New laptop for college

[Cobra427]

and i already want to upgrade..haha heres the specs as i remember them:
Intel Centrino processor 1.5gHz
15gb harddrive, main
55gb harddrive, secondary
512 RAM
Mobility Radeon 9700 64mb

i want to upgrade whatever i can. any ideas, thoughts? (i would like to upgrade to 1gb of ram first, possibly)

 

[randomperson21]

more ram.

new hdd. 7200rpm (tho that will eat batt life)

 

[wazzledoozle]

The CPU is fine, although you could get a faster pentium-M. I would keep the laptop though, because there is no current cheap laptop with anything competitive to the 9700.

 

[Cobra427]

so i take it the 9700m is good? lol i thought so but i dont know much about laptops.

yeah i might get a gig stick...umm stupid question? will regular ram work? lol

 

[wazzledoozle]

so i take it the 9700m is good? lol i thought so but i dont know much about laptops.

yeah i might get a gig stick...umm stupid question? will regular ram work? lol

You will need so-dimm ddr. Check with your laptop manufacturer to see how many so-dimm slots your laptop has, and how many are filled. Also check what clockspeed the stock is, I am guessing DDR400.

 

[randomperson21]

wazzledoozle beat me to the punch. hes spot on.

 

[Cobra427]

ok thanks guys. i didn't think they were the same, but i thought it better to ask.

ok well i'm goin to bed, but tomorrow i will reply here and do what u said.

thanks again

 

[Bugalaman]

those specs were standard a year and a half ago, now they have core duos and athlon x2 m's. make sure you get one stick of 1 gig, so you can add another later on. its hard to find a laptop now with less than 80 gig hard drive

 

[Aevum]

he dosnt need something small, or powerfull, he dosnt need a 7200rpm drive

he needs something solid, with decent battery life and a large screen so he dosnt go blind from doing those all nighters to hand papers in,

and that he can pay on a student´s budget,

so skip the 7200 drive, 512mb of ram will do decently, you might want to get a seperate monitor, keyboard and mouse when you pull long sessions doing papers and projects,
if you need more ram, you can slot in an extra so dimm afterwards,

 

[Cobra427]

those specs were standard a year and a half ago, now they have core duos and athlon x2 m's. make sure you get one stick of 1 gig, so you can add another later on. its hard to find a laptop now with less than 80 gig hard drive

probably because its an older laptop, from around a year and a hald ago. lol

ok, i am fine with the current harddrives, i wont be filling this with a bunch of crap like my desktop. I am definately thinking about ram. processors, eh i'm fine with this. decent enough power and it wont over heat quite as easily as those dual cores will. This, especially with the ram, will do me just fine i believe for college. i would like more power, etc. but its not very feasible at the moment.

plus it can do some gaming, like it might sound stupid but Command and Conquer Yuri's Revenge is one of my favorite games ever...and it plays it just fine. whereas my pc wont play it at all for some reason. i have tried everything to try and make it work.

i would like to also invest in a 9-cell battery, i hear they last at least an hour longer than the 6-cell. what is your input on that?

 

[randomperson21]

no! alienware's owned by dell.

falcon nw or voodo pc.
or custom build.

 

[randomperson21]

fnw isn't that bad. a bit spendy, but they do have nice paint jobs.......

 

[savor_of_filth]

face it...

FNW = OVERPRICED

 

[Cobra427]

face it, i'm in college. all of those are out of the picture. lol

 

[randomperson21]

haha good point.

 

[Cobra427]

i priced an alienware laptop, 14.2 inch screen. its close to the same as mine, except it has integrated video card, 1gig of ram and an intel core duo 1.86GHz. and its like $1,200. its not bad. but i think i'll stick with this one and upgrade ram, might be the better choice. u think?

 

[wazzledoozle]

probably because its an older laptop, from around a year and a hald ago. lol

ok, i am fine with the current harddrives, i wont be filling this with a bunch of crap like my desktop. I am definately thinking about ram. processors, eh i'm fine with this. decent enough power and it wont over heat quite as easily as those dual cores will. This, especially with the ram, will do me just fine i believe for college. i would like more power, etc. but its not very feasible at the moment.

plus it can do some gaming, like it might sound stupid but Command and Conquer Yuri's Revenge is one of my favorite games ever...and it plays it just fine. whereas my pc wont play it at all for some reason. i have tried everything to try and make it work.

i would like to also invest in a 9-cell battery, i hear they last at least an hour longer than the 6-cell. what is your input on that?

Larger battery is always better. You could keep the old 6 cell charged as a backup too.

And yes, stick with your laptop if you want to do any 3d work. The intel integrated graphics are worthless crap.

 

[Cobra427]

yeah integrated graphics is the last thing i want lolthis 9700 suits me just fine

 

[randomperson21]

i priced an alienware laptop, 14.2 inch screen. its close to the same as mine, except it has integrated video card, 1gig of ram and an intel core duo 1.86GHz. and its like $1,200. its not bad. but i think i'll stick with this one and upgrade ram, might be the better choice. u think?

depends on your budget, mate.

if you're looking at a new laptop, i'd reccomend a macbook. pretty cheap, and apples doing some pretty good student promotions till sept 14th.
runs osx and windows.

especially good if your college campus is a "mac" campus. especially in oregon, almost all of our college campuses are mac based, and theres always someone there for tech support.

but then again, it sometimes makes it hard to find your laptop.


"which one is yours?"
"the white one"
"which white one?!"
"uhh.."

 

[stealthfighter]

Write a logo on the laptop

 

[randomperson21]

or you can do what this person did:

details on the ibook mod here:
http://www.applefritter.com/node/3453

 

[wazzledoozle]

Macbook's are way overpriced. For the base price of a macbook with a 60 gb hard drive, 512 mb of ram, intel GMA 950, you can get an Acer with 120 gb hard drive, 1 gb ram, and a X1600 mobility.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16834115246

 

[randomperson21]

yeah, they're pretty spendy. but if your whole campus is already mac, it could be advantagious to have a macbook just for college purposes. Also, apple does some pretty nice student discounts, and have apple techs on campus lots of times.

 

[Cobra427]

yeah my campus is mostly PC's i believe. but i would rather have a laptop anyway. maybe even that Acer he showed. good stuff. lol

 

[drade]

Acer

Go with an acer, fast, good priced, very nice, great for school (I have the aspire 5000).