Starting to shop for a college notebook

osprey4 · March 14th, 2006, 03:37 PM

My son will head to college in August (not sure where yet). We're starting to look at notebooks and I'd like some feedback on what we should and should not care about as we shop.

Here are our basic requirements. $2000 max for everything (inc. accessories), 14-15" screen (True Life-type a plus), 1 GB RAM, 80-100 GB hard drive, wireless, 4+ hr battery life, port replicator, 3-4 yr warranty. He'll be running internet, mail, office apps and some games (but games are secondary). He's very big into music, so it would be nice if the port replicator could accommodate a 4.1 speaker system. He'll be using the same system for the next four years, so I don't want to to skimp.

Here are my questions.
1. Pentium M or Core Duo? What does dual core really do for you? Is it worth the extra cost?
2. On-board versus off-board video card? Are the on-board video chips really as bad as everyone says?
3. Is a 9-cell battery better than an extra battery?

The systems we're looking at are Dell Latitude D610, Dell Inspiron E1505, Dell XPS 140, Sony Vaio FE series, PowerNotebooks PowerPro P 2:14. Only the Sony is a tight fit with our price range. Any other "You've gotta see this" recommendations?

Your input appreciated!! Purchasing within the next 3-4 months.

osprey4 · March 15th, 2006, 02:39 PM

Any help? Surely some notebook guru out there has an opinion.

J1mmy · March 15th, 2006, 03:05 PM

Well, im no laptop expert, but i recently done some research on a laptop which i am very happy with, Toshiba M70. Its an advanced entery model notebook.

i live in the UK, so im not sure what to expect for that kind of price.

Firstly, i think you should have a look at this, notebooks customization from sony:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...Dept=computers

have you seen the FS series, heres a notebook which matches your spec apart from the battery which is 2.5max hrs:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...me=specs&var2=

another: this one seems to be more of an entertainment notebook, comes with speakers and a remote. Maybe you should look into this as your son likes his music:

http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTE...me=specs&var2=

If you consider that, look at the Toshiba Qosmio, its pretty similar (entertainment) with better looks and windows media center edition too.

Also, have you checked out the acer range? They have some great spec notbooks with some excellent prices. Apprantly they are competing with sony.
Ive just seen this from Acer: 'Aspire 5672WLMi Intel Core Duo ' check that one out at your end, very high specs. Check out the prices for that over there it may just be a little over $2000, but you can always see the model before that, or a similar model to it.

Im not really sure about your questions, but as for the first one, the Acer Aspire 5672WLMi is both M and Duo

(Intel Centrino Core Duo Mobile Processor T2300 1.66GHz
)

SeanC · March 15th, 2006, 06:20 PM

The better the CPU you can get for the money, the better it will run over those 4 years.

For gaming, if he wants to play the latest and greatest and decent graphics settings and speed, then you'll need the off-board video card.

For the battery, it depends on how much is he going to be using it on battery only?

sr71000 · March 15th, 2006, 06:43 PM

I like the look of the dell E1505

I even got two 8 cell batteries, a 2.0 pentium m, the intel pro wireless (trust me, go with the b/g into pro wireless no matter what!! lol....don't bother with a/b/g...it's really not necessary) Comes with a gig of memory, and a decent screen and even configured as such it was under like 1500!! I was gonna recommend the 600m but that looks better (i have the 600m and i wish i had that instead!! lol)

J1mmy · March 15th, 2006, 08:41 PM

While i was doing the research for my own, i remember coming across this sony one, it had some a massive batery life, something like 8 hours, i cant remember the model though. Ill try and find it and let you know. The other other specs where pretty good on it too, cant remember the price.

poopeyhed2 · March 15th, 2006, 09:17 PM

Hey Osprey,

I started just started going to Pace University in downtown NYC and this is my second semester there, great school, sometimes. Excellent for the business majors with a decent sized computer department (which is what I'm in, majoring in Technology Systems - hardware aspect of the computers). With that in mind, the entire campus has a wireless connection and I've been planning on buying a laptop myself. The only thing that's stopping me is that I'm waiting for the dual cores to be more ubiquitous. I'd prefer a second battery instead of a larger capacity battery because if it doesn't hold a charge anymore it's not as big of a loss and can still run with the second battery.

The problem with what I did was not applying for the Honors part of the college because I know Seton Hall, Rider University, Pace, and many others in NJ offer laptops to students that are going in as an honors. Who wouldn't want a free laptop with free tech support on campus? Be sure though that you buy a laptop that the guys on campus be able to help because I know at Rider my buddy works in the tech support and they don't service anything that's Mac (which is not the case here) and most non Dell laptops. Steven's is the only school that I know of that offer an incredible deal on the HP laptop workstation fully loaded around $1500. Even though they use ATI's FireGL video cards, my friends have been able to play WoW, Guild Wars, Age of Empires 3, F.E.A.R., et al on them comfortably.

I see that you'll be buying it in 3 to 4 months so see if you can use the student discount from the school that your son will be attending. My school offers discounts to Gateway, Dell, and Apple.

Sound can be fixed for a 4.1 setup if you get the Audigy PCMCIA slot, but AFAIK they'll be phasing that out soon for the ExpressCard.

Just remember not to get a desktop replacement if you want the 4+ hour battery life. And if your son is commuting through mass transit I don't think he'd enjoy carrying ~10 pounds to and from school along with his books.

LaptopExtreme · March 16th, 2006, 11:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by J1mmy

While i was doing the research for my own, i remember coming across this sony one, it had some a massive batery life, something like 8 hours, i cant remember the model though. Ill try and find it and let you know. The other other specs where pretty good on it too, cant remember the price.

That would be the TX series, very expensive for an 11" screen and integrated graphics, but anything with long battery life won't have an awesome graphics card, that's pretty much a given.