[dookie270]

Im going to be going away to college next summer and of course the big thing im looking at for college now, besides actual colleges themselves are laptops. I'd like to get a Mac but i dont really want to spend 1500$ on a mactop. I'd rather get a nice HP or Dell for somewhere between 900$ and 1200$. Problems are i dont really want to get vista as i hear no one likes it and its got some massive RAM requirements. Any specific brands i should check out besides HP and Dell? I want something thats going to last me all 4 four years of college if possible.

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Im going to be going away to college next summer and of course the big thing im looking at for college now, besides actual colleges themselves are laptops. I'd like to get a Mac but i dont really want to spend 1500$ on a mactop. I'd rather get a nice HP or Dell for somewhere between 900$ and 1200$. Problems are i dont really want to get vista as i hear no one likes it and its got some massive RAM requirements. Any specific brands i should check out besides HP and Dell? I want something thats going to last me all 4 four years of college if possible.

For brand is all based on perference, everyone will differ. HP, Dell, acer and Toshiba are the better brands, I personally got a HP as there was a really good back to school deal on it, if you can I'd highly suggest waiting till next summer. I'd expect between now and the summer new mobile processors will be released, they will run cooler and have less power requirements.
Vista is a memory hog, no one will deny that, but it is a good operating system, it's first service pack is due in February. If I were you I'd just take vista, I have it on three computer now and couldn't be happier, it'll also save you the additional cost and hassle of downgrading to XP.
My only real recommendation at this point is be sure you get 2GB of RAM, however that should soon be standard.
James

[james_8970]

Im going to be going away to college next summer and of course the big thing im looking at for college now, besides actual colleges themselves are laptops. I'd like to get a Mac but i dont really want to spend 1500$ on a mactop. I'd rather get a nice HP or Dell for somewhere between 900$ and 1200$. Problems are i dont really want to get vista as i hear no one likes it and its got some massive RAM requirements. Any specific brands i should check out besides HP and Dell? I want something thats going to last me all 4 four years of college if possible.

For brand is all based on perference, everyone will differ. HP, Dell, acer and Toshiba are the better brands, I personally got a HP as there was a really good back to school deal on it, if you can I'd highly suggest waiting till next summer. I'd expect between now and the summer new mobile processors will be released, they will run cooler and have less power requirements.
Vista is a memory hog, no one will deny that, but it is a good operating system, it's first service pack is due in February. If I were you I'd just take vista, I have it on three computer now and couldn't be happier, it'll also save you the additional cost and hassle of downgrading to XP.
My only real recommendation at this point is be sure you get 2GB of RAM, however that should soon be standard.
James

[dookie270]

Thanks for the advice. I'd like to wait until summer of next year but i think i am getting one as a present for christmas. So how long should i wait until new mobile processors come out? I mean ideally you want to keep on playing the waiting game to get better hardware for cheaper prices, but at some point you have to actually buy the thing.

Right now i plan on getting 2 gigs of RAM and probably buying at least 1 gig more. Im also gonna get a core 2 duo processor at either 2.0 or 2.2 Ghz. Im gonna get a Nvidia Geforce 8400M 128 MB video card, a 120 GB HD at 5400 RPM and im not sure if i wanna get a 6 cell or 12 cell battery.

[james_8970]

It'll likely be a while, there are no rumours, basically it was an assumption as newer CPU's come to the desktop, mobile CPU's generally follow.
There are only two slots to fill in a laptop, so you can have 2GB or depending on the model, 4GB is another possibility.
The more cells in a battery the better.
More cells = longer life.
James

[dookie270]

What about the 32 bit vs the 64 bit vista OS?

[james_8970]

You want a 32bit OS, there is a large lack of support for application, components, peripherals on 64bit vista, but support is growing.
James