Best laptop for $1200 or less?

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OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
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I'm going to be a freshman at IU in the fall and I'm looking for the best laptop, in AT's opinion, that's under $1200. It doesn't have to be great, but I'd like a decent amount of HD space and at least 512mb RAM. I've never bought a laptop so I really don't know a lot about them. Any help would be appreciated :)
 
Brainonska511

Brainonska511

Lifer
Dec 10, 2005
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If you are not looking for any kind of gaming capabilities what-so-ever, take a look at the Dell E1405.
 
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Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
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512MB and a nice amount of disk space isn't asking for much at all. You can do that for half of $1200. Any other things you're looking for: dual core, a certain weight, screen size, battery life? I guess the biggest one is finding the right screen size balanced against how much portability you'd like. Most consumer notebooks range from 12" to 17".
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
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Originally posted by: Brainonska511
If you are not looking for any kind of gaming capabilities what-so-ever, take a look at the Dell E1405.
Click to expand...

This one looks pretty nice. I don't need an expensive graphics card in it at all, the only games I play are CS 1.6 and occasionally CS:S, BF2, and old SNES games via emulators. I'm going to take my current rig with me too so if I want to do any gaming I'll just do it on this one. I just want something I can take around campus with me and do homework or watch movies or whatever.
 
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jevans64

Senior member
Feb 10, 2004
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Dell is currently offering up to 34% instant discounts on their regular notebook lines. I'm even tempted to pick one up just to use as a business laptop.
 
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ubercaffeinated

Platinum Member
Dec 1, 2002
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Originally posted by: OREOSpeedwagon
Originally posted by: Brainonska511
If you are not looking for any kind of gaming capabilities what-so-ever, take a look at the Dell E1405.
Click to expand...

This one looks pretty nice. I don't need an expensive graphics card in it at all, the only games I play are CS 1.6 and occasionally CS:S, BF2, and old SNES games via emulators. I'm going to take my current rig with me too so if I want to do any gaming I'll just do it on this one. I just want something I can take around campus with me and do homework or watch movies or whatever.
Click to expand...



a macbook is something worth looking into. very nice for what you need.
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
1
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The new Macbooks look nice too... I'm not sure about it though, I've never used a Mac before.

After looking at it, the $1299 Macbook looks really nice, and there's a $100 student discount on it. Would this be my best bet or should I keep looking at the cheaper Dells? I don't have any experience with either Apple or Dell laptops so which would be the best to go for?

also I'd like to get some kind of USB tablet or something that I can hook up to it for taking notes. I'd like to do everything on the laptop and avoid paper and pencils altogether if possible. does anything like this exist?
 
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dclive

Elite Member
Oct 23, 2003
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Google for TabletPC and you'll see there are computers based around a writeable screen, based on Windows XP.

...but I'd still suggest a Macbook. And can't you type faster than you can write, anyway? :)
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
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Originally posted by: dclive
Google for TabletPC and you'll see there are computers based around a writeable screen, based on Windows XP.

...but I'd still suggest a Macbook. And can't you type faster than you can write, anyway? :)
Click to expand...

I'm not looking for a TabletPC, more like a little pad where I can scribble notes down in class. I can type a lot faster than I write, but it seems like it'd be difficult to organize notes by typing, where if there was a pad I could connect to the Macbook it'd make it easier to draw figures and whatnot. It seems like I've heard of something like that but I could be wrong.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to go with the Macbook though, it seems like the best for the money. Plus being able to dualboot OS X and XP with Bootcamp is awesome :)
 
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Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
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Wacom digitizer pads? I've seen older versions go on sale for $50 or less. Sounds good actually.
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
1
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Originally posted by: Ionizer86
Wacom digitizer pads? I've seen older versions go on sale for $50 or less. Sounds good actually.
Click to expand...

i just looked them up on Newegg, do you think they would work for taking notes? Here's the one I'm looking at, but I'll definitely need more space than 4" x 5". Would I just have to make a bunch of different 4x5 images and organize the notes later?
 
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Ionizer86

Diamond Member
Jun 20, 2001
5,292
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I've wanted to get one earlier, but I never got around to it. From what I know, most Tablet PC's have a Wacom digitizer built into the screen. So I'd guess that tablets and the digitizer work similarly, but I'm not sure.
 
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deepakvrao

Senior member
Feb 17, 2003
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The advantage of the seperate graphics is that all the RAM is available for your use. I got this yesterday and it looks great.
 
OREOSpeedwagon

OREOSpeedwagon

Diamond Member
May 30, 2001
8,485
1
81
any other opinions on the Macbook vs. the Acer? I'm really leaning toward the Macbook because basically, to me it seems like a nicer, though not quite as powerful, machine.

plus battery life looks like an issue.. battery life on the Macbook (word processing and internet surfing) is about 4.5 hours while on the Acer it's 2.5 hours.
 
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smp

Diamond Member
Dec 6, 2000
5,215
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I've been working with apple laptops and PC laptops for a couple of years now.
The things that the macs have in spades over the PCs is convenience, something as simple as the power brick is easy to wrap up neatly versus the terribly designed things they give you with any PC. I mean, that alone to me makes it worthwhile :D (I hate having a tangle of cables in my bag).
Otherwise, yes being about to dual boot is great and the macbook is a really nice computer. I've been using it's bigger brother (macbook pro) for over a month now and it's the best laptop I've ever used.
You can't go wrong with the macbook, you might even find that you boot into OS X occasionally and you might find you like it. I was originally a windows guy too, for a long time no less. Knowing two operating systems can't hurt you either.
 
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Elderly Newt

Senior member
May 23, 2005
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I recently got an Acer travelmate 8100 off of buy.com for ~$1200. I can't find the link right now, but it has a 2.0ghz Pentium M, 1gb RAM, a Radeon Mobility x700, 1680x1050 res display, DVD RW. It was $1200 after something like $400 off, so I'm not sure if it would still be the same price...
 
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BlingBlingArsch

Golden Member
May 10, 2005
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HP nx6325, Turion 64 X2 TL-52 1.60GHz, 512MB, 80GB (EY349ET) ? 949,73
HP nx6325, Turion 64 X2 TL-60 2.00GHz, 1024MB, 80GB (EY351ET) ? 1130,44
to be released this month
 
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