alby4ever, welcome to college life, (freshmen year of college will The most memorable year of your entire academic career, so enjoy every moment of it).
I think you should wait till around August to purchase a new laptop, which is part of my agenda. The current notebook market is a bit "archaic", since the last large batches of notebooks were released around March (the whole Centrino driving craze) by most manufacturers. Tech site, such as cnet have reported that HP will release 10 new models during 2nd half of the year, so it is rational to think that other companies will follow a similar product roadmap. Likewise, most companies are focusing very intensively on the notebook segment of the market b/c it is the last "frontier" of computer market that is still showing an auspicious trend, so this tend to encourage big manufacturers to update their product lineup in a very short cycle.
Beyond the business incentive of fast pace product cycle, there is the technological progression factor. For example, 7200 rpm mobile HD will probably start showing its presence in the market in 2003. Then there is Intel?s persistent push for higher cpu speed (1.7 GHz is just isn't fast enough for Intel?s marketing strategy), thus it is predicted that Intel will refresh its P-M clock speed. Then, there is the obvious V-card variable, which is a chronicle topic of debates @ the forum.
So, the compendium of all the factors points to a notebook purchasing date around August or perhaps even later if you have the luxury to wait. (My advice, first couple of months of college is just too good to splurge in front of a computer screen
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