happen was to pitch in. I was planning on pitching in anyways.

Combined with my parents, I have about a $1000 budget. Would people suggest a Macbook, or something else, and if, what?

[jjhammerstein]

Get a Macbook.

[madc0w]

Question: Do you Make music/movies or play games?
Games, windows computer.
Music/Movies, mac.
Also macs are just kinda overpriced for what they are, and charge you up the butt for upgrades. Whatever you do, upgrade your own ram. Apple is notorious for absurd charges for more ram.

[Twilight Wolf]

I'm using a Toshiba Satellite. Great laptop, very reliable. Only downsides are that the battery life sucks and that it won't play most PC games after "Half-Life 2."

[Bibin]

If you get a macbook, get the new aluminum one. The plastic ones are just awful.

[bicostp]

If you just need to do typing and Internet access, get a Toshiba Portege 7200. They're kinda old (P3 500 class machines), but they're light, pretty thin, and can take any 802.11 PC card you throw at them. (Plus, who'd want to steal an old beater lappy? ) I have 384 MB of RAM in mine and it does XP just fine. I just wish I had a bigger hard drive... Oh well it takes regular PATA lappy drives anyway. Where else can you dazzle your friends with Half-Life 1 and a "Designed for Windows NT 4.0" sticker? (<3 13" subnotebooks.)

If you go the Netbook route, look at the HP 2133 Mini-Note. I've tried them in the store and they have the best keyboard I've seen on a laptop that small.

You don't want to be lugging a desktop replacement around all the time. Believe me. Even a 15" widescreen desktop replacement weighs a lot after a while. Nothing like the old 16 pound Macintosh Portable from 1990, but still... Besides, smaller models will give you better battery life.

My recommendation goes to Subnotebooks. Sure they don't generally have built-in optical drives, but I like their balance between power, size, and weight. (Thinkpad X series, Toshiba Portege, Dell Inspiron 13, etc...)

If you can wait until you're actually in college as a student, DO SO. You might qualify for a student discount.

[Triton]

Lifebook B2630 (or the 10 or 20 even) FOR THE WIN. its not a powerhouse but its light (2.5lbs or so) and adequate for most general uses
P3 900mhz (850 and 800 respectivly for the 2620 and 2610)
256mb ram
10.1" touchscreen LCD
6 cell battery
etc

[Kurt_]

Ignoring everything everyone else has said, I can tell you the following (I'm a First Year Engineering Student):

1) Your laptop will be treated roughly, whether you intend to or not. We're not talking dropping it from three feet or anything, but it should be either cheap or be well protected (ie Thinkpads). It will undergo a lot of pressure from other items in your bag. Protect it well from the get go, none of those cheap "laptop pouches". (My bag's laptop pouch cost me $200 for a new screen) I recommend some thin but hard material, lined with some packing foam. You will never regret doing this.

2) Your laptop will not be used for gaming. I bought mine with the intention of gaming on it, but, well, there just isn't any time for that unless I'm at home. This really depends on if you have a good desktop PC setup, I guess. But as a general rule, it should be able to render 3D models in real-time without lag, but that's as intense as you're going to need it to get. Maybe a bit of multitasking.

My recommendation is to buy a T61 used off of eBay. You can get rather good systems for about $700-1000. Definitely I advise looking in to these. They have many features you may overlook that come in handy.

Some examples of handy features:

- Magnesium Alloy Frame inside the LCD and the rest of the laptop. It's not that heavy, and it sure came in handy that one time my laptop fell off the table screen-first. It survived unscathed.

- Active protection system. Basically, an accelerometer inside that recognizes bumps, jolts, and falls, and takes off the hard drive needle to avoid scratching your hard drives.

- A little light that shines on your keyboard at night that can be turned on/off via keyboard.

- Trackpoint. Need I say more? My nub replaces my mouse for 95% of activities. I can even play decent FPS games with it.

- Trackpad Features like palm recognition. When you're typing and your palm slides over the touchpad, it recognizes that and doesn't move your mouse or anything.

[palmertech]

I second Triton's suggestion of B2630.

However, if you want something with really nice specs at a low price, look at the Dell Latitude D420. It is REALLY nice, and can be had for around $400-500. Like a cross between a sub-notebook and a netbook, with a very nice keyboard. Dual Core CPU, 2gb RAM, 60gb HDD... Pretty nice piece of kit.

[Black Six]

My school issued HP Compaq nw8240's to all students in my class, and although they were supposed to be high-end workstations, they were really just plain bad computers. After two years I bought myself a Macbook Pro to use, and it's been (pretty) smooth sailing ever since.

If you're going into engineering, a Macbook (non-Pro) is probably not going to cut it. Otherwise I'd highly recommend getting one for college.

[XCVG]

For that budget, forget Mac. Whatever you buy, make sure it has Nvidia or ATI graphics. Intel Xtreme is Xtremely Sux.

[Kurt_]

AVOID Nvidia 6xxx. They are made of fail and aids, and lead to many crashes and such.

[Twilight Wolf]

For that budget, forget Mac. Whatever you buy, make sure it has Nvidia or ATI graphics. Intel Xtreme is Xtremely Sux.

I can confirm that Intel sucks.

This damned Intel card is what's preventing me from playing "Team Fortress 2" on my PC.

[Triton]

my lifebook has ATI rage mobility graphics card its actually pretty good for as old as the laptop is, i could run the original halflife and some other low end games on it, and n64 emulation wasnt too bad either!

[Twilight Wolf]

Well, emulation is another story. I can emulate Saturn games at a decent speed with this Intel card.