New laptop

[cs_student]

I'm will be getting a laptop soon, as I will need it when I go off to university next year. I'm will get some money for christmas to combine with what I've already been saving.

My price range will be about 1k.

I need a 17" screen. Small screens drive me crazy.
I would like a rather decent graphics card for games (on windows) which also has a good driver for gnu/linux (so probably a nvidia).
I'm still up in the air if I should go for 64 bit or not. Though, as of now, I'm leaning towards 64 bit.

Any suggestions on a brand/model to check out as a reference or potential candidate would be great.


Thank you for your time and effort,


Joseph Pond

[Fou-Lu]

I use a notebook, worst investment I made.
Let me explain. I bought mine for school as well, though as it turned out I wasn't allowed to even bring it in - our restrictions put us only on school domain pcs. This was about 5 years ago now, I spent $1300. This was actually a great deal (at the time) considering what I had - 1.6GHz 64 bit processor, 1GB of memory and 120GB HD. Video is only at 64MB. Used it as desktop replacement, but I could have had a much better PC for the same cash. I ended up with the 15" monitor. I was also considering the 17", but went with the 15" due to the consumption difference - 15" would last somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes longer than the 17" would have.

Now, this all being said I can't give much info about newer technology. I know that notebooks are far better and faster than they were a few years ago, and much much cheaper. The only thing I can suggest is to double check that you can actually bring you're notebook to classes. Otherwise, use the cash to get a better PC that you'll be more happy with.

[drhowarddrfine]

Over the last 3 years we've had 3 Dell laptops from the Inspiron series. Been very happy with them and have had no problems with them at all.

[oracleguy]

Whatever you get, get it with a 64-bit OS.

How long do you want your laptop to last before you buy a new one? Gaming laptops have much shorter life spans from a performance perspective since you can't upgrade the video card.

But as some general guidelines, get something with dual cores, 4GB of RAM, 64-bit OS and a fairly large hard drive. An NVIDIA graphics card is your best bet if you want to have good Windows and Linux support. Also consider getting an external hard drive to augment your disk space if you need it.

I've had several Dell laptops over the years and haven't had any major issues to speak of.

[Apostropartheid]

1k of what currency? Where do you live? That's a major factor.

I'm in love with the Dell Studio 17, though I can't vouch for the newer versions. However, 17" is much larger once you start actually moving it somewhere. If you're going to take this into class, you're going to be much, much better off with a 15" with a bigger resolution than standard.

[cs_student]

Are there any good brands which sell good laptops without an operating system installed. From the looks of it having windows 7 will tack on about another $100 usd.

My desktop is still capable of running the few games I still play. It's the only desktop I've ever had, but I've updated it with a new graphics card, monitor, RAM, etc. So it's still up to par.

I guess I can keep Windows games off of my laptop and save a few bucks. I'll just run anything else I need windows for in vbox.

[Apostropartheid]

Dell offer laptops with Ubuntu preinstalled, but really you'll have to go to a specialist for a custom made one--and custom made laptops are rarely all too pretty. Really, Windows isn't very expensive at all when tacked on by an OEM, so long as you keep the version to the cheapest available.

[shadowmaniac]

Like one of the posts above, I'd also suggest getting a 15" monitor unless if you're already used to big monitor screens; 17" is big. That plus think about the weight if you're going to be carrying it around with you at school :P

Also, check with your university if they're part of the M$ Alliance or w/e it's called, you may get Windows or any/most M$ product for free through the school.

[sage45]

Not to mention this fact... If you have already applied and been accepted to your school, you may be able to purchase a laptop from a manufacturer (such as Dell) with an Educational discount (same applies to software)... Also, depending upon your Major (I am a CS [Computer Science] Major) you can get some software free [with restrictions on usage ofcourse].

-saige-

[primefalcon]

As said above dell sells computers with Ubuntu on it which is a free OS