Need a Laptop for College!

[UPittstudent]

1.What is your budget?
about $1000

2.What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
i can go as low as 15' screen but perfer a 17'

3_What screen resolution do you want?
enough to make WoW look good

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
replacing the desktop i use at home with a laptop for College, my desktop runs WoW well enough for me, here are some of its specs:
VC: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
CPU: Intel Core 2CPU 6600 @ 2.4 GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM: 2 GB

5_How much battery life do you need?
enough for classes and some walking around so maybe 3 Hours? idk whats asking alot in terms of Laptop battery life

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games.
Id like to play World of Warcraft: WotLK and Diablo 3 on Medium to high settings


7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop?
id like to watch videos, play music, campus has Wireless so id like to take advantage of that. and a built in webcam would be nice, but if it is a dealbreaker with certain good laptops i can always buy a seperate one.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
i have an external 500 GB HD for stuff i plan on keeping in my room but a good allowance on the computer itself would be nice, so 160GB min

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152073 (this laptop seems to fit the bill but i don't like the screen size with the small keys due to having a numpad)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
probably about 4 years, and im going to try to stick to playing WoW since i should be focusing on school.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them. id really rather it had XP, Vista is nice but id rather wait for Windows 7 to change.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
don't have any preferance

13_What country do you live in?
United States (NJ)

 

[MU_Engineer]

1.What is your budget?
about $1000

2.What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
i can go as low as 15' screen but perfer a 17'

3_What screen resolution do you want?
enough to make WoW look good

4_Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
replacing the desktop i use at home with a laptop for College, my desktop runs WoW well enough for me, here are some of its specs:
VC: NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GS
CPU: Intel Core 2CPU 6600 @ 2.4 GHz (2 CPUs)
RAM: 2 GB

5_How much battery life do you need?
enough for classes and some walking around so maybe 3 Hours? idk whats asking alot in terms of Laptop battery life

6_Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games.
Id like to play World of Warcraft: WotLK and Diablo 3 on Medium to high settings


7_What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop?
id like to watch videos, play music, campus has Wireless so id like to take advantage of that. and a built in webcam would be nice, but if it is a dealbreaker with certain good laptops i can always buy a seperate one.

8_How much storage (H.D.D Capacity) do you need?
i have an external 500 GB HD for stuff i plan on keeping in my room but a good allowance on the computer itself would be nice, so 160GB min

9_If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post the links to them.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152073 (this laptop seems to fit the bill but i don't like the screen size with the small keys due to having a numpad)

10_How long do you want to keep your laptop?
probably about 4 years, and im going to try to stick to playing WoW since i should be focusing on school.

11_If you would like to mention some other things about purchasing your ideal laptop, post them. id really rather it had XP, Vista is nice but id rather wait for Windows 7 to change.

12_Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
don't have any preferance

13_What country do you live in?
United States (NJ)

Since you have a desktop already, I would *strongly* suggest that you get a smaller laptop that is more portable and has better battery life than a 17" gaming unit. Trust me, you are NOT going to want to carry anything bigger than 15.4"/15.6" around with you, and really anything bigger than 14.1" gets mighty heavy after a while of walking around campus. Also, the little tiny desks in classrooms don't fit a notebook bigger than 14.1" on them very well.

Your desktop is a reasonably decent one and is there any reason you couldn't just game on it when you are in your dorm and get a smaller laptop with more moderate specs and a much lower price tag? I am a student as well and I have both a desktop and a laptop. The desktop is really my main machine and my laptop is pretty much just used to take notes and such in class- when I am at home doing work, I use the desktop instead. My current laptop is a 14.1" Dell Latitude E5400 with relatively low specs (C2D T7250, 3 GB RAM, 80 GB HDD) that fits the bill very well. It gets about four and a half hours of battery life, which is about the minimum you really want for taking notes with- outlets in classrooms and lecture halls are rare. I could have gotten a bigger battery that would have given it about 7 hours of runtime, but my old machine died unexpectedly and there were budgetary constraints. You do not need much for a CPU as my old laptop had a 1.06 GHz CPU and ran the typical office apps just as well as my new one does. Ditto for the hard drive- you have a 500 GB external and a desktop to store large files on.

So, I would suggest a unit in the 12.1" to 14.1" range with modest specs. Avoid the netbooks and the gaming laptops- get something in-between. I personally have found Dell Latitudes to be decent units and many of the people in my class have them and like them. Lenovo ThinkPads also are reasonably common and well-liked, as are Apple MacBooks. I wouldn't go with the latter unless you really want to run OS X as they are pricey. HP's business notebooks also have a decent reputation as well.

 

[vochtige]

for playing wow you don't need super specs. i think you aren't home during the week? so you don't see your desktop?

cpu power: minimum 1.8ghz dualcore
ram: 3gb is enough for vista, 2 is to low
gpu: 8600mgt or 9600m gt from nvidia
2600hd mobility or 3650hd mobility from ati

i know dell has cheap 17 inch 'studio' with 3650
i know Toshiba makes a cheap T8100 2.1ghz with 3659 card (14-15 inch)

acer make cheap notebooks with 9600m gt's in it.

dell, toshiba, acer, hp make notebooks for your needs. just check their sites and look them up in stores in your neighbourhood. (dell is online )

 

[vochtige]

if you plan to work more on the notebook than your desktop, i advise you 17 inch. 15.4 is to little!

 

[UPittstudent]

i may end up just taking my desktop, since all it will do is sit in my room otherwise. it may be a better idea to get a laptop NOT capable of playing WoW haha. thank you guys for the input, it is very much appreciated.

 

[UPittstudent]

on Newegg, all the laptops under 1k have gpu's made by intel. where else can i get a good selection?

 

[vochtige]

Dell.com if you see the studio line, there are always non- intel integrated gpu's for less than 1 k

 

[Pico_w]

Newegg.com have laptops with dedicated GPU's under 1k.

 

[Pico_w]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2034940032%201292318470&bop=And&Order=PRICE

 

[noxil]

For the best for you isssssssss........ HP PAVILION DV6 (Details)

 

[vochtige]

that nv geforce 8400 isn't strong card for that dv6

DV7 is better with his 9600m gt

 

[noxil]

that nv geforce 8400 isn't strong card for that dv6

DV7 is better with his 9600m gt

Thank you from "vochtige" . Detail DV7 : http://notebook.mynoxil.com/notebook_464_ver_Hp_:_Hp_Pavilion_dv7-1007TX.html

 

[vochtige]

nVidia GeForce 9650M GT? wow man, where do you live? i only know dv7 with gf 9200gs or 9600m gt's!

noxil, were you sarcastic?

 

[testinglife]

how much are those going for ? those links don't give prices that I see

 

[UPittstudent]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086

i ended up with this one, Thanks a ton for all the imput and stats suggestions!