college laptop

[Serori]

Hey guys, going to college in the fall and I am starting to shop around now. Here's what I'd like

2-Year Warranty Minimum
Something that can play CS: Source at a decent clip
High-speed wireless connectivity
Bright, good looking screen

Weight and battery are somewhat secondary, although important. But, I understand compromise.

Id like this to be under $2000 if possible.. and Im assuming it is. Upgradeability is a plus, too. I am looking to buy between June and July of this year, so hopefully new technology could bump the technology I want down. As much as it is for school work, it would be mucho fun to have a mouse attached and be able to play games.. mostly CS: Source.. on the go.

Help a laptop noob out, huh?! Haha, thanks guys
-Dave

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: Serori
Weight and battery are somewhat secondary, although important. But, I understand compromise.

If you are going to college, those are the two areas where you should NEVER compromise.

Considering that you will be lugging that laptop everywhere on campus, it has to be LIGHT. And you will need something that does more than merely force you to migrate from one AC outlet to another.

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

 

[randumb]

Thinkpad T42

 

[halfadder]

Originally posted by: randumb
Thinkpad T42

That's a pretty slick notebook. Do they sell it with the Radeon Mobility 9800 or Mobility X800 yet?

And why do almost all of the T42s I see have oldschool Radeon Mobility 7500 graphics?? Oh, well, even that is far better than the integrated chipset graphics that many notebooks have. Any GPU is better than no GPU!

 

[Wuzup101]

The more powerful/expensive T42 and T42p models come with r9600 and firegl graphics chips I believe. Still a 7500 should be able to play CS source... I would think anyway, I know it will play normal CS. Seriously though, if you're going to college, look into getting something thin and light like the T42 (which also has very good battery life). It's a lot more useful than having a heavy brick for a laptop. My advise, get a thin/light book and buy an xbox for gaming. BTW, I am currently a sophomore in college... I use an 15" apple powerbook... my friend sitting next to me has a new T42... I wouldn't go bigger in size than these machines...

 

[Serori]

So.. whats the deal with the laptops then? What kind of things should I be looking for? So far I gather Pentium Ms are good ... but what about the 1.6 ghz range? Still good enough? What about HDs? Should I go for like a 40 GB at 7200 RPM or la 60 GB at 5200 RPM thats much cheaper? Whats the minimum video card I should look for to play HL2? What about memory speed? Is 333 mhz sufficient? Or should I be leaning towards the 400/533 end?

Thanks,
Dave

 

[halfadder]

If you wait until summer you'll be able to get far better notebook specs for the same price. If you want to play games on your notebook, I would highly recommend a Mobility Radeon 9600 or better. Keep in mind that the current high end notebook gaming GPUs are the GeForce6800Go and the Radeon Mobility X800.

The 6800-G and M-X800 are pretty well matched in performance. The 6800-G is a little faster for Doom3, and the M-X800 is a little faster for HL2. A lot of notebooks on the market still use Mobility 7000, 7500, 9000, 9200. These are old, but are still far better than no GPU at all. You don't want a notebook that uses integrated / shared memory graphics!! I consider the GeForceFX5200Go to be the lowest entry level GPU for any sort of real gaming on a notebook. A (very small) step up from that is the Mobility Radeon 9200. A large step up from that is the M-R9600 I mentioned earlier. The M-R9700 replaced that, and was replaced by the M-R9800, which was recently replaced by the M-X800.

As for CPU, the Pentium-M is probably the best bet for now, but the mobile Athlon 64 will be catching up fast. Aim for at least 400 MHz FSB, the newest Pentium-Ms are already using 533. Performance from the Pentium-M is great, quite a bit better than a P4 of the same clockspeed.

 

[intogamer]

thinking about upgradable graphics cards? just to get you thinking. lol

 

[Serori]

hey guys i was considering the Dell 9200 deal...
Pentium-M 1.6 ghz
17" Ultra Sharp Screen
2 Year Warranty
128 MB ATI Radeon Mobility
512 DDR SDRAM 333mhz
DVD Burner
80GB HD
Intel PRO Wireless 802.11 a/b/g

Approx $1750

Does this seem like a good deal? I mean, of course, I will be purchasing this 6 months from now do technology will iundoubtedly have changed a great deal. But, an equivalent would probably be more than enough, right?

-Dave

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: Serori
hey guys i was considering the Dell 9200 deal...
Pentium-M 1.6 ghz
17" Ultra Sharp Screen
2 Year Warranty
128 MB ATI Radeon Mobility
512 DDR SDRAM 333mhz
DVD Burner
80GB HD
Intel PRO Wireless 802.11 a/b/g

Approx $1750

Does this seem like a good deal? I mean, of course, I will be purchasing this 6 months from now do technology will iundoubtedly have changed a great deal. But, an equivalent would probably be more than enough, right?

-Dave

Is the graphics card RAM its own, or is it shared? That's one definite thing to check - shared graphics RAM will choke the most powerful GPU.

 

[alm4rr]

Originally posted by: Serori
Hey guys, going to college in the fall and I am starting to shop around now. Here's what I'd like

Help a laptop noob out, huh?!

Buying a laptop now for the fall is a waste of money
Wait until July (4th is good for hotdeals)
More bang for the buck (plus most laptop deals at the moment aren't that great)
Check HD for the few good deals.

 

[wisdomtooth]

Forget July... Wait until he matriculates in September. As a registered student he should be eligible for educational discounts the university offers.

 

[Serori]

It says that its dedicated, so thats what I assume. I know they can be tricky, but I'm 99% sure that it is that.

I currently own the system listed in my signature from Dell. I love it to pieces, it actually has survived two years worth of technology quite well.. Doom 3 and HL2 work good enough for me (not incredibly super spectacular, but hey still looks and plays good).. the only down side is that RDRAM is freaking expensive.. itd be cheaper to replace the entire mobo and upgrade my processor with a mobo combo than it would be to bump up my RDRAM from 512... its stupid! itsl ike $355 from Dell... ouch.

So an equivalent system in a laptop is all I'm looking for... and that 9200 seems to be darn close. Its not RDRAM, but I don't want that anymore, haha.

Later,
Dave

 

[tokomoto]

Yes, i too made the mistake of buying a huge laptop and it ending up being a PAIN! I got a P4 2.6GHz 16" Sony Vaio. I have to always find an outlet to plug it into. I would defintely suggest getting a 6lb. laptop at the most, don't go any higher than that you'll regret it trust me. Mine is 8.9lbs, not fun. Anyways, just my two cents i hope you find a laptop soon! Bump!

 

[Wuzup101]

I'm pretty sure that all newer laptops that have GPUs like Radeon 9200, 9600, etc... (even back to the 7500) use dedicated memory. The chips that use integrated memory are integrated chips themselves. I have never heard of a Radeon or Geforce that uses system ram... atleast not current models...

 

[Mo0o]

To be honest, you really wont be needing your laptop all that much. There are computer terminals everywhere on campus and when you do computer work you'll most likely do it in your room. I'm just speaking from personal experience. Of course ify ou live far from college and you need to transport a computer, a SFF or laptop is much more convenient.

 

[Serori]

Well, Mo0o, I dunno about you but I definitely would not want to go through the hassle of having diskettes all over to keep my files together. And, I dont want to have to pack up my desktop pc to go home or go away for the weekend. The laptop = Mobility and thats what Im looking for. I dont think I could do it like you, but thanks!

-Dave

 

[alm4rr]

Originally posted by: Serori
Well, Mo0o, I dunno about you but I definitely would not want to go through the hassle of having diskettes all over to keep my files together. And, I dont want to have to pack up my desktop pc to go home or go away for the weekend. The laptop = Mobility and thats what Im looking for. I dont think I could do it like you, but thanks!

-Dave

people still use diskettes?

 

[Wuzup101]

Originally posted by: alm4rr

Originally posted by: Serori
Well, Mo0o, I dunno about you but I definitely would not want to go through the hassle of having diskettes all over to keep my files together. And, I dont want to have to pack up my desktop pc to go home or go away for the weekend. The laptop = Mobility and thats what Im looking for. I dont think I could do it like you, but thanks!

-Dave

people still use diskettes?

That's what I was thinking... Seriously though, being a college student myself, I have my notebook all the time. I use it to take notes in two of my six classes. I'm a biological engineering / biochemistry and molecular biology double major, so the majority of my notes have to be hand written (semi complex diagrams and such). However, for many of my bio classes the laptop is ideal. Not to mention it's much easier to use my own computer at the library than using one of the Dell desktops that are in a lot of our terminals. We have tons of computer labs on campus, but I've always hated working in them. Usually they are too crampt and too noisy to concentrate in. The gain in productivity that I experienced from having a laptop this year, vs a desktop last year is quite large.

 

[ITJunkie]

Originally posted by: Serori
hey guys i was considering the Dell 9200 deal...
Pentium-M 1.6 ghz
17" Ultra Sharp Screen
2 Year Warranty
128 MB ATI Radeon Mobility
512 DDR SDRAM 333mhz
DVD Burner
80GB HD
Intel PRO Wireless 802.11 a/b/g

Approx $1750

Does this seem like a good deal? I mean, of course, I will be purchasing this 6 months from now do technology will iundoubtedly have changed a great deal. But, an equivalent would probably be more than enough, right?

-Dave

Not a bad system but check the weight. I believe those systems start out at over 8.5 lbs. Doesn't sound like a lot but trust me, lugging it around everyday will make you feel it.

 

[Shadowmage]

that deal sucks. Get an Acer Travelmate. The 8000 series kicks ass.