starting school, which laptop?

Check with your school's IT department. Sometimes they have certain preferences or requirements.

Don't get a Dell without getting the maximum warranty.

Canuck99 said:

i am up in the air over which type of laptop to get. Alienware-Area 51, DELL-Inspirion, or HP? your opinion is appreciated.

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Alienware? Do you really need a gaming laptop? Portability and battery life should be higher considerations than the video card, IMO

Personally, I'm looking into the Tablet PC market. Being able to draw on lecture slides would be a nice advantage... at first I was thinking the IBM Thinkpad tablet, but then I reviewed the laptops that Drexel recommends and there's this one configuration that is unbelievably sweet... it's a Gateway Tablet with 2 gigs of RAM, 80 gig HD, and 1.83 GHz Pentium CPU. I think the unit weighs about 7 lbs (somewhat heavy), but it's somewhat slim (1.2 in) and it makes up with the long battery life (supposedly 8 hours, probably more like 5 in reality) and the big screen (14 in widescreen for a tablet - pretty good).


Anyway, check out the configurations and the laptops that your school recommends. They can usually get you a deal so you'll save a couple hundred $ while you're at it, and usually they're configured to meet your needs across all four years.

crazy_cavalier said:

Alienware?

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Don't get an Alienware. They are ridiculously overpriced. Dell is also expensive but a little more reasonable.

Look at other companies like Toshiba, HP, lenovo for some deals. Sometimes they will have a good deal kicking around.

If you want a laptop, which is probably a better choice for med school over a desktop, is to make sure it has an Intel Pentium M (with Centrino technology) or the newer Core Duo chips in them. The reason is that they are much more energy efficient and you'll get better battery life out of them.

Rogue Synapse said:

Check with your school's IT department. Sometimes they have certain preferences or requirements.

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Yeah, some places actually "make" you get the computer thru them so they can put all their intranet system software on it and be sure you are running something compatable. So you might not have any choices. Wait.

ladydoc2be said:

Why? What's wrong with Dell's? I plan on getting a laptop and I was thinking about getting a Dell.

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Out of warranty repairs are costly. Do some research and you will see that Dell has had some poor products.

I would go with portability as my number one factor.

BrettBatchelor said:

Out of warranty repairs are costly. Do some research and you will see that Dell has had some poor products.

I would go with portability as my number one factor.

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Mmmm, it's hard for me to choose between portability and performance... ideally a mix of the two

I have an HP with these specs
AMD 64 Athlon 2ghz
1 gb of ram
100gb harddrive
128mb of video memory ATI Radeon 2oom xpress
15 inch widescreen

It cost around 1000 but lately Ive been having problems. Last nite I took it to the library it was hot like 80 degrees so now my printer wont work. And somehow my logic board failed a while ago. It all depends my computer is used heavily and is transported and carried a lot. Like I said in the other threads toshiba makes good notebooks. But if you really want a good gaming computer go with HP since they are cheaper than dell and have AMD processors.

crazy_cavalier said:

Mmmm, it's hard for me to choose between portability and performance... ideally a mix of the two

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Trust me on this one. I went with the Dell 9100 desktop replacement, dual processors etc. and it weighs like 9 pounds. I hardly take it to school since it is so heavy.

This explains why I'm splurging on a new Macbook.

I have a question about portability. I've never owned a laptop, but when people speak of portability being a concern, is that more because of the weight of the unit being to heavy to carry around, or is it because of the size and that it can't fit in certain places?

willthatsall said:

I have a question about portability. I've never owned a laptop, but when people speak of portability being a concern, is that more because of the weight of the unit being to heavy to carry around, or is it because of the size and that it can't fit in certain places?

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Weight.

Canuck99 said:

i am up in the air over which type of laptop to get. Alienware-Area 51, DELL-Inspirion, or HP? your opinion is appreciated.

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I want you to disregard most of what you've heard on this forum so far. You must listen to this. If you want a good laptop, get a fujitsu. They are raved about by every laptop supplier as they have the best parts (all made from japan), have the toughest screens (you can bend them at the store to see if they flicker {they dont}), and are probably the best buy around. Alienware is great but expensive and they overheat and are heavy and loud. I used to have one. Get a fujitsu, you will not regret it.

If you do your research you will agree with me.

BrettBatchelor said:

Trust me on this one. I went with the Dell 9100 desktop replacement, dual processors etc. and it weighs like 9 pounds. I hardly take it to school since it is so heavy.

This explains why I'm splurging on a new Macbook.

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Oh there's no way in hell I'd get a desktop replacement!

But at the same time, portability alone isn't enough... otherwise I'd get the lightest Fujitsu lifebook! But that thing doesn't even have an optical drive

Still thinking about the Gateway Tablet... but the price is pretty steeeeep. 2k. Eeep.

BrettBatchelor said:

Weight.

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Definitely. Assume you will be walking around a campus and up and down stairs all day with it in your backpack (along with other textbooks) if you plan to use it in class or at school. If it weighs more than a big hardcover book, it's not adequately portable.

well i dont take my laptop to class much since all of the powerpoint slides are posted online and i find it more helpful to make notes on paper than on the tablet pc. for me wanting both something portable and with performance i went with hp. had it for a year now and it works great but it weighs about 10 or 12 pounds. not a huge problem for me being a guy. so not ultra portable but enough for both school and gaming and it still comes in well under the price of a new tablet.

I've had 4 dell desktops, 2 laptops (one of which was the ultra lightweight inspiron). Never had a problem.

I've also had 3 Gateway desktops. Nothing but trouble. And very noisy.

I've also had a toshiba laptop. Rather ambivalent about that one.

I've also had a panasonic laptop. Piece of junk.

I've also had several custom-built desktops. Good luck getting them serviced by the builders.

I've also had my brother build me a couple of desktops. Best option ever.

I'm going to get a new laptop come August. Probably a tablet combo, but I don't know yet which manufacturer.

i love my ibm and have never had an issue with any ibm product.

http://www.buy.com/prod/THINKPAD_T43SMB_CENTRINO_1875M2U/q/loc/252/201935117.html

I had a hand-me-down Dell that had some issues becuase its previous owner is a bit on the careless side, but even when she thought it was a dud, I got another year or so out of it before it crashed (at that point it was about 4 years old). Right now I have a Compaq (which is made by HP) and I got great specs for the money and I'm in love with the size and the widescreen, but their tech support is ticking me off. It has power issues (won't shut down when the battery is in and restarts instead of shutting down when the AC only is in), and every time I call I get the same set of instructions. It's like they don't believe me when I say "I've tried that before" and they don't want to admit that there might be something wrong with it. I call about ti evry month or so becuase it's not that often that I have 2 hours to be on the phone with HP. If I had to do it over I probably would have spent the extra money for the Apple. I've had issues with my iPod, but everytime I go in there they admit they take care of it wihtout giving me a hard time. I also know people who swear by Toshibas or Sony Vaios. Sorry for my rant, and good luck with your decision

get a macbook pro but wait until a few weeks before school starts. Spend the extra cash. you can load up windows on it. it's the metrosexual computer of choice.
we can also get those damn eyebrows tweezed, maybe exfoliate that skin (at least use a loofah occasionally, man! they don't just look cool, they're functional!) and for the love of god, would it kill you to go to a gym?

i have a dell laptop (inspiron 8500), and while my hard drive crashed a month out of warranty, dell actually granted me a full year extension when i complained enough. they're actually really good about customer service if you handle it right. my dell has now held strong for about 3 years and it's still doing very well. it's definitely a quality computer, though i plan on buying a macbook when i have the money.

Just got an Acer 5672. It is a dream, especially after my dell 5150 crapped out on me after a year and a half.

100GB HD
1 GB RAM
1.66 Core Duo
15.4 Glossy Widescreen (very pretty display)
ATI X1400 vid card with 128mb dedicated, up to 512mb shared (not ideal for gaming, but definitely adequate)
Slot-loading DVD +/-/DL burner (no pesky tray!)
Built in webcam (just for ****s and giggles)
And almost most importantly, EXCELLENT wireless antenna. It's built in to the display actually, so its a large antenna, gets great reception.
3.5 hours of battery life. Enough for me. I got an extra battery though for travelling.

Only complaints are the ergonomics of it. USB ports on the side only, not the back. Mic and speaker ports are on the front of the laptop, not the side or back.

It was $1199 when I bought it, extra 150 for 2 more years of warranty (3 years total). Definitely give it a look. Great deal, and I've been very happy with it.

Hopeful_Doc said:

i love my ibm and have never had an issue with any ibm product.

http://www.buy.com/prod/THINKPAD_T43SMB_CENTRINO_1875M2U/q/loc/252/201935117.html

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I second that. IBM Thinkpad's are portable, efficient and built as hard as a rock.

Second choice would be a Mac iBook (or whatever they call it) because of how simple it is. However, by no means should you get a Mac desktop: those things are unbearable...I've worked with them for two years.

Good luck with the laptop...oh and the med school too.

you should definitely check out notebookreview.com if you have questions. they have a forum for people just like you who don't know what they want. 3 best brands (imho): lenovo (thinkpad), asus, fujitsu. but you really can't beat dells prices with their ridiculous coupons (e.g. $750 off $1999+ inspiron).