Need a new laptop for school, what's good?

[Shelly21]

I'm thinking about going back to school part time for a business degree. And using that excuse, I can get a new laptop. What is the cheapest I can get and better than what I have right now? (Dell Latitude CPx)

I need dvd and/or cd-rw (is that possible? a drive that's dvd and cd-rw?)
wireless network card (811.02b)

that new centrino would be good, but probably expensive. I don't think my tax refund would cover that.

 

[agnitrate]

I would totally get a Mac if i had the cash. Centrinos are also nice and probably less expensive than a Mac.

-silver

 

[Viper GTS]

You can get low end Centrino based laptops for around $1500, and yes they are sweet.

I would much rather have a $1500 Centrino based laptop than a $1500 P4/Athlon.

BTW, it's 802.11b.



Viper GTS

 

[murphy55d]

Yes there are DVD/CDRW combo drives. Pretty nice.

Dell always has good prices, check the Hot Deals forum and http://www.bensbargains.net for some of their deals. If you can afford it I'd go with a Thinkpad, but anything from Dell, IBM, Toshiba, etc will do you nicely.

I've also heard good things about http://www.powernotebooks.com/ , but I have no personal experience with them.

 

[Shelly21]

Thanks guys!

Shows you how much I know about wireless network. And I'm suppose to be a network tech.

 

[Kevin]

Sometimes you can get a decent deal at Staples with rebates and coupons...

 

[Toasthead]

Dell always has great deals going on for notebooks, and I think they just came out with a couple of new models ( 1100 and 5100). As far as built in Wireless, I have heard conflicting stories about how good the range is on the cards the install in most of the laptops that have it. I think you would be better off getting a PCMCIA (?) card like an Orinoco gold...which kicks ass both for security and range.

 

[RossMAN]

What's your budget?

 

[iamwiz82]

since you are student, you can get awesome deals from apple if you join the sutdent ADC. you can get a 12" Powerbook for $1500 with 802.11b. Almost $400 off

 

[HomerSapien]

ibook.

 

[xirtam]

Originally posted by: Shelly21
Thanks guys!

Shows you how much I know about wireless network. And I'm suppose to be a network tech.

Hey, it's easy to juxtapose numbers. Just the other day I was talking about my new new 821 MB GeForce Ti0024 and somebody gave me a weird look.

 

[mpitts]

Originally posted by: iamwiz82
since you are student, you can get awesome deals from apple if you join the sutdent ADC. you can get a 12" Powerbook for $1500 with 802.11b. Almost $400 off

This is definitely the way to go.

I love my 15" Powerbook!