CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

hm....thought i'd stick a thread up here incase some brilliant technology-knowledgeable person feels like giving me advice(which i sorely need LoL).

In the process of trying to decide on a notebook computer for college. Basically when I decide what one I want, I just have to convince the parents and it's mine. Since 1. grandparent is paying and 2. this will be my computer for a good long time, odds of getting whatever I want are in my favor.

So yeah, I'm trying to do lots of research and make the 'perfect' choice, but AGH so many decisions. Does anyone have a notebook that they LOVE that would be suggestable or have advice for making this 'notebook safari' a bit easier?? Would be greatly appreciated.

Toshiba. Go with a Toshiba. They are one of the best computers on the market. Solid. IBM is also a good choice. And I have a Sager. Check Pctorque.com for good deals on Sagers. But personally I would recomend you a Toshiba.

Do you want Mac or PC?

IBM ThinkPads refuse to break down.

Why, last time I dropped this laptop on a concrete floor while it was still compiling something. Works fine. Then there's was the day it rained and the laptop got soaked. Still worked fine even while it was wet, so. Such durability should last you years.

I heard that iBooks and PowerBooks also refuse to break down easily.

My Acer laptop is pretty reliable since I got it from graduation gift.

shooraijin wrote:Do you want Mac or PC?

lol..well if you're speaking 'want' i'd go w/ mac, but since i have ZILCH mac experience it'd be unwise to go w/ that for college. so yeah....PC, final answer ^_^

as to comments on IBM from others....i've heard good things about them, but I read a comment somewhere that IBM was never known for quality speakers and sound. that's disappointing since im music obsessed lol. anyone know if this is true?

hmm...heard of Acer, but can't say i've ever seen it.

FadedOne wrote:hmm...heard of Acer, but can't say i've ever seen it.

Yeah I think they are pretty good company. They even make Ferrai laptops, my friend got one and talk about expensive.

as to comments on IBM from others....i've heard good things about them, but I read a comment somewhere that IBM was never known for quality speakers and sound. that's disappointing since im music obsessed lol. anyone know if this is true?

Lies.

Then again, of course a laptop sound isn't the most optimal. What do you expect, a full cinema quality surround sound with all the required speakers for it packaged in a single laptop?

IBM uses same sound chipset as most onboard motherboard sound, AC97. If you don't like IBM's laptop speakers then go ahead and use headphones.

Kenshin17 wrote:Toshiba. Go with a Toshiba.

DONT go with toshiba... shared video ram = bad!

and ncie to see ya back shoo!

custom is good! try

http://www.ibuypower.com

sony is also good, ibms are your best bet though

however never, ever, ever get a celeron processor (they are the evil)

Mr. SmartyPants wrote:however never, ever, ever get a celeron processor (they are the evil)

*Looks at his laptop* !!!! I have a celeron processor!!!! Whats wrong with celeron processors?

Celerons usually aren't worth it, unless you're going budget, and a laptop with budget label on it is not a good thing to have.

DONT go with toshiba... shared video ram = bad!

can you explain that one? other brands dont do this? *wonders*
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Thanks Lorentz Force for the info on the IBM sound.
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*makes note of Celeron avoidance*
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Out of curiousity, anyone have good luck with Dell? I've heard a combination of great and terrible things about them so that I'm not sure what to think. My college seems to be rather fond of the company though. (not that that means much lol, besides perhaps just giving me a direction to look in)

FadedOne wrote:can you explain that one? other brands dont do this? *wonders*
~~
Thanks Lorentz Force for the info on the IBM sound.
~~
*makes note of Celeron avoidance*
~~
Out of curiousity, anyone have good luck with Dell? I've heard a combination of great and terrible things about them so that I'm not sure what to think. My college seems to be rather fond of the company though. (not that that means much lol, besides perhaps just giving me a direction to look in)

Dells are what you should definately avoid.... they're all like "BUY OUR DELLS WE GOT EM CHEAP! AND WITH WEIRD STUFF"
dell laptops... are HUGE... like their bigger then like.... like... a lot of other laptops

id avoid dells, go for IBMS, definately, they are probably the best laptops around (more expensive... but you get what you pay for!)

and shared videoram is basically... when the laptop uses part of the Random Access Memory Speed (RAM) for its Video... whereas Dedicated Videoram is where the videocard itself can run at a certain speed and doesn't need the systems RAM

Thus, dedicated videoram is ALWAYS better than shared videoram

if i worded it wrong, XD any other tech savvy people can fix it up

and otaku10, celerons are basically your watered-down pentium 4's

fadedone: another factor you have to put in... not too important... but... sorta important. Do ya want an Intel Processor (Like Pentium, Centrino, M) or an AMD processor... I personally perfer 64bit AMD processors over the Intel processors (better for gaming)

I prefer a Pentium M processor in a laptop. It's faster and cooler than most other chips for the same performance. An Athlon 64 in a laptop woul have pretty bad battery life.

I have a Dell laptop and have been pretty happy with it, aside from wishing I'd gone for a slightly larger HDD.

Also, make sure to get at least 512MB of RAM, if you get 256MB, you'll be swapping stuff to disk, and that uses up your battery.

Shared video RAM just means that the video board doesn't have its own RAM, so it uses your system RAM. This is usually found in lower-end graphics cards, so if it uses 64MB of shared video RAM, it might eat up to 64MB of your system RAM. Laptops aren't the best for high-resource-usage games anyway, so this may not really be an issue unless you really want to play UT2004 on it. It basically depends on how you use it.

You can't just dismiss an entire company by one component that they offer. If the Pantster was more familiar with Toshiba, he'd be aware that you can customize your laptop. Check out Toshiba's direct-sales site (toshibadirect.com) to see what I mean. Some options use shared video memory, some use dedicated.

Also, there's nothing wrong with Dell, either. They have a reputation for size because of the Inspiron series, which pioneered the "large notebook"/desktop replacement category, but these days pretty much every company has a desktop replacement line. And I suspect the "weird stuff" that the Pantster is referring to is from Ebay or something, because Dell's options are about the same as everyone else's.

I'd suggest visiting your local Best Buy or the like to see what kind of size you prefer - for my own part I like 14.2", but others may prefer larger or smaller screens. Also, you'll get acquainted with the size of the unit as a whole. My Dell is about average size for a mainstream laptop, but my mother's laptop is a significantly larger Toshiba desktop replacement laptop. (not meant to move around as much) My father has an ultralight laptop from his work. (an IBM Thinkpad) Look for a series name and model that looks like what you want, then go to the company's site and see if you can customize that particular model of that particular series to what you want.

Also, if you have a choice in the batteries, get the largest battery you can. An optical bay battery has come in handy for me, because I can slip it in and avoid losing work when my main battery is low.

I'd suggest using Windows XP Pro, it's easier to fix certain things without going into the registry. If you pm me after you get the laptop, I'll show you how to tighten it down so it's less resource-wasteful and insecure.

(also, you'll want to get a decent lock for your laptop if you plan on going places without it. For that guy. You know. Justin Case.)

There are plenty of toshiba models that dont use shared ram. The tecra series has dedicated cards. Just about every brand uses shared ram on low end models cause its cheaper. Toshiba is not the only one. And Toshiba makes on heck of a solid machine. Take a look at the Tecra series. You can get them with up to 128 megs of dedicated ram.

MSP: thanks for the shared ram info!

Kaligraphic: whoa....lots of helpful stuff there. thanks MUCH. ^_^ and yeah...I need to go to Best Buy and look around and let the salesguys attack me(LoL) because i'm more visual with this stuff and it would help to see the keyboards/screens and get a feel for things. thanks again

Kenshin: ok thanks..looking up the toshiba stuff now

What

> the keyboard keys soak up sweat over time and smell really nasty.

?!

Reference, please.

i simply don't like dells.... because they are overused and little kiddies go like "DUDE... thats a GOOD computer" *pointing at a really crappy dell*

Reffe

Stinky ibooks ... that's amusing (but obviously not for everyone ^^; ).

I really don't know much about specs for laptops and such, but the place where I used to work used Dells for the salesguys (er ... the salesguys used Dells) and they were constantly breaking and being sent back to Dell. In all fairness, that might have been a junky model design (they were rather big).

Be sure and let us know what you finally end up getting. A laptop is a pretty awesome present. ^^

OK...

I work for a network support company, and I can tell you the truth about Dells.

If you buy consumer class Dells, everything will suck. you will get bad parts, bad service, bad just about everything.

However, If you can manage to get a buisness class Dell, I don't think it gets any better than that as far a service, support, and good responce times goes.

Unless, of course, you get a mac, wich if you don't plan on playing games on it, theres no real reason I can think of to not other than personal prefence.

Well

Care to back that up, volt? Just putting an intel chip in there won't make "windows run on it." In fact, if they go the direction that some experts believe, they will be using the latest and greatest chips - which *might* mean it won't run any Win32 code at all.

If the Intel Macs run Windows, it will be accidental. Apple certainly won't be selling them preloaded with it -- they won't stop you from doing it, but they won't help you with it either. If it doesn't work, you're on your own, and possibly in violation of your warranty.

This is specifically addressed in the keynote by Phil Schiller, and I suggest you (EDIT: I mean Volt) watch it before commenting further. There's a lot of misinformation circulating about this which does not need to be further spread around.

In fact, I'm not holding off on an iBook -- I'm probably getting one in a couple months. The Intel iBooks will no longer run Classic, which I use quite a bit; they're a nice deal; and they're probably going to be the first ones to be converted because of the power consumption issue.

Hmm. That a good point, shooby. *wonders if he should go get one now...*

Backi

I'm going to put my reply to this in the x86 thread so that FadedOne's laptop issue isn't overrun.