College Laptop

[imported_flounder]

I'll be starting college in the fall and am looking for recommendations for laptops. I am majoring in EE but the school has not indicated that I will need any particular laptop so I'm guessing that I won't need to be able to run CAD programs.

Price: around 2k but am flexible
Gaming: I have my desktop for that but I still might want to play some games on lower setting on my laptop. Specifically, how does that new integrated graphics on Santa Rosa compare with a Mobile Quadro (both are options on the Thinkpad T61)?
Size/Weight: I am thinking 14/15 inch screen and I value longevity in the battery.

I was looking at the Thinkpad T61 as well as various Toshiba Models and would appreciate any input.

 

[Brainonska511]

The X3100 drivers are still being worked on by Intel. Supposedly, there is still more performance that can be squeezed out of it, but it will play games. As far as the mobile quadro in the T61, it would probably be comparable to a 7300/7400 Go in terms of gaming graphics power (probably a little worse than those two cards because it is geared towards professional apps). Though, if you plan on doing EE work, I'd go with the quadro since supposedly some programs that utilize the graphics chip have problems if it isn't ATI or Nvidia powered. The downside to using a dedicated card is less battery life.

As far as size/weight, get the 14" screen; the slightly smaller and lighter package is worth it and a smaller screen will drain batteries a little slower.

The T61 is a great choice and I'd probably choose that over a Toshiba model.