buying a new laptop

[ashauler]

Most people are going to have varying opinions on major brands like Dell. That being said, I think that dell does make some good laptops, but they generally aren't the ones most people buy. The insperion series (in my experience) is crap. The latitude series, however, I've had great experience with. You can only buy the latitudes through the business portals, but dell doesn't care who you are.

All that being said, I've become a mac guy and would recommend a macbook.

I agree about the Dell latitudes.....I use a D820 for work constantly, in fact am typing this on it right now. I travel with it all the time and have had no issues after having it for about 1 yr. I think it is out of the price range you mentioned though.

[kevin7]

I love my Panasonic Toughbook fro work. I have dropped it from 4 ft out the truck door already accidentally . This thing is a beast ,too bad it costs 3K

[HersheyWalker]

I use to be a die hard pc fan, but after using a mac for the past year or so, I must say that it is a little workhorse. It's slower than it's pc counterpart and will have a smaller screen, but it has never crashed on me.

If you are pc profficient, go with the pc. You can find all the cracked apps you want on torrents, and it'll be beefier. But on the downside, you'll have to partition your drives to house your data on one side, and your os on the other. Then every month or so you'll have to reformat and reinstall your os. Not that big of a deal, but those moments when you need to fix your computer can come at the most inoportune moments.

I'd say get a cheap mac on craigslist and spend the rest on booze, but that's just me.

[cinda]

I have looked at many laptops in the last 6 month. I bought three each were different but gear toward the person needs. I bought an acer a Sony and a Toshiba. I would say being a young guy your looking for speed and storage. I would just compared the two to the price and buy the best deal. Aways ask if they will honor another stores sale. Staples will and they Will call the store for you too. A store like radio shack will not honnor others prices but look at their prices somethings that store will suprise you. I bought the toshiba for myself.

[AK & Stogie]

I am currently working on my Acer. I like it, and they make a really good product for the price.
Something to think about, the single v. dual core processor issue. I went dual core, but sacrificed a little speed for more multi tasking ability. If you are into high end games, you will want something fast, and with AT LEAST 1GB of RAM. In this day and age however, nobody should have any less than that.
I would recommend stuff with AMD processors, but the Intels have come a long way.
And do not fall into thinking you need a huge screen. Anything over 15.4 is overkill, and you WILL hate lugging it around. Otherwise, 1gb RAM, processor as needed, and DVD+_ RW drive to burn DVD's is nice. HD Capacity is your call too.
Shop around.

[SkinnyDan]

[QUOTE=HersheyWalker;88245]Then every month or so you'll have to reformat and reinstall your os. Not that big of a deal, but those moments when you need to fix your computer can come at the most inoportune moments.QUOTE]

Not to be an ass, but I hate this arguement for Mac fan-boys. I am a pc fan, and I have been using windows almost exclusivly for years. If you know how to stay away from virus infested downloads, and websites that install spyware/malware on your system then there is no need reformat that often. I have been running my Windows XP for about 1 1/2 years right now with out reformatting, and I've been running the pc at almost 100% uptime. Also I have only had Windows crash on me once and I had to reformat, and that was because I was doing some testing on somw software for a friend that turned out to be very buggy.

It's all about being smart with a computer.

[Mikemedic]

You might want to find out whether your school will have macs or PC's beforfe you choose (I think most schools use PC - at least the ones around here). It's nice to put all your work/papers on a flash drive and print it out on the school's paper (trust me, you'll use a ton )

I've heard good things about acer and toshiba in the lower end of the price spectrum. I really like my dell desktop, but I really don't use it for anything more complicated than internet and word-processing.