Need Laptop for College

[BigfootsMonk]

Hey all,

Please Help, if you do I will give you a virtual cookie.

This is what's important: Budget is around $1k. Also can you recommend a 2nd Dell model laptop that's around $1750

-wireless access so I can surf the net in the buildings around my school.
-portability. Hopefully around 5 lbs, but can't be too costly
-for gaming, I guess low end will do. Hopefully it will perform just as good or better than my 9500pro which is pretty low end right now I guess. However this is just an extra to throw in if it boosts up the cost to some incredible price then forget it. The most important thing is that it has to be able to run the game at whatever lowest graphics setting.
-has good software package. Not the crappy stuff that I don't use. I want Microsoft Office. Whatever is the newest one out there. Is it still 2003? Damn...
-Long lasting battery. Hopefully around 8 hours. So this will probably need 2 batteries maybe?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Closest thing to gaming around $1K is the Gateway 7510GX, info here:
http://www.laptoplogic.com/forums/showthread.php?t=752

Not very portable tho; about 2-2.5 hours batt life.

For an actual good portable unit with good batt life I would go for an HP dv1000/Compaq V2000/Compaq V2000z/HP L2000. All of these use either Pentium M or Turion, get 6-7 hours batt life w/12-cell battery, and can be had around $1K. No gaming at all though.

Gateway has some nice budget 14" widescreen models, I believe one of them you can add have a total of 3 batts for like 10 hours total batt life.
http://www.laptoplogic.com/news/02/10/2005/97/0/

 

[BigfootsMonk]

How does this look?

Inspiron 700m Intel® Pentium® M Processor 745 (1.80 GHz/400MHz FSB)12.1-in WXGA
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Home
Memory 1GB DDR SDRAM 2 Dimms
Hard Drive 40 GB Hard Drive
Network Adapters Integrated Network Card
Modem Internal 56K Modem
Adobe Software Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 6.0
CD ROM/DVD ROM 8x CD/DVD burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer write capability
Wireless Networking Card Intel® PRO/Wireless 2200 Internal Wireless (802.11 b/g, 54Mbps)
Office Productivity Software No productivity suite - Corel WordPerfect word processor only
Security Software No Security Subscription
Digital Music Musicmatch® Jukebox Basic
Primary Battery 4-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery (32WHr)
Limited Warranty, Services and Support No Extended Service, Support or Ltd Warranty
Dial-Up Internet Access 6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
Digital Imaging or Digital Photography Photo Album? SE Basic
Mail-in Rebate SAVE $300 with mail-in rebate! System price shown before rebate.
Miscellaneous Award Winning Service, Support
Financial Software No QuickBooks package selected- Includes limited use trial
Dell Media Experience Dell? Media Experience

TOTAL:$1,623.00

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My friend has a coupon that takes off $600

 

[BigfootsMonk]

The graphics chip for that is a crappy Intel® Extreme Graphics up to 64 MB shared memory. Will that be able to run most games at lowest settings?

 

[ShellGuy]

Depends on what you consider most games and low settings.


Will G.

 

[BigfootsMonk]

Guild Wars, UT2004, FS2004

 

[BigfootsMonk]

Bump.

 

[fbrdphreak]

No, not in a million years. GMA900 is the only half-assed IGP, and it still sucks.

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

If you want a dell, I suggest the 600m. I like normal 14.1" screen with SXGA more than a tiny 700m. It's good, pretty light (5 lbs) and got enough graphics for you to play UT 2k3, CS, War3, etc.

 

[ai42]

I suggest a Inspiron 6000 as you can get a Radeon x300 which should play any game out today (allbiet not very pretty at higher settings). Of course it is a bit more weight than some of these others suggested it will be a good performer and ultraportables almost always have terriable graphics.

Also if your campus has a campus Microsoft licencing go that route. Most of the campuses that I know that have it have these stupid cheap copies of Office, Windows XP Pro etc (like less than $30 a shot). If not go get Student & Teacher edition of Office which is cheaper unless Dell runs an Office sale (which they aren't right now I think).