Best place to get a laptop?

[lchyi]

I'm looking into any of the recommended brands. I know there are laptops for different people, but basically I'm looking for one with:

medium to medium-high battery life, would still prefer performance over portability
good video card to still play Doom3 on
40-60gb of HD space
best cost/performance processor, thinking Pentium M or A64 3000
wireless is a must b or g since the school is still running b
512mb RAM
size probably doesn't matter too much... as long as i can dump it in a backpack
price range is about $1000-1300, maybe 1400, but i'm trying to be a small spender

Thanks

 

[Frightcrawler]

Emachines M6xx!
/shameless plug

 

[fbrdphreak]

Definitely the eMachines M68xx series. 6810 has Athlon 64 3200+, CDRW, 512MB, 60GB, 15.4" XGA, b/g for $1500 retail plus usually $250 mail-in rebates. The 6811 has Athlon 64 3400+, DVDRW, 512MB, 80GB, same as above for $1650 with usually $250 mail-in. BTW, both have Radeon 9600 64MB. You might wait for notebooks to use the Radeon 9800 as that will own any other notebook video card, otherwise drop in an extra 512MB RAM to help Doom 3 run smoothly.
Other than eMachines, you might look into HP zt3000 series w/Centrino technology. The eMachines get ~2 hours, max of 3. The HP's get 4-5 hours and also have 15.4". Downside is that right now they only use Radeon 9200 32 or 64MB. :-( But those are your best bang for the buck. Basically choose performance or battery life. (BTW, the HP's start @ about $1400 retail, can configure up from there).

 

[Abhi]

Btw, if and when you buy a dell, it is normally best to wait and watch for a good deal. Prices fluctuate quite a lot and there are also discount coupons which keep floating around....

 

[cy7878]

keep checking the hot deals forum for coupons and discounts. I have seen some incredible deals from Dell. I have seen 600m's go for about $1000 when the time is right. If Dell is still too expensive, then try your local CC or Best Buys...........