I have 6 to 700 bills, and starting college, best notebook?

[Tbirdkid]

I dont want a refurb. I dont want a celeron. I need good battery life. Dont care processor, but i do want at least 512 of ram. Suggestions?

 

[Brainonska511]

How about picking up something from the Dell Outlet? You can get a good notebook for a low price there (and they tell you why it has been posted in the Outlet store)

 

[corkyg]

Why not wait until you get there and check out your college bookstore? Sometimes they have excellent deals along with academic software versions.

 

[cheesehead]

I'm personally a fan of the (non-Pro) MacBook. Expect a 100$ college discount. You'd likely be paying below 1000$ for a light, portable, and durable laptop with 4 hours of battery life and a dual-core Pentium M.

 

[Tbirdkid]

Im going back to ecpi. I wont have a bookstore with decent prices. I have to buy it externally. I can get educational discounts from my wife being a K12 teacher. I just need to know what to get. I would prefer non intel graphics too, but i dont guess i can be but so choosy.

 

[jevans64]

While I wouldn't recommend Dell desktop systems, they have a pretty decent line of notebook computers at decent prices. Both the E1505 and E1405 are around $720. The e1505 is currently $719 with a 15.4" TrueLife LCD, 1GB RAM, and DVD+RW burner ( E-Value Code 6V620-E1505S1 ). These aren't gaming machines but will be just fine for classwork and media playback. Also look for coupon codes using Google twice a week to spot additional deals.

 

[thraxes]

At that pricepoint it's going to be a Dell with integrated graphics... which isn't all that bad though! At least their customer service is quite decent.

 

[Tbirdkid]

What about a gateway? I found one at CC.

Gateway® MX6441

Turion too! Also has ati 200m graphics. 8x dvdrw, 512meg, etc.

 

[Ionizer86]

Dell e1405 or e1505 are great choices, as is the Lenovo 3000 N100 ($100 rebate this month brings a core duo version down to ~750ish).

There are also some new HP's around: dv2000t and Compaq V3000z. I hope these two units have better battery life than the older dv1000t and V2000z.

 

[cw42]

Do you plan on doing any gaming (light, heavy), need any 3D apps (autocard)?

 

[Tbirdkid]

no, going back to college for my MIS degree. Need it for unix learning, mcse classes, etc. so i would say it has to be strong, just not anything outrageous...

 

[cheesehead]

Lenovo FTW. IBM/Lenovo both have very strong Linux/Unix support, and are of excellent quality. I would buy them over Dell any day.

 

[Tbirdkid]

Well, i went out and picked up a gateway. The one i posted about earlier. Turion, ati 200 video, 512 megs of ram, wireless g, etc. Nice notebook me thinks. Especially for the cheap price. We will see how long she lasts....

 

[sdifox]

You could look into Acer laptops with Turion chip. Not sure if they have a Turionx2 one yet.

 

[theslickvik]

I hate to bag on Dell but their customer service is far from great. For a college student to put up with their customer service crap is a real hassle. I agree with Cheesehead any day. Lenovo computers a really built to last. THeir Z series laptop is pretty good but you will find yourself shelling out the extra bucks for a laptop. If your looking for long term use please do yourself a favor and dont buy a dell.