Freethought & Rationalism Archive

The Stranger · 05-24-2003, 09:16 AM

I'm going to college in August; I plan to probably buy a Dell Laptop.

I will do a lot of wordprocessing, internet stuff requiring an ethernet connection, and games. The college has a wireless network.

Does anyone have advice for what I need or bargains?

AquaVita · 05-24-2003, 01:51 PM

What kind of games? Tetris or Doom 3?

faust · 05-24-2003, 02:18 PM

apple ibook or powerbook (but not the small one).

It's the only real choice imnsho. You'll be going from network to network, connection type to connection type. Save yourself the hassle and let os x handle all that for you. It's much more stable. MS office v.X is available, and it has a real terminal, with development tools (i.e. gnu gcc, etc etc.) Nearly any Free Software will compile on it, it has an Xserver available from apple themselves, for free. Easy to set up, easy to install things, easy to delete things, more secure, prettier

Makes life easy.
My name is faust and I'm a power user / biologist / cypherpunk / encryption junkie / hacker / and better looking than keanu reeves.

Buddrow_Wilson · 05-24-2003, 08:15 PM

If money is a consideration, forget apple. Dell has decent deals on refurbished models.

pz · 05-24-2003, 08:51 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Buddrow_Wilson
If money is a consideration, forget apple. Dell has decent deals on refurbished models.

An iBook is about $1000.

Of course you can find cheaper PC notebooks, but they aren't as solid and well-equipped as the Apple gear.

NonHomogenized · 05-24-2003, 10:14 PM

http://www.micropro.com/sysitem.htm?...stemsPortables

Athlon XP 2400+ (mobile)
256 MB PC2700 ram
20 GB Hard Drive
15" XGA screen
DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Radeon 9000 mobility graphics

$1190.00

plus, if you want a better system, it's got a configurator to improve it

B34RZ0R · 05-24-2003, 11:24 PM

As someone who repaired laptops for a few years. My opinon is get a dell. HP craptops broke the most. Compaqs just arent worth looking at and as far as IBM... whatever they are decent but Dell is where it is at for a good powerful notebook. Its the one I bought and I have never had any problems with it, but that could aslo be in part to the fact that I treat it like a baby and I am never rough with it. We saw only a few apple laptops where I used to work.. the only thing I can say for sure about them is that if you need to replace something out of waranty .. get ready to lay down some serious cash! Not that any laptop parts are cheap.. but for some simple plastic pieces it was hundreds of dollars.. this from a laptop that is supposed to be very sturdy (as far as drop height survival). If you plan on gaming dont plan on not buying an apple - I like that they are using a unix based os under the hood of OsX but they just dont make to many cool games to run on that platform... but again .. these are MY OPINIONS so before the apple fans flame me (like has happened in the past PZ

)
I say again MY OPINIONS!!! :P
Whatever your discision, make sure to mention that you are a student when you are getting it. A lot of the big computer manufacturers give breaks to students.

Good Luck and
Be Well

*Bear*

seebs · 05-25-2003, 01:32 AM

MHO: ThinkPad. I've had a bunch of different laptops. The ThinkPad was the one I came back to after playing around. DELL's people gave a friend of mine the runaround for MONTHS on his notebook; it was supposed to play DVD's, but after you played any disk, it would not play another until you rebooted it. They kept exchanging parts, mostly having him send stuff in, so he lost the use of the machine for a week or two, then they sent it back with the same problem. And so on. Eww!

NonHomogenized · 05-25-2003, 02:37 AM

I notice my original link doesn't seem to work. Let's try again.

http://www.micropro.com/portables/professional.htm

I suggest customizing the 530, as it has the cheapest base price.
(my personal recommended config:
AMD mobile Athlon XP 2500+
512 MB PC2700 RAM
20 GB hard drive
Phoebe 11Mbps Wireless LAN PCMIA card
Power AC adapter for MicroNote Professional 530 Notebook
total: $1313.00

Or, for a cheaper one, get the 2200+, and 256 MB RAM, for a total of $1233.00)

If you're going to be doing gaming which is even remotely graphics intensive, make sure you get the ATI Radeon mobility 9000, and not the 7500 or the GeForce 4 go, although for anything up to, say, Serious Sam 2, the latter is an acceptable substitute. If the processor is 2+ Ghz (or an Athlon XP 2000+), then, past that, lots of good memory is more important than more processor speed, for pretty much whatever you're doing. 256 MB of PC2100 ram is the minimum you should get, and I'd recommend PC2700 (or better, if it's avail. in laptops).

The Stranger · 05-25-2003, 08:14 AM

I'll be playing games like AOM or Unreal.

05-24-2003, 09:16 AM	#1
The Stranger Regular Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: St. Louis Posts: 141	Need Laptop advice I'm going to college in August; I plan to probably buy a Dell Laptop. I will do a lot of wordprocessing, internet stuff requiring an ethernet connection, and games. The college has a wireless network. Does anyone have advice for what I need or bargains?

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05-24-2003, 01:51 PM	#2
AquaVita Veteran Member Join Date: Jan 2003 Location: Dallas Posts: 4,351	What kind of games? Tetris or Doom 3?

05-24-2003, 02:18 PM	#3
faust Senior Member Join Date: Apr 2003 Location: baton rouge, la Posts: 539	apple ibook or powerbook (but not the small one). It's the only real choice imnsho. You'll be going from network to network, connection type to connection type. Save yourself the hassle and let os x handle all that for you. It's much more stable. MS office v.X is available, and it has a real terminal, with development tools (i.e. gnu gcc, etc etc.) Nearly any Free Software will compile on it, it has an Xserver available from apple themselves, for free. Easy to set up, easy to install things, easy to delete things, more secure, prettier Makes life easy. My name is faust and I'm a power user / biologist / cypherpunk / encryption junkie / hacker / and better looking than keanu reeves.

05-24-2003, 08:15 PM	#4
Buddrow_Wilson Veteran Member Join Date: Dec 2002 Location: Arkansas Posts: 1,589	If money is a consideration, forget apple. Dell has decent deals on refurbished models.

05-24-2003, 10:14 PM	#6
NonHomogenized Veteran Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: no longer at IIDB Posts: 1,644	http://www.micropro.com/sysitem.htm?...stemsPortables Athlon XP 2400+ (mobile) 256 MB PC2700 ram 20 GB Hard Drive 15" XGA screen DVD/CD-RW combo drive Radeon 9000 mobility graphics $1190.00 plus, if you want a better system, it's got a configurator to improve it

05-24-2003, 11:24 PM	#7
B34RZ0R Veteran Member Join Date: Oct 2002 Location: Lost in the Ether, Minnesota Posts: 1,436	As someone who repaired laptops for a few years. My opinon is get a dell. HP craptops broke the most. Compaqs just arent worth looking at and as far as IBM... whatever they are decent but Dell is where it is at for a good powerful notebook. Its the one I bought and I have never had any problems with it, but that could aslo be in part to the fact that I treat it like a baby and I am never rough with it. We saw only a few apple laptops where I used to work.. the only thing I can say for sure about them is that if you need to replace something out of waranty .. get ready to lay down some serious cash! Not that any laptop parts are cheap.. but for some simple plastic pieces it was hundreds of dollars.. this from a laptop that is supposed to be very sturdy (as far as drop height survival). If you plan on gaming dont plan on not buying an apple - I like that they are using a unix based os under the hood of OsX but they just dont make to many cool games to run on that platform... but again .. these are MY OPINIONS so before the apple fans flame me (like has happened in the past PZ ) I say again MY OPINIONS!!! :P Whatever your discision, make sure to mention that you are a student when you are getting it. A lot of the big computer manufacturers give breaks to students. Good Luck and Be Well Bear

05-25-2003, 01:32 AM	#8
seebs Contributor Join Date: May 2002 Location: Saint Paul, MN Posts: 24,524	MHO: ThinkPad. I've had a bunch of different laptops. The ThinkPad was the one I came back to after playing around. DELL's people gave a friend of mine the runaround for MONTHS on his notebook; it was supposed to play DVD's, but after you played any disk, it would not play another until you rebooted it. They kept exchanging parts, mostly having him send stuff in, so he lost the use of the machine for a week or two, then they sent it back with the same problem. And so on. Eww!

05-25-2003, 02:37 AM	#9
NonHomogenized Veteran Member Join Date: May 2003 Location: no longer at IIDB Posts: 1,644	I notice my original link doesn't seem to work. Let's try again. http://www.micropro.com/portables/professional.htm I suggest customizing the 530, as it has the cheapest base price. (my personal recommended config: AMD mobile Athlon XP 2500+ 512 MB PC2700 RAM 20 GB hard drive Phoebe 11Mbps Wireless LAN PCMIA card Power AC adapter for MicroNote Professional 530 Notebook total: $1313.00 Or, for a cheaper one, get the 2200+, and 256 MB RAM, for a total of $1233.00) If you're going to be doing gaming which is even remotely graphics intensive, make sure you get the ATI Radeon mobility 9000, and not the 7500 or the GeForce 4 go, although for anything up to, say, Serious Sam 2, the latter is an acceptable substitute. If the processor is 2+ Ghz (or an Athlon XP 2000+), then, past that, lots of good memory is more important than more processor speed, for pretty much whatever you're doing. 256 MB of PC2100 ram is the minimum you should get, and I'd recommend PC2700 (or better, if it's avail. in laptops).

05-25-2003, 08:14 AM	#10
The Stranger Regular Member Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: St. Louis Posts: 141	I'll be playing games like AOM or Unreal.

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