Which laptop to buy for college?

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cursed · #1 Post by **cursed** » Fri Jun 02, 2006 8:39 pm

I am going off to college next year. So I need a computer. I need something that can do 3D gaming, compilation, and the like. I would also like something portable I can use in class.

So I'm thinking of taking two computers along. First I will take my current 2-year old desktop (Gentoo / XP dual boot). This does processor-intensive stuff well enough. (Rare to hear from a gamer of my age, isn't it?) I'm definitely putting in another hard drive, though. 80G just ain't enough these days.

For the portability part I am planning on getting a separate laptop. This laptop will be mainly used for routine classwork and web surfing so I don't need anything especially powerful. I will put only Linux on it, probably bootstrapped with –Os if I use Gentoo. It will run OO in fluxbox or Xfce. Could I even fit a reasonable KDE installation on a small hard drive?

Thinkpads have a reputation for being solid, well-built machines so I figured I’d look at these. There are too many models with different quirks, so could you guys recommend something?

These are the things I'm looking for in the laptop:

HD: preferably at least 10GB
Graphics: nVidia or integrated graphics
Ethernet: Yes
Wireless: Yes
Weight: the lighter the better, 3-4 lbs
Battery: I want battery life. Cheaply replaceable batteries would also be nice.
Display: at least 1024 x 786, preferably around 1280 x 1024; at least 16-bit color
RAM: at least 512MB, preferably 1GB
Price: <$300
USB: at least 1 port, USB 2.0 if possible

I was thinking of getting a 600X for a while, but the 5 lb weight, USB 1.0, and 2-hour battery that dies an annoying death plus the $300 for an upgraded laptop (RAM + HDD) weren’t too appealing. What do you guys recommend?

NS · #2 Post by NS » Fri Jun 02, 2006 11:53 pm

Are you on a budget. If you are not on a budget, get a T60 or X60. It might be expensive but it is really good. As for the battery, errr..... X60, the battery lasts a full 4 hours before completely drain after i switch on everything to the fullest including the wi-fi. It is a 8 cell battery. T60 battery can last 3 hours. ^same method of using.

EDIT: Sorry i forget something. Welcome to the forum

ricerocket · #3 Post by **ricerocket** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 1:37 am

NS: I think <$300 constitutes being on a budget...

NS · #4 Post by NS » Sat Jun 03, 2006 1:51 am

ricerocket wrote:NS: I think <$300 constitutes being on a budget...

Ok, thanks. I never notice that. Sorry.

ThinkPad · #5 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:42 am

I think the T30 would be good for your application. Its not a power house but you should be able to run some older games on it and they are not that pricy.

cursed · #6 Post by **cursed** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 9:52 am

I'll leave all my gaming for the desktop.

As for the T30...I like the specs, but standard price on eBay seems to be 400-500$, a little expensive. Is there any way I could get one w/o any software and save a few bucks? I'll just be running Linux on it anyway.

Or...Can OEM software be legally sold on eBay? I may be able to recoup enough money that way.

ThinkPad · #7 Post by **ThinkPad** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 12:36 pm

I think with a $300 budget, it would be hard to find something within your specs.

BruisedQuasar · #8 Post by **BruisedQuasar** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:20 pm

You'll have to compromise here and there on your demand list but the $300 budget will force that on you.

Have you considered a truly mobile device, an HP Jornada 720 or a NEC Mobilepro 790?

You get about 8 hours active battery use per charge, instant on and off, a full fleet of software permanently embedded into ROM, a CF and a PC card slot. Jornada easily fits in a coat pocket but has a great keyboard. For a bigger screen and keyboard, go NEC MobilePro.

Both Handhelds weigh less than 2 lbs and refurbished ones go for under $300. You can check out the specs by clicking on one for auction at eBay by searching seller MY1990, a top notch seller, by the way. Tigerdirect.com sells Class A refurbished 720s for under $200.

Before you dismiss the two enterprise market handheld series, I would read the specs. You can get more reliable detailed information by surfing [HPCHandhelds.com]. The li-ion battery packs are good for about 3 years or more and replacements are well under $100...

I stopped taking a notebook out of my house after I discovered these gems. When I visit a university or the public library, I take my NEC Mobilepro 790. It easily fits in a hipsack. I get it out, insert a wifi card and I am ready to surf the catalogue or the Net by the time I sit down. I never look for a A/C outlet because I can surf for hours without depleting the battery below 40%.

The bigger NEC weighs 1.7 pounds, has a bigger keyboard and touch screen display that the Jornada 720. I have big hands but I can type fast on Jornadas (two finger style). I can touch type with both hands on an NEC.

You can easily get a used or refurbished Jornada 680e (680 through 720 look the same) for under $100; 720s have come down recently, so you can a nice one for under $200. Nec 780s can be had for about $100 and the 790 for about $140

The Jornada 720 - 728 function well as MP3 players. They have speakers and a stereo head set jack. NEC 780 & 790 have Cell Phone audio jacks but the audio chip is not stereo. NEC 900 is excellent for music but NEC just stopped making them. A used one
goes for over $600.

--Bruised

dsigma6 · #9 Post by **dsigma6** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 3:43 pm

[censored] you bruisedquasar, now i want one of those NEC's!!

jongordo8 · #10 Post by **jongordo8** » Sat Jun 03, 2006 4:44 pm

I was going to say you are not going to find a laptop in your price range with all the specs you want. A T23 would be a good choice (light, fast, can be wireless, batteries are cheap). Might look into that.

davidspalding · #11 Post by **davidspalding** » Sun Jun 04, 2006 4:08 pm

Great idea for a WinCE device for an < $300 device ... set me down memory lane (and ebaY Boulevard) looking at Vadem Clios ... a friend had one and loved it.

BruisedQuasar · #12 Post by **BruisedQuasar** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 12:17 pm

davidspalding wrote:Great idea for a WinCE device for an < $300 device ... set me down memory lane (and ebaY Boulevard) looking at Vadem Clios ... a friend had one and loved it.

Davidspalding, there are several Clio lover-owners at the top Handheld News-Support Group [hpcfactor.com]. They share modification and maintenance advice, discoveries, etc in that Group. The group members tend to own Jornada 680 through 728 and NEC MobilePro 780 through 900c but there are owners of Clios, Intermec and several other practical Windows CE devices.

I sure wished someone had alerted me to NEC and Jornada handhelds when I was on the road a lot. I would have left my 'lug-a-bout-portable-desktop' laptop and notebook PCs home for a practical mobile device ANYDAY.

These things were enterprise devices, so they were never marketed to consumers. It does make you wonder, though, about the media gurus. Why didn't they bring these devices to public attention in PC Magazine, PC Computing, Computer Shopper, PC World, or now defunct Byte Magazine?

The only reason I found out about Clive Sinclair's fantastic Tablet Computer in 1988 (The British made Cambridge Z-88) was I saw a computing magazine guru using one at an airport. I sat down and asked him about it. Turned out that most computer magazine writers used Z-88s on the road! They never reviewed them in any US computing magazine. Bill Gates would not like it! The writer's name? Bill Macrone.

--Bruised

davidspalding · #13 Post by **davidspalding** » Mon Jun 05, 2006 3:42 pm

Dunno what you're talking about. Various HPCs were reviewed, compared and touted in many national consumer magazines which I scanned, including PC/Computing, Mobile Computing, Esquire, etc. I could hard go a day without seeing an ad or reading a discussion of them in the consumer sector.

pschemo · #14 Post by **pschemo** » Tue Jun 06, 2006 4:44 am

Hi =]
I`m using my T23 for my IT studies and it works fine... I doesn`t have Wi-Fi build inside, but you can buy PCMCIA card, if you really care about weight think about X21,22,23.. I have just bought X20 for my girlfriend and it is really nice =]]

The mose important question you have to ask yourself is what you really want to do on that laptop, if just classwork and web-surfing those TP will great deal for you.. as long as you don`t have more then 300 $

cursed · #15 Post by **cursed** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 6:47 pm

I want something that'll run linux and let me ssh -X into my desktop. So I guess the WinCE devices are out.

I've decided against the 600 series due to the maintenance needed on the batteries and my lack of experience / equipment to keep on repairing these every couple of months.

I’ve been looking at the X22 lately. Despite the lack of integrated optical drive you can still install linux on these via network boot. If I ever need a CD, I’ll just rip the image and mount it as needed. So I can definitely live without that drive.

I have a couple of questions, though.

What would x22 owners say about the build quality of this laptop? I need something that’ll survive at least a couple (2-4) of years of being lugged around campus.

About how long (years…) does the battery last before it has to be replaced / rebuilt? I don’t want to end up paying more for the batteries than the computer itself.

What about RAM? I can’t find any 512 MB sticks for <$80. That’s sorta pricey compared to the actual computer.

What kind of range can one expect from the wireless?

dsigma6 · #16 Post by **dsigma6** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 8:50 pm

I've decided against the 600 series due to the maintenance needed on the batteries and my lack of experience / equipment to keep on repairing these every couple of months.

who said anything about repairing every couple months? ive owned a 600e for about 6 months, and outside of adding some memory and a battery (total less than $75), i havent had to do anything to it.

cursed · #17 Post by **cursed** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:11 pm

Somewhere, while wading through the long list of testimony regarding the 600 series battery problem, I saw a post made by someone who said that he worked for a big company and had seen thousands of dead batteries. From his experience, they only last ~3 months.

I don't know if this was under heavy useage, an average, minimum, etc, etc. In any case, the general consensus is that these batteries don't last as long as almost any other laptop's batteries. I will be using my laptop heavily for several years and don't want batteries that will fail early on and have to be rebuilt or replaced more often than necessary.

dsigma6 · #18 Post by **dsigma6** » Mon Jun 19, 2006 9:14 pm

i ended up with an aftermarket battery and it has served me well. i guess your purposes requiring long battery life takes the 600e off your list, not the repair factor. i get about 2 hours on this one.

#19 Post by **daeojkim** » Tue Jun 20, 2006 12:14 am

It sounds like X2x series is what you are looking for.

If you can get X24 it should be ideal. It is portable enough and powerful enough to do all the necessary applications. Max RAM to 640MB.

I slapped a 7k60 HD and it runs like a champ. I get almost 3 hours of battery life that is about 25% worn.

I had to get a PC-card for wireless, but it has built in ethernet and modem.

It may be a little difficult to get for <$300, more like $350...

cursed · #20 Post by **cursed** » Wed Jun 21, 2006 6:16 pm

I will definitely max out the memory. That’s one of those things you always want a lot of.

Is there any reason to get an X24 instead of an X22? I've searched around the board and as far as I can tell, the only real difference between the two models is processor speed. Well, that and about $100.

As I said, I don’t need serious speed, only enough to get by. My processor will probably be clocked way down during normal usage to save on battery power, so the X24’s 1100 MHz processor won’t help me much over the X22’s 800 MHz.

TarzanBoy · #21 Post by **TarzanBoy** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 11:07 am

You will be much happier if you forego the laptop for the time being.

Most of my computer time at college (as a freshman, anyway) was spent playing network video games with people in my dorm.

Your $300 will go WAAAAY farther on a desktop machine. I dont' know what you study, but a laptop is nigh useless in class. It is much better, and much easier to take notes by hand in a notebook.

Unless your school is in the dark-ages... there will be computer labs within a 7 minute walk of anywhere on campus which makes it easy to check your email or do computer based HW. The only advantageto having a laptop is being able to type up lab reports or papers in your girlfriend's dorm room or outside or whatever.

Nowadays you can just use a USB stick to save whatever work you've done and take it home or just email it to yourself.

christopher_wolf · #22 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:15 pm

TarzanBoy wrote:You will be much happier if you forego the laptop for the time being.

Most of my computer time at college (as a freshman, anyway) was spent playing network video games with people in my dorm.

Your $300 will go WAAAAY farther on a desktop machine. I dont' know what you study, but a laptop is nigh useless in class. It is much better, and much easier to take notes by hand in a notebook.

Unless your school is in the dark-ages... there will be computer labs within a 7 minute walk of anywhere on campus which makes it easy to check your email or do computer based HW. The only advantageto having a laptop is being able to type up lab reports or papers in your girlfriend's dorm room or outside or whatever.

Nowadays you can just use a USB stick to save whatever work you've done and take it home or just email it to yourself.

Eh? I would strongly advise not to do that. The OP is already well into getting a Thinkpad.

Even in the best of computer labs. These tend to be quite expensive, so the chances of one on campus is either small or there will be only one or two that you will always have to walk to. In addition, you don't want to be carting around your personal data on a memory stick and loading it up on a library client machine; each and every single time you do that you increase the chances that somebody will obtain your personal info. You also want to be to have the freedom to go where you want, open up the Thinkpad and work on whatever you want; group project, meeting, lab journal club, etc. You also don't want to be putting your own grades at risk printing your reports "whenever" you can get on your girlfriend's or friend's computer; not to mention the burden/annoyance this will put on them.
Besides, what really die hard games can you squeeze onto the X24 that will suck up that much time?

In any case, college isn't about wasting and frittering away your time with networked games and the like (and, no, a desktop PC won't help with this either...*especially* not a $300 one that also takes away it's mobility). The solution to that remains hard work and dedication to your studies; if you have that, nothing is going to distract you, computer excuses notwithstanding. Otherwise, it will show quite...distinctly.

Take it from me, an excellent laptop is a invaluable tool in a University setting, if used correctly.

dsigma6 · #23 Post by **dsigma6** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 7:31 pm

christopher_wolf wrote:college isn't about wasting and frittering away your time with networked games

you mean to tell me the halo lan parties weren't part of the curriculum?

christopher_wolf · #24 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 8:09 pm

dsigma6 wrote:
christopher_wolf wrote:college isn't about wasting and frittering away your time with networked games
you mean to tell me the halo lan parties weren't part of the curriculum?

No, I used those for extra-curricular activity and, err, work-study credits.

Carbonfish · #25 Post by **Carbonfish** » Mon Aug 14, 2006 9:04 pm

cursed,

I am running Ubuntu on a T23 that didn't cost me much more than $300.00 (well actually, it was $369.00), but there are better deals out there if you look. I work for a college here in Oregon, and am also a full-time student, and I can say that although I am not a "gamer", that I have not run into any perceived or real need that this machine won't meet. It has a DVD-ROM drive, you can definately SSH- X into your desktop, it will take up to 1GB of RAM, wifi either internal (if you find the right T23) or through a PCMCIA card, and it will handle a honkin'-big HDD if you want to take the time to go buy one at your local big-box electronics store. Admittedly, the battery life is only about 3 1/2 hours with a brand new battery (so says the manual), but I haven't been anywhere on campus where there wasn't an outlet about six feet away. So you might have to make a compromise or two, but if you're just heading off to college, you could do a lot of looking to find a better deal. It aint new, but it works.

KC

dannyp · #26 Post by **dannyp** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 12:20 am

dsigma6 wrote:[censored] you bruisedquasar, now i want one of those NEC's!!

you mean one of these?
http://www.projectdp.com/project/promo.html

christopher_wolf · #27 Post by **christopher_wolf** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 1:20 am

dannyp wrote:
dsigma6 wrote:[censored] you bruisedquasar, now i want one of those NEC's!!
you mean one of these?
http://www.projectdp.com/project/promo.html

Ah, now that is quite interesting. Probably rates around the IBM PC110 in my book.

dsigma6 · #28 Post by **dsigma6** » Tue Aug 15, 2006 7:26 am

dannyp wrote:
dsigma6 wrote:[censored] you bruisedquasar, now i want one of those NEC's!!
you mean one of these?
http://www.projectdp.com/project/promo.html

that was correct...i wanted an nec or hp...got the hp...now it's being sold to dorronto.

i'll probably regret selling it when i get back into taking classes.

PointZero · #29 Post by **PointZero** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 6:48 pm

Argh...now I want one of those things. It's a good thing I already own a Cingular 8125 or I'd be scraping together money for that HPC.

dsigma6 · #30 Post by **dsigma6** » Tue Sep 12, 2006 7:04 pm

for basic web surfing, i've actually found the psp to be better than the jornada 680e. plus, you have the ability to watch movies, listen to music, and play games off of a memory stick.

Which laptop to buy for college?

Which laptop to buy for college?

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