Teams
Forum List
Toggle sidebar

Laptop advice

cyismydog

cyismydog

Well-Known Member
Apr 13, 2006
6,340
213
63
I'm heading off to college next year, and I'm looking for advice on a laptop. Right now I'm thinking I may go with a 17" screen (older bro has one, good for ESPN3, but I'm concerned about portability), and I definitely want Windows 7. Looking for a good quality, fairly priced one under $1000. My grandfather, who's buying it for my graduation gift, already has a Dell account, and likes the Insprion 17R. Any suggestions/help/advice is greatly appreciated!
 
Last edited:
I would never get a 17", but that's just me. I've had a 13" Dell Studio for a year. It' been great so far.

Make sure whatever you get has an HDMI port. Then you can just watch ESPN3 on your TV.
 
TitanClone said:
I would never get a 17", but that's just me. I've had a 13" Dell Studio for a year. It' been great so far.

Make sure whatever you get has an HDMI port. Then you can just watch ESPN3 on your TV.
Click to expand...

This is exactly what I was going to say. Get a smaller size laptop for portability with an HDMI port.
 
Also, what site is best for purchasing them from? Newegg is one I've heard.
 
Amazon is great for them.

Here's one laptop i might recommend. Taking it to class everyday, id go with something thin and light and about 13" for portability. I have a model similar to this (though not with this year's upgraded specs) and have been pretty happy with it. You might notice there's no disc drive, and ive found that the benefits you get in having a light laptop far outweigh the benefits of having that drive. You can always pick up a $20 external drive for anything you need to install that's on disc, but you wont have to lug that around everywhere you go (which is essentially what you're doing with any laptop that has one built in)

Amazon.com: ASUS U31JG-XA1 13.3-Inch Laptop - Black: Computer & Accessories
 
Agreed with the 13 inch. I have a Dell XPS M1330, it has an HDMI output as well. I love it. Check out the dell outlet, you can get more bang for your buck.
 
  • Like
Reactions: cyismydog
ianoconnor said:
Agreed with the 13 inch. I have a Dell XPS M1330, it has an HDMI output as well. I love it. Check out the dell outlet, you can get more bang for your buck.
Click to expand...

I have the XPS M1530. If i had to do it over again, I'd choose the 13" over the 15".
 
cyismydog said:
I'm heading off to college next year, and I'm looking for advice on a laptop. Right now I'm thinking I may go with a 17" screen (older bro has one, good for ESPN3, but I'm concerned about portability), and I definitely want Windows 7. Looking for a good quality, fairly priced one under $1000. My grandfather, who's buying it for my graduation gift, already has a Dell account, and likes the Insprion 17R. Any suggestions/help/advice is greatly appreciated!
Click to expand...
 
cyismydog said:
Also, what site is best for purchasing them from? Newegg is one I've heard.
Click to expand...

Check with ISU first to see if they have a student discount program. If so, you can generally buy it right through the university site.
 
cyismydog said:
Also, what site is best for purchasing them from? Newegg is one I've heard.
Click to expand...

If you're going Dell, like IcSyU said, just go to Dell's site. And check out XPS - they're supposed to be awesome.

Lenovos and Toshibas are really good as well.

Personally, I had no problems with the portability of a 17.3" laptop. Big strong guy like me the weight just didn't bother me all that much. My next laptop I want to go a full 18".
 
I like my larger 17 inch because of the better keyboard(not tightly packed keys, and you can get a 10-key keyboard which is really helpful if you do a lot of spreadsheets or math. I walk all over downtown Chicago with mine, no problems. I also have a docking station at home to extend the life of my screen and keyboard.

I've had a Dell, Toshiba, and now an Sony Vaio. I like the Sony the best. I haven't had any problem with any of them, though the Sony is by far the fastest of three, but also the newest. Also, go test some laptops at Best Buy. Keyboard and mouse pad feel can be important and vary a lot from brand to brand.

Like the others said - Dell, buy from Dell. They have a refurbished/returned site, that gives great deals on those. I have a friend who buys his business's laptops through there and hasn't had any problems.

Otherwise, I like NewEgg for electronics.
 
Newegg is great; I've bought tons of stuff from them over the years. The strange thing is that they don't always have the best prices on preconfigured machines like laptops. There prices are good and newegg is great; just sometimes you can do better. One of the places you can do better is at the Dell website like others have said. They run specials all the time and have 15%-25% coupons. I think there best deals are on pre-configured systems but if that is close to what you want anyway ... go for it.

I echo the others on 17 inch; they are kind of bulky and heavy. Nobody has mentioned the 15 inchers which I think is a pretty good compromise.
 
cyismydog said:
Also, what site is best for purchasing them from? Newegg is one I've heard.
Click to expand...
If you want to buy online, Tigerdirect.com is an excellent vendor as we have dealt with them for years with no complaints.

From what I've read from the tech blog sites I subscribe to, stay away from Sony, Compaq and Acer. Gateway and HP have as many detractors as promoters. The brands that have the highest numbers of positive reviews are Lenovo, MSI, ASUS and Dell. TIFWIW.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Help Support Us

Become a patron
Top Bottom