Heading off to College soon and want to buy a laptop that really is for me?

Question

Growing up i've had my fair share of computers going haywire due to my brothers, i'm going to college in fall of 07 (SUNY Fredonia if anyone else is too) and i will be buying my very own laptop, i want something ridiculously fast, with a lot of memory and very good for school related type things


I was also thinking of buying "external memory" to hold music on so i wouldn't slow my computer down, is this a good idea?

i'm willing to pay $1000 U.S at most

Answer 1

Good choice - finally some one who is willing to pay a lot to get a good laptop. Here are some personal recommendations for the year 2007:

http://www.alienware.com/product_detail_pages/Sentia_m3450/sentia_overview.aspx?SysCode=PC-LT-SENTIA-3450&SubCode=SKU-DEFAULT
Looking at possibly one of the fastest laptop ever for under $1000. I loved this beauty when I first saw it. While it is built to game, don't let that put you off. It is also perfect for all work related issues. Only flaw I had with this system is the casing was fairly weak. I managed to put a few cracks in the case, but it was easy to replace.

http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/inspn?c=us&cs=19&l=en&s=dhs
Despite the fact that Dell now owns Alienware, I am not a fan of Dell system a alone ie the Dell range. However if you are looking for fast yet cheap systems I encourage that you look into Dell.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,125610-page,1-c,notebooks/article.html
Granted it's ugly, but it is fast, light weight and damn cheap. I tested this unit and hated the keyboard (in built) but the laptop worked like a dream.

I'm sure you will find plenty of overs from the other postings.

Also save some money and DO NOT GET VISTA. Laptops do not like Vista and crash often. Vista it's self is over rated and full of errors and compatibilty errors.

Answer 2

From experience you need to check with the school to see what the requirements are! Most will expect Windows XP professional only. If you show up with Home edition they won't allow you to connect to the network.