I need to buy a laptop

[Crappopotamus]

ive never bought a notebook before, so id appreciate some suggestions and tips. im used to desktops, where i can have everything that i want. i dont like the fact that im going to have tradeoffs :|

anyways, heres my situation: im going to uni, but im going to be moving every 4 months for coop. this is why i need a laptop. i dont need something overly powerful. im running a 1800+ amd as my desktop, and its fine. im going into engineering, if that matters.

-what cpu should i be looking at? amd? p4? p4m? are the centrinos worth it?
-do people in uni lug their notebooks everywhere? i question how useful it would actually be in class, cause i need to take notes on paper... so as far as size goes, i dont think ill need something ultra portable.
-a larger screen would be nice, so my eyes dont get tired. i run a 19" on my desktop. what size screen should i look for in a laptop?
-how important is battery life? i dont think ill be using the 'wireless freedom' outside too often. mostly id have access to a plug...
-as stupid as it sounds, i would like something that looks good. i want a good laptop, but i dont know if im boring enough to own an ibm black brick yet...

thats all i can think of right now. id like to keep it under 2k cdn if possible. and i dont mind buying second hand. suggestions/recommendations would be great. thanks in advance.

 

[thuned]

-what cpu should i be looking at? amd? p4? p4m? are the centrinos worth it?
Yes, they are worth it. I recommend getting a pentium-m cpu over everything else (unless you game or go for Apple).
-do people in uni lug their notebooks everywhere? i question how useful it would actually be in class, cause i need to take notes on paper... so as far as size goes, i dont think ill need something ultra portable.
No, you probably don't need it in class. But as an engineering major, you might find it useful in labs or in your group partner's apartment.
-a larger screen would be nice, so my eyes dont get tired. i run a 19" on my desktop. what size screen should i look for in a laptop?
I'd recommend a 14.1", maybe even a 12". Any bigger would make your laptop less portable. Bring your 19" to college. When you're in your room, you can hook up your laptop to it and use the larger screen.
-how important is battery life? i dont think ill be using the 'wireless freedom' outside too often. mostly id have access to a plug...
It was one of my top priorities. It depends on what you do though. But if you get a pentium-m, you probably don't have to worry about battery life much.
-as stupid as it sounds, i would like something that looks good. i want a good laptop, but i dont know if im boring enough to own an ibm black brick yet...
Ibook? People seem to like the silver look of Dell's D series latitudes too.

 

[Eric1285]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=45&threadid=1369145

 

[Crappopotamus]

okay, so ill be looking at a p4-m. what makes a notebook/processer a centrino?

14.1" would be enough? i was looking at the toshiba m30 today (15"), and it seemed to be a good size (both screen and laptop-wise)

i heard that dell laptops feel cheap? is that true? what brands make solid feeling laptops?

 

[Justin216]

P4m=bad Thats a pentium 4 mobile

P-m=good Thats a new pentium mobile

Centrino is a P-M processor with Intel integrated wireless

 

[Frightcrawler]

The Dell Inspiron line feels cheap.
IBM makes solid feeling laptops. Apple too.

 

[thuned]

If you want something solid and not too pricy, I suggest, Dell D600, IBM R50, or HP nc6000. If you can afford it, go IBM T41/42 or Apple powerbook.
And no, you DON'T want a p4-m. You want a p-m; big difference. To sum up its advantages, it's designed from ground up to be a mobile chip that consumes less power. Which means, more battery life + cooler -> smaller heatsink = lighter.

 

[Wuzup101]

You definitely want the P-M not the P4-M as stated above. You don't need to go all out centrino though. Centrino is the Pentium M, Intel 855 chipset (I believe that's the right one), and Intel Wireless system. Many laptop manufs will use the chipset and Pentium M because they are the compatable set; however, with a different wireless card you might get more features (a/b/g) but not technically be a centrino setup.

Anyway my recomendation would be to look at IBM T4x series notebooks, Fugi's, Possibly Dell inspiron 600m, Dell latitude series, and if you're feeling creative... maybe even an Apple Powerbook.

One note on the apple. I used to be a hardcore apple hater as of about 6 months ago. I recently purchased a 15" Powerbook for my sophomore year at Penn State. I'm a bio engineering major, and I can tell you the apple does everything I need it to, easier than win XP, and it looks better to boot. I'm not saying that apple is the best choice out there... just saying that maybe you should consider it if you want a highly portable notebook that looks good and performs well. Anyway, if you do go that rout, you can get a nicely configured 15" for about $2000 with the ADC student membership ($99/year). You have to subscribe to it but it includes the latest OS version so when the new OSX 10.4 "tiger" comes out you'll get a free copy... which easily pays for the cost of the $99/year.

 

[dguy6789]

IMO, anything besides a pentium M for a laptop is waste of time, space and battery power.

The pentium Ms are great at ANYTHING except media encoding, otherwise, they are awesome. Pentium Ms are almost as fast as athlon 64s clock for clock. a 1ghz pentium M is about as fast as a 2.5-2.6Ghz p4.

 

[Errno]

I've been looking at these guys' computers and they have a 17" P4 and not so boring looking laptop. Seems really fast and the benchmark seems really good... good for engineering

www.go-l.com Again what do you think guys?

 

[AndrewKu]

I am just rehashing... but the guys here have it right. It depends on your lifestyle and the type of use you are planning for it. If you are looking for a traditional business like notebook: I would recommend either the Dell Latitude D600 or the HP?Compaq NC6000.

 

[Wuzup101]

Last time I checked a 1.6ghz PM was about equal to a P4 at 2.4-2.6ghz... a 1ghz P-M isn't bad but it's not a 2.6ghz P4

 

[kuljc]

I would actually not follow what these guys were saying. I would actually recomend a p4 (not p4m tho) because you don't need an extreme amount of battey life and their usually cheaper.


Also if you really wanted to take notes in class people have tablet pc's for that. (I still prefer paper)

The only thing I would recomend is staying with a intel, because you're in engineering. There are some programs out there you might use that require a intel.


screen size for you, would be around a 14.1 or maybe a 15 (depending if you want to carry it around with you to all your classes)

As for looks... I don't quite remember but I think sager makes some pretty good looking laptops and they weren't overpriced and have good reviews.

one last thing, you should update your first post w/ more things you're gonna do with the laptop, like playing games or video editing or anything like that. And if portability is an issue (you never really said anything about that)