Buying a Laptop

[sox 06]

I'm going to be buying a new laptop soon, but I'm not sure which one to buy. I would like to get one that with a warranty and tax included is under $1000. I've been looking on bestbuy.com and have narrowed it down to three. Which one of these (if any) is the best? I'm leaning towards the HP and Apple is not an option.

HP Pavilion Laptop T6400 ($885 with Tax/Warranty)
-Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor
-4GB DDR2 memory (upgradable up to 8GB)
-15.4" WXGA high-definition widescreen display
-320GB hard drive (5400 rpm)
-Weighs only 5.9 lbs. and measures just 1.7" thin
-6 hours and 45 minutes of battery life (from what I've heard, it's a HUGE battery though)

Dell Studio Laptop T6400 ($750 with Tax/Warranty)
-Intel® Core™2 Duo mobile processor
-4GB SoDIMM DDR2 memory
-15.4" WXGA widescreen LED display
-320GB SATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
-Weighs 6.4 lbs. and measures 1.5" thin
-7 hours and 17 minutes of battery life

Gateway Laptop ($750 with Tax/Warranty)
-Intel® Centrino® processor technology with interrelated Intel® Core™2 Duo processor
-4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 memory
-15.6" WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen display
-500GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
-Weighs only 7.7 lbs. and measures just 1.7" thin
-4 hours of battery life

[acsguitar]

May i ask what you will be doing mainly with your laptop?

[sox 06]

May i ask what you will be doing mainly with your laptop?

Its for college next year so basically browsing the internet, typing papers and making Power Point presentations.

[acsguitar]

I'm glad to see you are trying to stay under 1000. You probably can go alot lower then that truthfully.

Let me look up some recommendations for basic usage. Then you can use the extra money for beer or video games

[acsguitar]

Ok so here are some recommendations:

Remember just cause a laptop has a bunch more of something doesn't A: Mean you need it B: Mean you can't just upgrade later for cheaper as tech prices always go down.

So here we go.

ACER
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834115556
3GB DDR2
320GB Drive
Vista Home

MSI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834152111
160GB Drive
2 GB ram

Truthfully anything on this page under 500 will be great for you:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLi ... 2034940032

[Phatferd]

ACS will hate hearing this, but I am planning on buying a macbook or one of the new 13" macbook pro's, within the next couple of weeks.

I have a PC laptop, but it's battery life is horrible and pointless to bring to class and I am so over windows. I should wait until windows 7 comes out, but I am sick of how much of a resource hog it is. I can't run more than 1 or 2 programs without it lagging.

[DbacksRback]

I have a Dell Inspiron 1520 so its nothing great but its good for school. Im in business so its good with all the Micrsoft Office parts. Never had a problem with it but the battery only lasts for about 20 minutes now unplugged after a year in the dorms..... I guess I did something wrong . Its gotten me throught my first 2 years at college fine

[acsguitar]

ACS will hate hearing this, but I am planning on buying a macbook or one of the new 13" macbook pro's, within the next couple of weeks.

I have a PC laptop, but it's battery life is horrible and pointless to bring to class and I am so over windows. I should wait until windows 7 comes out, but I am sick of how much of a resource hog it is. I can't run more than 1 or 2 programs without it lagging.

Meh if you have the extra 700 bucks go for it

[TheRock]

...but the battery only lasts for about 20 minutes now unplugged after a year in the dorms..... I guess I did something wrong

Mine did that too. Then someone told me I should take the battery out if I'm plugged in for long periods of time. And or course use a proper power supply.

And I'll agree with acs, you can get a basic laptop that will do everything you need far under $1000.

[BitterDodgerFan]

Its for college next year so basically browsing the internet, typing papers and making Power Point presentations.

for a laptop that does just those things, you don't need to spend over $500 if you are resourceful and find the right deal. check sites like techbargains.com, they list cheap laptops everyday.

check here: http://www.techbargains.com/laptopcompu ... review.cfm