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[wolfwild]

Well, remarkably shitty week aside, i'm starting the slow burn towards law school now. waiting to find out if i got in on the housing complex they've got a deal with. worst comes to worst, i've heard there's a metric assload of nearby housing, even if it's not quite as convenient

Comments

[xpashax]

Okay, for everything you've mentioned but the gaming, I know from expereince that 750mhz is all you'll need. With my 750mhz laptop, I was able to play DVD's perfectly at full screen, run office programs, graphic manipulation, etc. It's what I did all my work on. It wouldn't be good for 3d graphic rendering, but I don't think you're looking to make movies. For all that, I started operating at 128m of RAM, and over time upgraded to 512m. More RAM is better, but not necessary.

Regarding games, it could do it, it could play turn based games like Civ3 and such, things that don't require much in video ram or anything. It's the high end gaming that's going to consume your wallet, becuase you'll need a fast processor, lots of RAM, and a hot shit video card. Personally I view laptops as tools, because a desktop computer will always be superior for gaming, it's got more space for newer techonology that hasn't been reduced to a mini version yet.

So when looking for a laptop, if you're willing to abandon the gaming focus, I would recommend the IBM T series as a more budget friendly option, or the IBM X series if you're looking for something lightweight.

The T series is a corporate model, it's durable, if you're stupid and put a few books on top of it your screen will generally not be fucked up (unless said stack of books is fucking heavy). It's okay in the weight department, it was fine for carrying to and from class.

The X series is an ultrathin model, those fuckers are really light and small, but the keyboard is not cramped or uncomfortable. I was really interested in them, and will pick up a model later on in life, but it's too expencive for me right now. The reason is that you not only need the laptop, but you need to buy it's docking station. Almost every ultrathin laptop does not have an internal CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, so you need to dock it, and use the CD/DVD that is built into the docking station.

I'm a fan of the IBM's, I'm sure there are other good options, but I don't know them. I would recommend the T series, you can generally find them used on ebay. Just run searches like "thinkpad 900mhz" or whatever speed you want the processor to be to see where things fall into your price range. The only problems I've ever had with an IBM are problems I have caused, by doing things like deleting drivers I didn't think I'd need. ;-)

[wolfwild]

And how long have you been an IBM rep again? :)

Seriously, thanks for the advice as far the the thinkpad's go. i've heard really good things about the X's, and the T's are pretty good, though not the rest. I'm actually springing to get a factory-direct laptop from whoever I buy from, so chances are i'll be operating at around 1.5 GHz , 512 mb of RAM.

Only problem is a lot of the best models from most companies that ould easily do what I need are still running at over 2 grand apiece, and that's just not in my bidget.

[wolfwild]

Also (and things like this is why LJ needs to let people edit comments), any recommendations for places to find laptop reviews? i've been using Cnet, but their frequency at reviewing is kinda spotty.

[xpashax]

I only talk about IBM's because it's what I know. My family members use them exclusively (to the best of my knowledge) because the tech support is good.

As far as reviews, I'll always check amazon and epinions. When I pick a model I will also do a seach for "Thinkpad T20 Review" for example, and see what forum posts are out there. See what people are bitching about.