what should I look for?

tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
edited January 2006 in Hardware
This summer I'm going to start college, so I need to be looking for a new laptop. I was going to start in the fall, but I decided to start in the summer and take a few classes, just so my freshman year won't be too intense for me. I'm majoring in electrical engineering, so I'm not really sure if I will do alot of work with programs on my computer other than some programming. If there are any electrical engineers, computer engineers, computer science, or anything related, how powerful(processor performance, amount of ram ect...) of a laptop will I need?

I'm not asking for help looking to find a laptop, I'm just wondering if this i will need a powerful computer for my major. I was thining about the pentium m 760, and about a gig of ram, so I dont know if thats not enough power, or more than enough. I will probably spend around $1200-1500 on it.

Comments

  • bikerboybikerboy PA
    edited January 2006
    i would go with an AMD proc. i dunno about laptops if they use a different proc. then in a desktop but AMD's are generally better. just a thought though.

    bikerboy
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited January 2006
    Definatly stay with the pentium M it offers the best proformence in its class and it will give you the best battery life.

    A sager NP5320C is probably the best for you.
  • bikerboybikerboy PA
    edited January 2006
    ah i forgot about battery life. my sister has a AMD Turion64 and her battery life over 2 hours though.

    bikerboy
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Im trying to remember, what brand was the beast that mackanz has?

    as much as I dont like intel, id prob. say that id myself get a laptop with a intel proc. maybe not though. make sure you get a good vid card though, cause i heard that vista is gonna rely on the vid card to render stuff instead of the processor.
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited January 2006
    airbornflght wrote:
    Im trying to remember, what brand was the beast that mackanz has?
    Its a Dell XPS
  • GrayFoxGrayFox /dev/urandom Member
    edited January 2006
    airbornflght wrote:
    Im trying to remember, what brand was the beast that mackanz has?

    as much as I dont like intel, id prob. say that id myself get a laptop with a intel proc. maybe not though. make sure you get a good vid card though, cause i heard that vista is gonna rely on the vid card to render stuff instead of the processor.
    Gah a vista fanboy you have no idea whats going to be in that os do you.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    I'm sticking with xp
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    pilotwings119 wrote:
    Its a Dell XPS


    lol those are such a ripoff. you can customize the inspiron 9300 lowest model which starts at $1046, and add upgrades to make it equal and even better in preformace for less than $1600. The xps is like $1900
  • sfleurietsfleuriet Texas New
    edited January 2006
    tmh88 wrote:
    lol those are such a ripoff. you can customize the inspiron 9300 lowest model which starts at $1046, and add upgrades to make it equal and even better in preformace for less than $1600. The xps is like $1900
    You go tell him that and try to compete with the performance he has on that monster :thumbsup:

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39223
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    pilotwings119 wrote:
    You go tell him that and try to compete with the performance he has on that monster :thumbsup:

    http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=39223


    If i wanted preformance I could build a desktop that has equal if not better parts for like half the price. (and they would be about the same size too :D )

    His xps cost him 2.8k. Do you realize how amazing of a desktop you could get with that? And plus I'm spending half of that when i buy my laptop.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Go with the Pentium M. In addition to great battery life they have a lot more power than the specs lead you to beleive. They are the best for a reasonable price. Tht's the facts and only the facts, sir.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    Will I be able to get a decent/good pentium m laptop for around $1200-1500?

    (not meant for gaming though, so i dont care about the videocard)
  • Straight_ManStraight_Man Geeky, in my own way Naples, FL Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    GrayFox wrote:
    Definatly stay with the pentium M it offers the best proformence in its class and it will give you the best battery life.

    A sager NP5320C is probably the best for you.

    Agreed.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    I'll probably have to get one of the more well known computer companies like dell,hp, vaio ect... My parents are going to be paying for it, and since they dont know a thing about computers its hard to convince them that some "no name" is better than a dell. If theyre paying like $1500, they want to know that it is going to be good. They also want all that extra support bull**** even though i could fix the thing myself if it gets messed up. I'll probably just get an inspiron 9300, and customize it alot. Sure it will cost more money, but im not going to be paying for it.
  • Mt_GoatMt_Goat Head Cheezy Knob Pflugerville (north of Austin) Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Sager makes excellent lappys and don't leave out Toshiba.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    mtgoat wrote:
    Sager makes excellent lappys and don't leave out Toshiba.


    I know they make nice stuff, i just said "no name" because I guarentee that my parents have never ever heard of that company. I forgot about toshiba, my cousin has one and it runs great.
  • NiGHTSNiGHTS San Diego Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    Look at warranty and service options, too. Don't forget about all that.

    The great advantage to HP and Dell is the "Whoops!" accidental damage warranty they have. HP's is much cheaper than Dell's.

    Don't forget Lenovo (IBM's Thinkpads) and Fujitsu either. Check out www.notebookforums.com and www.notebookreview.com. Those two sites have more than enough information to get you what you need.
  • tmh88tmh88 Pittsburgh / Athens, OH
    edited January 2006
    NiGHTS wrote:
    Look at warranty and service options, too. Don't forget about all that.

    The great advantage to HP and Dell is the "Whoops!" accidental damage warranty they have. HP's is much cheaper than Dell's.

    Don't forget Lenovo (IBM's Thinkpads) and Fujitsu either. Check out www.notebookforums.com and www.notebookreview.com. Those two sites have more than enough information to get you what you need.

    yea i know, i was just naming a few companies. I still have a few months before i get one, I'm just looking ahead to see what i need preformance wise.
  • airbornflghtairbornflght Houston, TX Icrontian
    edited January 2006
    im am NOT a vista fanboy. Im looking forward to it, to see what it has in it, and I also realize that in the future, support will cease for XP, and it'll be time to move on. I probably wont have vista when i first comes out either cause it'll be too expensive. I didnt get XP until 2 years after it was out. I was still on 2000 pro.

    and about the gpu rendering more of the graphics, is this not right? I'm pretty sure that I read something or another about it.
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