21 replies to this topic

[toomuchpie617]

I an entering college student whose looking a for a somewhat cheap laptop for word porcessing, spreadsheets,music,movies and MINIMAL gaming (mostly Sims 3) which one of these or other laptops would be the best deal for me?

http://www.bestbuy.c...d=1218084985023

http://www.tigerdire...dy=#ReviewStart

[Steggy]

I an entering college student whose looking a for a somewhat cheap laptop for word porcessing, spreadsheets,music,movies and MINIMAL gaming (mostly Sims 3) which one of these or other laptops would be the best deal for me?

http://www.bestbuy.c...d=1218084985023

http://www.tigerdire...dy=#ReviewStart

Id say for an extra 80 you might as well get this...

http://www.tigerdire...Sku=M975-170029

Great performer and imo a great deal.

[toomuchpie617]

^ is this computer really "$110 better" than the one from best buy?

[johnnyrocker360]

get the hp, gateway's are bad news from what i heard.

[Puffoluffagus]

^ is this computer really "$110 better" than the one from best buy?

Yes, it is. It's got a bigger battery, more RAM, bigger screen, bigger hard drive, the ability to add another hard drive if needed, a better video card, comes with Vista Home Premium instead of Basic (which I highly suggest anyway), and a few other smaller things.

So yes, it's definitely worth every penny more.

HOWEVER, a few things to note: It does have a bigger battery, but that doesn't mean squat being as powerful as it is. It would probably drain just as fast as the other laptop. It weighs 1 pound more than the one from best buy (7.X compared to 6.X pounds). But neither one would be fun to carry around campus all day if you were planning to do that. While the upgrades are worth every penny, it might be overkill for what you want to do with it. As far as Vista Home vs. Basic, I do recommend having at least the Home version, but your college may offer you free OS (I know mine does, but it is not the case at all colleges). And, lastly, it is a refurb, not that it matters to me much, I like to buy refurb items.

[toomuchpie617]

^ thanks for the input, could anyone recomend anymore laptops with my needs in the $600-$650 price range?

[texasnightowl]

I an entering college student whose looking a for a somewhat cheap laptop for word porcessing, spreadsheets,music,movies and MINIMAL gaming (mostly Sims 3) which one of these or other laptops would be the best deal for me?

http://www.bestbuy.c...d=1218084985023

http://www.tigerdire...dy=#ReviewStart

Does your college have any specific requirements or do they run any deals thru the campus bookstore?

[toomuchpie617]

no specific requirements, i've looked and they have 7% off for dell and nothing else really buying, so buying through them wont help, any recomendations in the $600-$650 price range would be great.

[Cow_tipper]

I'm looking for a similar laptop in about the same price range. I want at the very least a 250GB hard drive, and it would be nice to have the option to play some of my older games like The Orange Box or Oblivion, but I don't care too much about gaming on it. The $400-$650 price range is where I'm looking.

I'm beginning to think that something a little smaller might be nice, like 14" or 15", just in case I do decide to carry it around once in a while, but I sort of doubt I'll be moving it very often.

[Boeing 747]

Bump (in the same situation, low price TF2 worthy laptop)

[Firestorm]

Don't get a 17" laptop or you'll regret it. Way too heavy for student use.

[souljah420]

yeah i think a 15'' laptop is more than enough (it is what i have) and really for a "laptop" you prolly are gonna want to go with a 13'' widescreen. cheaper, better on battery and weight, why the hell do people think they need 17 and 20 inch screens???

[souljah420]

dell often has coupons and deals, would the 7% stack? if so that is the way to go in my opinion

[souljah420]

oh and i would say get a intel dual core (not a pos centrino or amd) amd has bottlenecking issues with vista, and centrinos are fuckin junk, they are like pentium 4s

[DarkRider23]

Don't get a 17" laptop or you'll regret it. Way too heavy for student use.

yeah i think a 15'' laptop is more than enough (it is what i have) and really for a "laptop" you prolly are gonna want to go with a 13'' widescreen. cheaper, better on battery and weight, why the hell do people think they need 17 and 20 inch screens???

Really, guys. If you want a big screen, get a desktop. IMO, laptops around 13" are perfect. Not too big and not too small. My 15.4" kind of annoys the hell out of me when I try to carry it around. Way too big and it is on the heavy side.

[Labbo94]

I'm also in the same position... I have about $200 right now and will be working for the rest of the summer to buy a laptop by the time school starts up again in September.

I'm looking for a nice, small laptop in the $400-$600 range. I'll mainly be using it for internet browsing, word processing, media storage, and some very light gaming. Something with a compact design and good battery life are all I really care about. Maybe even a nice netbook.

[muffinman943]

I am in the same boat, I am looking to spend 5xx on a laptop, and was bummed to see that a deal on the Lenovo Y550s was expired which I was ready to jump on.

[Labbo94]

Looking at the lower-priced netbooks, I'm finding that many of them run on Linux... Anybody have any thoughts or opinions? Will I be totally screwed trying to go from a long time XP/Vista/Mac OS user to Linux?

[Labbo94]

Any opinions on this netbook, with a 160GB hard drive and 6-cell battery? I can pretty much get it maxed out at under $400. The CD/DVD drive isn't really a big deal.

[darthbudge]

I suggest people check out the Lenovo S10. That is probably what I will be getting in the fall for college. You might also want to wait for the Lenovo S12 which should be coming out sometime before the fall semester starts. It will be under $500 and will have an Ion graphics chip in it.

[greatscot]

I suggest people check out the Lenovo S10. That is probably what I will be getting in the fall for college. You might also want to wait for the Lenovo S12 which should be coming out sometime before the fall semester starts. It will be under $500 and will have an Ion graphics chip in it.

Speaking of waiting, people might want to wait until at least the next few weeks when manufacturers start offering free Win 7 upgrades when you buy a computer/laptop.

[wwe101]

acer aspire one with windows xp. i am telling you guys, this thing does not dissappoint, its the most bang you can get for your buck, and its as sexy as hell. i think hhgregg has the 160gb model for $289 now.