Decent Laptop deal needed

[fpantovich]

Well, first, lemme give you the reasoning. I'm military and going to be going on a remote tour away from my family for a year. I CAN bring my big ol' desktop computer with me, but I'd prefer to just get a laptop that is similar in performance/abilities as my desktop to make things easier on me, since it's only a year. Not looking at spending TOO much, my credit isn't very great (repairing right now and nothing bad in the past 6 months, atleast), and I'm able to afford monthly payments of like $100-200. Lump sum, I'm not certain what I'm able to afford until I'm done with our taxes and such.

So, now, what I'm looking for. As you can see in my sig block, I have a decent desktop computer. I would like a laptop with atleast the following specs:

-- 15" monitor
-- Hard drive size doesn't matter (have external), but want a minimum of 5400 RPM speed.
-- RAM: 2GB minimum
-- CPU: Prefer a C2D, but not absolutely necessary given that it's still a decent overall laptop
-- Video Card: needs to be a dedicate video card that is atleast mid-grade quality with dedicated RAM, not shared RAM. Hate shared RAM graphics cards, they always perform horribly.
-- Battery Life would be nice to have atleast 4 hours (plane rides and such) but whatever I get for the money is fine.
-- Not worried about an OS or any software really, as I have a spare OS disk at home that I can put on the laptop and all the software that I need.

I think I covered pretty much all of my minimum aspects. Anything ya'll are able to do to assist me is MUCH appreciated. Been on these forums for a while and I know we have a ton of people that know where to find the deals and such. I leave here around the April-May timeframe, so the sooner I can find a decent one, the better, as the time is getting close. Also, I don't mind if it's new, used, refurbished, etc as long as it has all of the necessary components and such, such as all the internals, the power cable, etc and as long as it actually works.

Thanks in advance for any assistance you're able to provide me.

[nemowolf]

If your going be visiting the endless "Beach" your getting plenty of Tax free pay checks so i would just buy what ever you think you can afford.

Most of what your asking for limits you to Higher end machines like the Mac Pro or a well equiped Latitude. Even then the battery life isnt going to come close with the Dell, maybe 2 hours unless you switch out batteries or get an "long" life battery with alot of extra size and weight. Honestly Laptops are a sinkhole for value and i know that since the 45nm core was just released the entire lineup of Dell stock is being phased out, look for SMB dells.

Also, the longer you can wait the better potential to find a good deal but expect to pay around 1k or more to meet all of those reqs.

[EXreaction]

You can pick one of two things. Good Battery life OR a separate video card.

Going from an integrated Intel gpu to say an 8600 GT would probably cut the battery life in 1/3 or 1/2. And that is not in 3D mode (it will eat the battery even faster then).

If you won't be playing any games that an Intel video card can't handle I would stick with the integrated.

[nemowolf]

Quote:

Originally Posted by EXreaction

You can pick one of two things. Good Battery life OR a separate video card.

Going from an integrated Intel gpu to say an 8600 GT would probably cut the battery life in 1/3 or 1/2. And that is not in 3D mode (it will eat the battery even faster then).

If you won't be playing any games that an Intel video card can't handle I would stick with the integrated.

Good call. I didnt think about that choice really. I just figure that battery life is going to suck all around.

[EXreaction]

Quote:

Originally Posted by nemowolf

Good call. I didnt think about that choice really. I just figure that battery life is going to suck all around.

My dell laptop gets around 4 hours (I have 2 85Whr batteries, each gets about 4 hours, so I can get around 8 hours out of the both). I have a 2Ghz C2D, 2GB of ram, Intel GMA 950, and a 15.4" screen.

If you go with an integrated vid card and a 15" screen, most would average between 3 and 5 hours I think.

With a 14" you can get around 6, and sometimes even higher.

[fpantovich]

Well, the battery life is for non-game play. Whenever I play games on it, it'll be plugged in (aside from maybe solitaire and what-not). The battery life is mainly for playing music or movies on the flights. Thanks for all the suggestions, ya'll.

I'm currently lookin at 150 a month for a 15.4" laptop with 4GB of DDR2 667 RAM, 8600M GT 512MB, 250GB SATA 5400 RPM HD, DVD Burner, 2.0 MP integrated cam, fingerprint scanner, HD Audio, Vista Ultimate (64-bit or 32-bit, but going 64 cuz of the RAM) and a T7700 C2D CPU.

This is a 10-month payment plan. Paying a tad bit more than the straight cash-out price, but due to my credit being a tad bit jacked up right now, this is my best option. $1500 for a laptop this nice isn't bad, is it?

[EXreaction]

Are you buying that ram from newegg or from dell?

You can buy 4GB of ram for if for $70 off newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820141342

[nickslick74]

Where did you find that deal for the laptop? You can get a similarly setup Dell Vostro 1500 for around that price, even less if you go with only 2GB of ram.

[fpantovich]

Yeah, the only problem with Dell is that my credit isn't good enough right now, unfortunately. The site I got the other deal at guarantees approval for military members, but we pay a tad bit more. I'll actually be paying for 14 months, not 10 months. I haven't finalized yet, but I'll look at the dell page and maybe give them a call and tell them my situation and such. Thanks for the linky

[Lazywolf]

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....#productdetail