Question:
Help finding laptop for college student!
General Questions
1) What is your budget?
<$2000USD
2) What size notebook would you prefer?
Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen, or anything ~6lbs or less
3) What tasks will you be performing with the notebook?
Photoshop, video editing (adobe premiere, aftereffects, digital combustion), audio editing+recording, music, games, internet, chat, movies, etc
4) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places or leaving it on your desk?
Taking it all over , i am a college student :P
5) Will you be playing games on it; if so, which games?
yes, warcraft III, battle for middle earth II, the new need for speed underground games, bunch of rpgs, world of warcraft, sims II , CS, company of heroes
6) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
fine with anything, whatevers best for my price
7) How many hours of battery life do you need?
anything over 2 hours :D
8) Do you mind buying online without seeing the notebook in person?
I do not mind, whatevers clever!
9) Please select your country's flag as a post icon and tell us what country are you buying this in?
USA
Screen Specifics
10) Would you prefer standard or widescreen?
Either
11) From the choices below, what screen resolutions would you prefer?
Standard
b. SXGA - 1400x1050 - Compromise resolution between XGA and UXGA.
c. UXGA - 1600x1200 - Very small text and graphics icons, you can fit lots of stuff on the screen.
Widescreen
d. WXGA or WXGA+ - 1280x768/800 or 1440x900; Wider viewing version of XGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
e. WSXGA+ - 1680x1050; Wider viewing version of SXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
f. WUXGA - 1920x1200; Wider viewing version of UXGA, good for movie viewing or spreadsheets.
12) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen?
Either
Build Quality and Design
13) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?
Eh, i could care less, as long as its light fluffy and portable without breaing my back haha
14) When are you buying this laptop and how long do you want this laptop to last?
Making the purchase between January-March, 2007, I want it to last as long as possible as i seldom do computer upgrades, but realistically im guessing 4-5 years?
Notebook Components
15) How much hard drive space do you want; 40GB to 160GB?
over 100gb
16) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD-ROM, DVD-CD/RW or DVD-RW drive?
yes, dvd-cd/rw
Thanks very much everyone!! ;D
Answer:
Re: Help finding laptop for college student!
I don't know of many 14" laptops with good grapics cards, you may wish to take a look at HP, Toshiba, and Sony. I would recommend taking a look at the selection at powernotebooks.com. They may have the best selection within your specifications.
ucb9999
Answer:
Re: Help finding laptop for college student!
Thanks for the prompt reply! however im still in a big pickle ><, i pretty much will be using this laptop as a desktop replacement so i need something relaly good to handle multimedia editing programs like After effects and premiere and such as i use these programs alot for school projects >< if theres an ideal one that is out of my budget, please feel free to list it as i may consider it. also does anyone know what exactly do these editing programs run off of (im no com person)? is it the memory or graphics or whatever? thanks!!
Answer:
Re: Help finding laptop for college student!
theres the asus w3j and the compal HEL80
Answer:
Re: Help finding laptop for college student!
Thanks for the prompt reply! however im still in a big pickle ><, i pretty much will be using this laptop as a desktop replacement so i need something relaly good to handle multimedia editing programs like After effects and premiere and such as i use these programs alot for school projects >< if theres an ideal one that is out of my budget, please feel free to list it as i may consider it. also does anyone know what exactly do these editing programs run off of (im no com person)? is it the memory or graphics or whatever? thanks!!
If you want a desktop replacement but still want to retain some portability the perhaps you should look into getting a 15.4". I can't speak personally for Sager and Asus but I have heard and read many good thing about them. I can however speak for dell. The E1505/9400 model is a decent system with good performance. My E1505 can play all of the games you listed and, If configured properly gets an average of 5.5 to 6hrs of battery life.
good luck finding what you want
ucb9999
Answer:
Re: Help finding laptop for college student!
That is a long way off. By then, there will probably be more and/or different choices available . . anything we recommend right now will be void in January/March. Intel is planning to launch its next-generation Santa Rosa Centrino platform around then anyway, so you might as well wait for that.
This is very true. Santa Rosa should be debuting at about that time and there may be some new releases around then. You may want to revisit your search closer to purchase time.
In the meantime, the current options in 14.1" are the ASUS A8Jm (and future A8Js) and W3J, and Compal HGL30.
If Santa Rosa is available by the time you're buying, I'd highly recommend a Santa Rosa-based system.