Notebook Computers... which one?

[theprobbka]

OK, so for next year in college I figure as a Comp Sci / Mathematics Major, I'm going to need a laptop. My university has a campus with wireless networking so that's my main requirement. This isn't going to be a high-performance gaming machine--something simple, mainly for programming, word-processing, and internet (the true power will of course reside in my desktop...). I'm hoping to keep it under $1500. Should I go with a 14.1" iBook, or a Dell Latitude X200? Or something else in the same neighborhood? About the same price, but I'm wondering which you great Anandtech folks would generally recommend.

Thanks!

 

[Horsepower]

Dells are best IMHO, but I migrated to a TabletPC. I'm WAY past school, but in meetings it's more compact and I LOVE handwriting to the journal.

 

[MrBond]

Pick up a used thinkpad (t20 or later) from Ebay. GREAT laptops, perfect for what you're doing

 

[qahwah]

I recently bought an IBM thinkpad R40 (2681FFU) with $1513 from computers4sure. 2GHz P 4-M processor, 256MB RAM, 40G harddisk, and CDRW-DVD combo. With less than $1400 you can also get a thinkpad T23(?) 236681U, which has similar config except the CDRW-DVD combo is replaced by a DVD reader.

 

[eddoh1010]

The one thing that i would suggest for programming would be to have a 15in screen. the 14in lcd on the T20 series are not large enough to program effectively. 1024x768 is alright for word processing, but when you want to see multiple windows open at the same time, its a headache..trust me on this.

 

[addragyn]

Not being a gamer makes this much easier for you!

For PC a ThinkPad. No other laptop line is so consistently well built. If you have the bucks and don't care about gaming performance you cannot go wrong with this one. If you do have any problems IBM support is fantastic.

If you want to go OS X(and I've heard of lots of CS students doing that) you should first check out Apple's Student Developer program. In addition to access to all kinds of dev resources you get a very hefty discount on a hardware purchase. Know that the only difference between the 14" and 12.1" iBooks is the physical screen size. The resolution for both screens is the same. I think of the 14" model as the old person notebook.