Noebook Suggestions?!

[hkazemi26]

What's up ppl. I have't posted in forever, but I find myself needing something I know not much about, a notebook computer!. Anyhow, I need (want) something lightweight without spending $3+K! I've been checking out the dell 300m.

Suggesstions anyone?

 

[gopunk]

ibm x or t series, depending on exactly how lightweight you want it to be

 

[Abhi]

U want it to last for 3 years...

IBM. Dont even look at dell...

 

[aphex]

I'm starting up law school in a month as well and decided to go with an IBM T41. The size, weight, and durability were my biggest concerns....

 

[Dark54555]

from a current law student to the future one:

a tablet PC is useless.

If I could do it again, it'd be an IBM T or R.

 

[DaWhim]

another vote T41

 

[imported_jeffnt326]

Yet another vote for the T, R or even X series from IBM.

Good luck!

 

[loup garou]

Latitude x300

 

[thraxes]

If you want longevity, get an IBM. Built like tanks, they can take quite a beating. I would favour the R series over the T because it is the newer one and has a few nice things that the T doesn't have (firewire port comes to mind)

 

[way]

Apple Powerbook 12"

 

[mrweirdo]

apple powerbook(more costly) or ibook(cheaper) would be a good choice simply because they hold their value longer and products dont become outdated as often like with a pc. plus they just plain sexy

 

[trungthiendo]

come up with a figure of how much you want to spend, and what exactly it is you are looking for.

you can get an IBM, Dell, HP, COMPAQ, or any other brand that you like.

all you need to really know is

-Centrino laptop carries: wi-fi, pentium M, and the 855 chipset
offers long battery life, average around 4-5 hours on a charge

-P4-M: just like the P4 desktop version but has speed step technology
offeres longer battery life then regular P4

-P4: regular pentium 4 stuffed in a laptop
cheapest processor with processing power

-Celeron: stay away

-AMD XP-M: offers battery life like P4-M i believe,


basically it is up to you to decide how much you want to spend and wat exactly you feel like you want. Go to a nearby store with display models so you can get a feel for each individual laptop and what you like.

 

[aakerman]

Originally posted by: thraxes
If you want longevity, get an IBM. Built like tanks, they can take quite a beating. I would favour the R series over the T because it is the newer one and has a few nice things that the T doesn't have (firewire port comes to mind)

But the R-series is all plastic, while the T40 & T41 is made of a magnesium/plastic alloy, which is more durable, and handles drops etc better. R-series are for people who don't have enough cash to get a T-series, they are really the better choice...



btw trungthiendo: celeron-mobile is a very good processor.. similar to pentium-m, but without speedstep.

 

[Frightcrawler]

Are you talking about the celeron-m (pentium-m derivative)? Because if you are talking about the mobile celeron, it does not even come close to the pentium-m.

Back to the main topic: IBM T series. If you can wait, wait for the T42 (dothan model). If you havent heard about dothan, do some searching. Many have been raving about it for several months. On the R-series comment, yes, it is made of plastic. But the thing that puzzles me is that the highest model R50p vs the highest model T41p -> the R50p is MUCH more expensive (600 dollars more). It just doesnt make sense.

 

[ViperV990]

Panasonic W2.

I'm in love

 

[Wuzup101]

Just a note... there was a post about this a while back... student said he couldn't go w/ an apple b/c some of the testing software needed only ran on PC... check this out first if you do decide to go mac. I would also recomend the IBM T42 which should be out soon...

 

[aakerman]

I don't know why people rave about the dothans. It's a mobile cpu, successor the the banias - yet it uses MORE battery, not less. It doesn't make sense. We will soon be down to the 2-3 hours found on P4-m notebooks

Frightcrawler -> Yes I'm talking about celeron-m, what else (the regular celly sux). It does compare very well to the p-m - it's just as fast, but it only lasts about 75% as long on a charge, and doesn't speedstep.

 

[EvanAdams]

what did you end up going with?

 

[mrwxyz]

id call up the school ur planning to attend and find out if they have any deals going with ibm or any other laptop maker.....

the university im at has a few sweet deals with ibm and dell

 

[wyvrn]

I had a Sharp Actius that I purchased at Fry's for $1099, it was very small at 4.3 lbs, and ran everything I threw at it. I banged it around pretty good but never had any problems. It was 1.13 Ghz with 256MBram and a 12.1" screen.

Right now I have an Apple Ibook G3 900Mhz that I got at Microcenter for $699 with a free printer. It is about as fast as the Actius was, and I like OS X a bit more than WinXP. It also weighs about 4.3 lbs.

I have used Dell 600m's before, and they are lightweight BUT they have a slightly larger footprint than most sub-compact notebooks. I preferred both my Actius and the Ibook to the Dell. Dell sells a smaller line of notebooks, but they are overpriced in my opinion for what you can get elsewhere.

IBM's are great computers, I have used them twice for work. They are built like tanks, though both the models I used had hard disk problems after about 2 years. Problem with IBM is their costs, for personal use I would not recommend paying the price premium to get an IBM unless you plan on pure torturing your notebook.

Also Toshiba makes some nice notebooks. I had one of their regular sized models a couple of years ago, and it was a workhorse.