Notebook Specs for college bound student

[Slowlearner]

Need specs for a medium priced (~1500$) notebook suitable for college:

Processor Pentium 4 -M ? M Pentium? Mobile Athlon? Very confused on this
Screen 15", is 14 ok? XGA?SVGA? KGBA?XXQVA? Whats all this, not the last two
Weight 6 lbs, is 7+ lbs too heavy
Memory 256 or 512
HD 20 or 30 or 40
Wifi b or g
Optical Dvd/CDRW combo
OS XP Home or Pro
Other NIC/modem built in
Warr 1 yr or 3
Reliability Preferred brand
Battery life ??
Accessories spare battery & charger, speakers, microphone

What else should I be looking for?

 

[Special1Sauce]

512Megs of Ram is a definate
3 year warranty That should get you through college if you have any issues just return it
i'd go with a 15.1 Unless your weight concious then go with a 12incher

 

[jdogg707]

Go with Pentium-M for the best combination of battery life and performance, any Centrino should give you around 3.5-4 hours and be on the light side. You will want at least 512MB of RAM for Windows XP, and since this is for college, get XP Professional since most schools recommend it. You want 802.11g, as it will also handle b. Try for a 15" screen if you are going to be using it alot, or a 14.1" with a good resolution (SXGA+ or higher). If this will be your main computer, get a laptop with a 40GB Hard Drive, and try to find one with a 5400RPM or higher rotational speed. Depending on the college that you are attending you should be able to get discounts through them from certain manufacturers, and also find recommended systems that the University configures and will give you everything you need. Make sure to get MS Office 2003 Professional as most colleges recommend the Professional version since it includes Access. Also make sure to get a good 3 Year Warranty so you aren't having to call IT all the time, they hate that and are most of the time less than helpful.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Some colleges have recommendations for minimum hardware specs.

 

[vegetation]

It all depends if it's being used in the field or in your room only. If you're an undergrad it's unlikely you'll be using the laptop a lot in classrooms, so something heavier wouldn't matter much. A grad student would probably need more portability however.

 

[MikePanic]

def get the 3 year warrenty - if you go w/ a 15.1" screen make sure the rez goes beyond 1024x768 otherwise its pointless

get the biggest hdd you can get

get a combo cdrw/dvd or a cdrw/dvdwr combo...

and get yourself a good case/backpack/messenger bag for it

btw... is this just general purpose??? or are you into graphics, gaming or what?

if its just for internet/email/term papers you dont need to gonuts w/ a gig of ram or anything

 

[Mik3y]

i say go with the emachines athlon64 laptop

amd64 3000+
512 ram
60gb harddrive
64mb ati gfx

and more. go to emachines.com and check them out. i would definitely go for that over hte pentium m, cuz of performance. thats my opinion though.

 

[Ionizer86]

I'd recommend a light solution like under 5lb's. You don't know how often you'll be hauling the laptop to class.

Screen and resolution is a personal perference. Whatever you like. I like 12" since I like small laptops

HDD: get what's enough for you. How much stuff will you have on the disk? If you get a laptop with a small base disk you can always upgrade by buying a separate one then selling yours.

Wifi: get B. Hybrid B/G networks are slower.

Memory: if it comes with 256, upgrade to 512. Memory is a cheap upgrade that you can do yourself (256MB PC2700 SoDimm = $30).

Drive: whatever you need. Will you watch movies? Burn CD's?

Processor: P-M's are costly but usually the laptops are light and have long battery life. Look out with Dell though since their implementation isn't as good (The 600m for example only has 4 hour battery life despite the P-M chip). If you're on a budget, the HP XP-M laptop is excellent. P4's aren't that good in laptops.

 

[labrat25]

i'd 2nd the the eMachines A64...

otherwise:
biggest hard-drive you can get
combo wireless (most universities are just now adding B but who knows where they'll be in a couple years)
don't worry about weight too much, your books will be heavier anyway unless you'll be carrying it with you every day
verson of XP shouldn't matter
battery life.. again depends if you'll be taking it with you everywhere
combo drive = very good idea