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My first laptop
Gar king
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
Ok h&a heres the deal, I need a good laptop recommendation since my graduation is comming up. I need something that is good for general collage work for around 800 dollars, Any suggestions
Your sig is too tall. -Thanatos
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Eee 901, 1000HA, and Acer Aspire One are the normal suggestions.
Just how much can it do before it craps out? Netbook = internet, but what about other applications?
I'm not expecting to run Illustrator on it, but how about other applications?
I don't want to throw down $800+ on an 8" screen, but for $300 what can I expect?
I think the Eee 1000HA is stronger under the hood. The Eee thread in the Tech forum has a buncha people who know their shit.
Posting from one right now.
Going from a 17" laptop as my first one, to this...well, it was a big change, but like I said. I got used to it...I also never took the 17" one anywhere. I take this one everywhere. My friend has an Acer aspire one...but the Eee is much better for the same price. I upgraded to 2 gigs of ram the same day I got it...so I don't know how it is with 1 gig...but it runs photoshop CS3 fine for me.
If it's going to be your only computer though, I might recommend something slightly bigger.
Ehhhhhhhhh....
I've typed a 14 page paper on my 901 without an external keyboard.
Just get an external keyboard.
And an external monitor. Or just buy a regular 15" laptop and be done with it.
Lenovo has a sale going on their Ideapad laptops. For your price range you can get something with 4GB of DDR3 ram, a Core 2 Duo, and a dedicated graphics card. In other words everything you would need in a main computer, while still being mobile enough to take to class.
Lenovo Sale
the 9-10" ones fit perfectly on those stupid little college desks ;-).
Also, I don't know if this is just a thing at my college...but some of my professors ban laptops from their classrooms, but I've never really had one say anything to me about my netbook. I don't know if it's because I make sure to look like I'm really paying attention and answering questions, or since it's so small that I can easily see the lecturers and they can see me because I'm not slouching behind a big screen.
I am surprised how easily I adjusted to this thing. For the first few days I wasn't sure I would like it, because the keyboard is smaller than normal, and the shift is in an odd place(newer models they are fixing that). I hardly use my other laptop anymore.
If you're going to want to watch DVDs and things in your room and won't have a TV with a player, or you use a lot of CDs I guess I might recommend going with a bigger machine. These don't have external CD drives and I think a USB one runs around $100 at best buy.
Honestly the laptop is just going to be in a bag, being thrown around and stuff. So cheaper the laptop is, the less painful it'll be when you manage to crack it.
15 inches kinda sucks. It's too small for multimedia, but it's too big for portability.
That's 17" and almost 8 pounds. You don't want to bring that to class. The specs are decent, but I'd shoot for something around 13" (and as light as you can get).
Another thing is that you want to get a decent warranty. College can be a rough environment for a laptop.
You dont want to be the guy with the 21 inch $8,000 alienware laptop. That guy cries at night when he's failing math 101.
Believe me, if you have a laptop that big you will never move it. So if you're planning on taking it to class or whatever fuggeddaboutit.
If you want to take it to class to take notes or whatever (I've always found it faster to take notes by hand) then get something smaller (15in MAX and light). A 17-incher is ok if you just want to have it in your room (maybe lug it to the library to do some work) and have the portability so you can take it home at breaks, etc. But it will be heavy and you won't want to carry it around on a daily basis.
I would not recommend a netbook as your only computer for college; I can't imagine trying to type a paper on one of those tiny keyboards/screens and god forbid if you ever have to use excel.
Best 300$ I've ever spent.