Looking for my first laptop...

[TheGeek]

I am currently debating buying a laptop. I have never owned my onw personally, so I dont really know what to look for. It's primarily for school and moderate gaming. I'd like to keep the price reasonably cheap too. Any suggestions?

 

[thuned]

Looks like you have a fairly decent desktop for gaming. As a college student myself, you probably don't need/want to be gaming in lab, class, or in the library. IE no real need for a portable gaming machine.

Maybe it depends on your school and major, but you might be needing to carry around your laptop a lot to take with you to lab, go to a partner's house for project, or do some research in the library. If this is the case, you'd want a light laptop.

Oh, and before you actually buy a laptop, go to a store and try them out. Weight, screen quality/brightness, build quality, etc.

 

[wisdomtooth]

And last but not least, find out if there are any educational discounts for laptops through your school. One can usually save a pretty penny through those.

 

[funggorgor]

yes, educational discount is what you need
I got an IBM laptop and all the legit softwares loaded thru school with a cheap price

 

[TheGeek]

I would, except I'm in high school, so I dont think I can get a discount

 

[fbrdphreak]

For moderate gaming & power, checking out either the eMachines M68XX series or the Gateway 72XX series (Pretty much the same damn thing, Gateway's just have the brightview screen crap). They have 15.4" widescreen, 512MB, Radeon 9600 64MB, and wifi. With CDRW & 60GB, I believe you can get them for around $1200 on sale @ BBY (The Gateways all have instant rebates too). Best gaming machine for the money right now

 

[TheGeek]

im loking far a more powerfull vid card. this will replace both of my desktop pcs

 

[silverpig]

You're not going to get the same performance out of a laptop as you will with a desktop.

I just ordered a lappy with a 9700 Pro mobile and I might just play some classic CS or something... maybe some Q3 or UT just for kicks.

 

[TheGeek]

i know, but im looking to get as close as possible

 

[wisdomtooth]

Originally posted by: TheGeek
I would, except I'm in high school, so I dont think I can get a discount

Hmm... How about the Parental discount?

 

[Lairans]

www.powernotebooks.com

or

www.pctorque.com

You should be able to configure yourself a nice SAGER at a pretty much wholesale price at one of those places. The x800 SAGER laptops are coming soon (end of month) so you may want to wait if you are looking for extremely good gaming on a laptop. My friends 1.7 Dothan w/ 1gig ram and 128mb 9700 pro runs HL2/cs:s at the widescreen resolution great (50-60 fps) and it looks nice on the LCD. I think he has the Sager 5790.

 

[TheGeek]

Originally posted by: wisdomtooth

Originally posted by: TheGeek
I would, except I'm in high school, so I dont think I can get a discount

Hmm... How about the Parental discount?

haha. ROFL, my parents givin me money. lol.

...oh wait, were you serious?