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My little bro needs a laptop for college...

Oifish

Oifish

Senior member
I've never had any experience with buying a laptop so I was looking for some help from you all. He isn't the most computer savvy guy so he wants something that is reliable and doesn't need much tweaking. Also he knows his way around XP pretty well and doesn't want to mess with Vista. All he's going to use it for is notes, projects (MS office type stuff), IM, music. No gaming or CAD work, but he may have to use Photoshop for some of his classes. Thanks for any help!
 
I would recommend getting something with at least a Core Duo in it since that comes with 'decent' intel integrated graphics. By decent I mean that you can play the sims on it, and run PhotoShop, and some other games... but don't be expecting to play FEAR or CRysis or anything like that on it.

Plus the Core Duo and Core 2 Duo get better battery life than the AMD procs, especially at the performance level.

You are going to want at least 1 GB of RAM in it for performance sake.

Take him to a Best Buy, or CompUSA or some place where they have lots of choices, that way he can get a feel for what screen size he would prefer.

Hard Drive wise... that is entirely up to you and him, and has little to do with performance.
 
I would recommend getting something with at least a Core Duo in it since that comes with 'decent' intel integrated graphics.
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I understand the difference from integrated and dedicated graphics, but how much of a performance difference will does it make to have dedicated?
 
Originally posted by: Oifish
I would recommend getting something with at least a Core Duo in it since that comes with 'decent' intel integrated graphics.
Click to expand...

I understand the difference from integrated and dedicated graphics, but how much of a performance difference will does it make to have dedicated?
Click to expand...

Depends on what you are doing. If you are just browsing the web, the only difference you'll see is the drop in battery life by having a dedicated card. If you're playing games, you'll see performance increases in the game (running at a higher resolution, more graphics details, higher FPS).

If you got something with the 965 mobile chipset, you can get the Intel X3100 integrated graphics, which are much better than the previous GMA 950. Drivers are still being worked out for the chip to optimize performance, but the X3100 chip basically performs like a low-end dedicated GPU, such as the 7200/7300 (a quick search showed the X3100 as having a 3dMark06 score of 550, compared to 830 for the 7400 Go, and 100 for the GMA 950), but gives you the battery life that you'd normally find with integrated graphics. It won't be the best, but it is a good alternative to going with a low-end GPU.
 
well, from a gaming stand point, a huge difference. And if you have a high enough res screen, it will make a difference there even in simple tasks. The advantage to integrated in this instance is that you gain battery life, which is important in a laptop, and since he won't be gaming on it....
 
I'd say go for a dell latitude D630 or D830. Difference is 14in or 15.4 in screens. Right now dell has a sale on them so you can get a very nice one for 1k or so. Go for the X3100 graphics and just buy a 2gb ram kit from newegg for 70-80 bucks. Since its for school you want something reliable with good warranty coverage so if something happens he wont be without a laptop which nowadays in college is a bad thing. I say go for latitude over the inspirons because they are better build and can take some abuse. Also they come with standard 3 year warranty and for 100 bucks more you get the on site service where they go to your house the next day.

Other than that you should also look at the macbook. Apple has back to school specials right now so its worth checking out. But if 13in screen is too small for him i would go with the latitude.
 
I just found out that the company I work for has a contract with Hp, and that allows me to take advantage of the company discount. Any thoughts on Hp's laptops? I saw the HP Pavilion dv6000z is reasonably priced and it has the option for Core Duo.
 
I would look at the dv2500t and dv6500t. They both have santa rosa in them with an option for gf 8400M graphics. The only thing I dont like about the dv6500t is the screen resolution of 1280x800 is very weak compared to other 15in laptops. Might as well go for the 2500t which has 14in screen and same resolution.

The hp business models are also very nice. They dont have that glossy imprint finish on them and I prefer the looks of them as they dont have flashy lights all over the place. I would look into the 6510b which is 14in and the 6710b which is 15.4in. What I like about the 6710b is that they have the option of higher resolution than 1280x800 which is a plus. You are not going to want to have a 15in laptop with a 1280x800 resolution. Nowadays that is pretty substandard.
 
You guys are all recommending laptops WAY above the required configuration. Re-read what the OP posted:
All he's going to use it for is notes, projects (MS office type stuff), IM, music. No gaming or CAD work, but he may have to use Photoshop for some of his classes.
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Pretty much any laptop made in the last 4 years will do that with ease. I'd recommend a $549 Dell Inspiron 1501; it's got a dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, CD/DVD burner, wireless, good integrated video. There are other models starting at $499 with slightly slower specs.

Why spend double the money when you don't have to?
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
You guys are all recommending laptops WAY above the required configuration. Re-read what the OP posted:
All he's going to use it for is notes, projects (MS office type stuff), IM, music. No gaming or CAD work, but he may have to use Photoshop for some of his classes.
Click to expand...
Pretty much any laptop made in the last 4 years will do that with ease. I'd recommend a $549 Dell Inspiron 1501; it's got a dual-core CPU, 1GB RAM, 120GB hard drive, CD/DVD burner, wireless, good integrated video. There are other models starting at $499 with slightly slower specs.

Why spend double the money when you don't have to?
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There is such a thing as making the system last. A computer from 4 years ago is probably not going to be very viable 4 years from now, whereas a computer from now will if one follows the same logic. So why not spend more now to get it better, or get it insured so that way you dont then spend the $500 all over again in a year or two?
 
Originally posted by: TheStu
There is such a thing as making the system last. A computer from 4 years ago is probably not going to be very viable 4 years from now, whereas a computer from now will if one follows the same logic. So why not spend more now to get it better, or get it insured so that way you dont then spend the $500 all over again in a year or two?
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That's a crap argument for a couple reasons:

1) A $500 computer versus a $1000 computer, today, will run all the OP's stated tasks at the same speed. 1 year, 2 years, 3 years down the road, the same will hold true. If the usage stays the same, so will the performance. For instant messaging, taking notes, Office, listening to music, and Photoshop, unless you have a stop-watch out, you're not going to see a difference.

2) In a year or two, $500 will buy you a better laptop than any $1000 unit right now. Even so, unless a person changes their usage, the upgrade will be pointless.

Just an quick FYI, in the year 2011, I guarantee an 8 year old laptop will still be able to run AIM, Winamp, Office and Photoshop.
 
Originally posted by: jpeyton
Originally posted by: TheStu
There is such a thing as making the system last. A computer from 4 years ago is probably not going to be very viable 4 years from now, whereas a computer from now will if one follows the same logic. So why not spend more now to get it better, or get it insured so that way you dont then spend the $500 all over again in a year or two?
Click to expand...
That's a crap argument for a couple reasons:

1) A $500 computer versus a $1000 computer, today, will run all the OP's stated tasks at the same speed. 1 year, 2 years, 3 years down the road, the same will hold true. If the usage stays the same, so will the performance. For instant messaging, taking notes, Office, listening to music, and Photoshop, unless you have a stop-watch out, you're not going to see a difference.

2) In a year or two, $500 will buy you a better laptop than any $1000 unit right now. Even so, unless a person changes their usage, the upgrade will be pointless.

Just an quick FYI, in the year 2011, I guarantee an 8 year old laptop will still be able to run AIM, Winamp, Office and Photoshop.
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Man... 2011 just sounds far away

You are also assuming that his usage will stay the same (within reasonable variance). If you hold to that assumption, then shoot, a Pentium 2 will get the job done. But if he does start to game, or starts to work with Blender or something, then he is going to want more horsepower. But I can see your argument, by my line of thinking, might as well buy him an XPS1710 with all the bells and whistles... he might need it.
 
Originally posted by: TheStu
You are also assuming that his usage will stay the same (within reasonable variance). If you hold to that assumption, then shoot, a Pentium 2 will get the job done. But if he does start to game, or starts to work with Blender or something, then he is going to want more horsepower. But I can see your argument, by my line of thinking, might as well buy him an XPS1710 with all the bells and whistles... he might need it.
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True, but we're not really talking about Pentium 2s. As with anything computer related, the price/performance ratio decreases exponentially as price goes up (not linearly). So while $200 could buy him a nice used Pentium 2/3 laptop, $500 can buy him a brand new dual-core laptop, and $1000 will afford him certain upgrades he may never utilize.

I don't think anybody will argue against the face that computing power has increased far more rapidly than the needs of a majority of the computing market.

I'm typing this right now on a ultra-portable laptop with a 1.1GHz Pentium M CPU; a CPU that wasn't even high-end 4 years ago. XP, Office, IM, music, and even Photoshop run buttery smooth on it.
 
what is the budget? i am all for buying the best bang for the buck now.. (~$500) and then upgrading it again in two years and selling the old one.. he can get something like a dell d600 for $350 used.. they are well built and there are seemingly millions of them which means getting parts for one if something breaks is easy.. and they hold their value because alot of people think that dell latitude is the best there is..

but if he needs cool factor, or mom and dad are buying it and are only getting him 1 to last 4 years.. then other more expensive options might need to be considered..
honestly i am a cheap ass...
 
I picked up a cheapy Toshiba for $579 after a 2GB RAM upgrade.

Intel Core Duo
2GB RAM
80GB HD
Wireless
CD/DVD burner
ATI X200M graphics
15.4" glossy screen
Vista

I bought it for school as well, same usage as you stated. School, web, office and it works perfectly. I neither need nor want anything more from it and for the price it's a very nice laptop.
 
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