Laptop for AutoCAD/3DS Max?

[Timmyd]

i am looking for a notebook computer with:
at least 1.7ghrz
60gig hd
512ram
15.4 WXGA LCD Panel
Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive

ALL THAT UNDER $700
i know it is strict but those are the minimums i need for 3ds max and auto-cad and some other apps i have
unfortunately i am limited to that price or maybe a little more

[KenWittlief]

watch the sunday fliers from Best Buy, Office Depot, Comp USA tomorrow

BestBuy had a Gateway with 1.4GHz and 40G HD that you could have gotten last week with 512MB for about $625

and Office Depot had a Compaq V2000 that was close to your specs for about $600 this week

memory seems to be the easiest - most notebooks sell with 256, but you can upgrade to 512 yourself for about $50.

BTW - they get you in the store with low prices, then the sales guy will try to talk you into a 2 or 3 year maintance contract, with a bunch of nonsense about free battery replacements - this will cost you $250 or more

a replacement battery online is less than $100.

[Enterprize]

Watch www.slickdeals.net. Just the other day there was a deal very similar to your description and about that price.

[KenWittlief]

nuther place to look: some manufacturer websites (like gateway, dell...) have remanufactured or refurbished notebooks for sale.

Usually these are units someone bought and could not figure out how to use it, didnt like it for some reason, or something didnt work

they go back to the factory where they are rebuilt if necessary, fully tested, but they cannot be sold as new - they might have minor cosmetic defects but for all the parts that matter they are new laptops

you can get some good deals that way. You might have to hunt around on the website to find them, sometimes the refurbished page is kinda hidden.

[Bill Moore]

Originally Posted by Timmyd

i am looking for a notebook computer with:
at least 1.7ghrz
60gig hd
512ram
15.4 WXGA LCD Panel
Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive

ALL THAT UNDER $700
i know it is strict but those are the minimums i need for 3ds max and auto-cad and some other apps i have
unfortunately i am limited to that price or maybe a little more

Here's all the Black Friday Ads coming out this week, if you feel like standing in line half a day.

http://blackfriday.gottadeal.com/

[Jeff Rodriguez]

Originally Posted by Timmyd

Internal Wireless (802.11a/b/g, 54Mbps)
...
ALL THAT UNDER $700

Any reason for the 802.11a? I don't think you'll be able to find a laptop with wireless A built in. If you really want A, you'll have to get it without wireless and buy a separate PCMCIA card for it.
What do you need wireless A for?

[KenWittlief]

the Best Buy listing on that black friday ad has a Gateway that almost meets your list of demands, for $570

very tempting!

[Andrew Blair]

Well, let me tell you what, during the school sales this summer I picked up one that fits your desciption to a T ( minus the a wireless, but it has a PCMIA slot), for 550 dolllars. That was at Circuit City, with 300 dollars in rebates. Really always check the flyers, especially when there's a laptop battle. Christmas may be the time. And the electronics stores will probably have the best deals, as they have the most direct, felt competition. ( Wherever there's a BestBuy, theres a Circuit City within half a mile).

[Timmyd]

thank guys i will do some more searching i have found a dell for 650 with exactly what i was looking for so i may go that rout

[Cory]

Originally Posted by Ogre

Any reason for the 802.11a? I don't think you'll be able to find a laptop with wireless A built in. If you really want A, you'll have to get it without wireless and buy a separate PCMCIA card for it.
What do you need wireless A for?

There's an intel internal a/b/g card, but it most certainly won't be found in a $700 laptop.

A $700 laptop also most likely won't come with a dedicated graphics card, which will hamper you in 3DS-Max and AutoCad.

I used to run Inventor on an old Gateway laptop with a 800mhz P3, 128 MB of ram, and integrated graphics, and it actually wasn't that bad, for the most part. The only problem it had was taking a LONG time to render things, and crashing at random times during such renders.

[Timmyd]

hey thanks guys i bought an HP for $699 in the budget .yes!
it has
Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
- AMD Sempron(TM) 3200+ (1.8GHz/256KB L2 Cache)
- 15.4" WXGA Widescreen (1280x800)
- 128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory(TM)
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)!!!
- 40 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive
- DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive
- 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
- 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

just what i needed

[Bill_Hancoc]

I have found with my computer running inventor 7 that i wish i had at least a 128 card and 1 gig of ram. All the things i do are possible on my computer bu after a few hours of working in an assembly things start to get really slow and i have to take a break and let it all cool down.

You may want to consider buying a bargin laptop with a good graphics card and upgrading the rest as you have more money to have a better machine.