Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

Depending on your price range, this could be a great option. Hard to beat this price/performance.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220695

Good luck in your search.

Also, if you are looking into customizing your specs, you can get some great comps from here:

http://www.leadcomp.com/

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

I would say Apple or Lenovo. I've worked with both and both have a well build quality. Although with that comes a slightly higher price. Where ever you go pay for a slightly higher build quality(usually found in the business sector). Having a crack on your primary computer, no matter how small it is, will drive you crazy. At least it does for me.

I might have missed what you are going to be doing, but that places a huge role in what to get. I'm working at a web company for the summer, and the only windows computer that can be found here is a cheap dell running vista for IE8 testing. Where as my dads work(programming and CADing machines) is windows land.

Good Luck, and congratulations !

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

Take a look at some Sonys. I was looking later last year just after Win7 came out and I was suprised how competitive Sonys prices where and even cheaper then most other things I was looking at. I got an FW series and it was proved to be awesome for me. They just redid that series as well and should handle most things you throw at it.

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

I bought a Dell Studio 15 last year at MicroCenter. Been happy with the computer but Vista you can have. Will be updating that soon. I suggest that if you are looking for a real workhorse, you make sure that the machine can be upgraded for things like RAM and video. The Studio 15 came with three USB ports, one of them a combo SATA. I would opt for the extended battery if you are going to use it all day. The wireless adapter has an on/off switch so that you won't eat batteries looking for a network. It also has an optional bluetooth package and a DVD recorder. Spend the money up front and get the educational version of Office. You will be happy you did.

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

Check with your school first as often the big universities have some sweet software deals like Microsoft office (studetn edition) for less than $20. MS has a vested interest on getting you hooked as you begin to do real work. I would recommend buying a copy your freshman year, and then buying again your senior year if this deal is available.

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

Dell makes very little in the US unless you're going to buy an Alienware, and by next year won't make a single PC here.

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

I will join the group reccommending ThinkPads (They are still ThinkPads, they are just Lenovo's now not IBM's)

I am on my second ThinkPad, I still have my t60 (from 2006) I haven't had any real problems with it, I still use it regularly for things that don't require high performance just before the warrenty expired (last summer) my hard drive failed, lenovo tech support had me run a diagnostic test, then they sent me a new hard drive with factory image at no cost. I also have a t400 that is less than a year old, I had a problem where it would not power on one day, I called Lenovo tech support they sent me a box, I shipped everything to them and they replaced the mother board and returned it to me. The whole process took 5 business days, there was no cost to me.

I have been extremely happy with both of my ThinkPad's. The Lenovo's are the most common computer at RPI (by far) and are the most common computer at Hasbro (my current job), over all most people seem to have good experiences with them.

My only advice if you decide to go with a Mac instead is to find out where the nearest Mac store is to you at school. School help desks are usually very good at fixing computers they are fammiliar with but it is hit or miss whether they have a Mac expert there, even when they do it is usually faster and cheaper to go to the Genius Bar instead.

Re: Headed to college. Laptop help?
 

Oh baby, I didn't stress that enough. Thinkpad/Lenovo sends you a box. It arrives on Monday, you pack it up, ship it and by Friday your laptop is back working. No "We're sorry it's a virus, you run Labview, back version of Office, you eat chicken wings while typing, etc.", its working. Fixed, back in the box to you.

If you can't live without the laptop for 5 days then buy two, one to use while the other one is in the air. But Lenovo support is 5 days. And they mean 5 of the 24 hour days, not the 5 days, but weekends don't count and well Friday isn't really a day and so who gets stuff done on a Monday that you get from Worst Buy.