Thread:

What type of laptop?

All of our computers are Dell, [10] don't know why, just no reason to change never had one fail yet !
First lap top was a 15" job $2700, as stated hard to travel with, 2nd was a 11" better to travel with $1200, couple of months ago got a Insp. 910 [9"] best one yet, $250 Sam's club, no hard drive motor, uses a chip, no DVD but has chip input and retrieval. love it ! FYI ----------

If I was to start over. I would switch to Apple. I currently use a HP Pavilion it works fine. But the apple system is more user friendly ( after working with it)

You might want to give this new application called “Laptop Scout” a shot. It is designed to help people narrow their computer search down a bit and find a laptop that best fits their needs (and budget). Here’s a link to the site, if you want to check it out for yourself: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/win...t/default.aspx
You go to the site and enter what kind of things (size, speed, memory, etc.) you’re looking for in a laptop and how much you’re willing to spend, and it’ll provide you with a list of laptops that might be best for your son. It is definitely a great way to make sure you are getting the most bang for your buck. Checking in with his college is also definitely a good idea, just to make sure that you don’t end up getting him something that isn’t compatible.
While you’re fiddling with some of the Laptop Scout filters, also keep in mind that if he’s going to be taking his laptop to class, weight might become an issue. A 9 lb. laptop might be super powerful and have a huge big screen, but might also be murder on his back. : )
Good luck with your decision, let me know if you have any specific questions!
Thanks,
Cody
Windows Outreach Team

Originally Posted by Cigalert

I'll put it to you this way. I'm currently typing this on a quad core with 4 gigs of ram running Windows Vista. Even with 1 gig of video ram I'm idling at 2.34 Gigs of ram. It's slow and choppy. I've watched old asian women move faster.

If this same system were a mac I'd be able to reposition 3/4 of all earth orbiting satellites, flatten a 416 layer CS3 file and get my taxes done in less than 3 seconds. Yeah, that's how fast.

Buy a mac.

Dude - not to insult your system... but I run one much like that with Vista, several instances of VMWare Workstation for my regular duties, a few instances of VMWare vCenter and the SQL managment studio up - and it's still responsive...

But... I'm typing this on my personal Macbook Pro and also have a 24" iMac - their nicer.

I use laptops quite a bit while traveling for work. I don't buy expensive laptops and I never get extended warranties...for anything!
Computers become outdated so quickly that I don't want to be stuck with an expensive relic! They have dropped in price so much that I would rather get a new one with updated features rather than pay repairs and I have had HP products for years! so for the most part, I have not had to pay repairs etc because I've been lucky with the quality. The only time I had a real problem, HP replaced the laptop with a new one.

You definitely should get a wireless card. I've always been told that you need to first decide whether you primarily will run word processing type programs or graphics/games. That will help you decide what type of processor etc to focus on. I've been lucky with Microsoft Office for students/teachers. I still use the 03 version.

Absolutely HATE Vista and will be happy when Gates replaces that os with something that actually works and is compatible with other programs!
Good luck!

Originally Posted by Brendellajet

I hope you took his major(or atleast the direction he is leaning...) into consideration. As a business major who graduated within the last decade, I could not have done a considerable amount of work assigned on a MAC as the instruction is geared toward a PC.

I forgot to add, when my kids were in college, everything was geared towards PC rather than MAC. Unless you are in graphic arts, special effects types of classes, I'd guess that things are still geared towards PC

Whatever you decide, I'd personally buy it before classes start to make sure that he/she is over the learning curve. Nothing worse than trying to deal with classes while you are still familiarizing yourself with your computer!!

I agree with OCJ on the getting a laptop a month or two before he'll have to be using it, at least just to make sure that he's comfortable/familiar with it before he'll be using it everyday. Hope you aren't getting too overloaded with info!
Cody
Windows Outreach Team