I figured this was OT territory, so it's here. I've gone without a "real" laptop for my entire college career (I have some old Thinkpad I paid $300 for like five years ago that's like a Pentium 200Mhz or something that I used to do some coding during my undergrad while I was in the IMAX theater at work and to write, but that's about it).
However, I'm entering what is (hopefully) my last semester in grad school for electrical engineering and I'm rather tired of being leashed to the PC computer lab to simply write a paper or do research or database searches through the IEEE archives. So I'm thinking of buying a laptop soon to take advantage of any possible Thanksgiving deals.
My basic requirements are light and portable enough that I can carry it around with maybe two textbooks and one three ring binder, but a big enough screen that I don't kill myself typing on it (which basically rules out 12" screens I think, which then basically rules out any of the 3lbs or less notebooks). I've decided to live at hom this semester, an hours commute away from school, as to find a five month sublet for one semester is a major pain in the ass. So it will be carried to school 2 or 3 days a week and hauled around campus most of the day.
Any heavy-duty electical engineering stuff (might take another VLSI course) would be done on Sun workstations in the Sun lab anyway so it's not like it has be to a huge workhorse - though I may run some UPPAAL simulations on the thing (if you don't know what UPPAAL is it doesn't really matter, the state space I'd be simulating won't be too terribly huge and if it turns out to be too much I'll just claim a lab PC for the night and run the sim overnight). Basically, it would be used for writing papers (and my thesis), writing code, may stick Visual Studio .NET on there, using the campus wireless network for research, powerpoint presentations, and maybe the occasional game, something like Guild Wars or something, but nothing too terribly taxing.
My budget is probably in the $1200 range give or take $300.
So the obvious stand-by would be Dell I suppose but depending on who you talk to they're fine or they suck. My brother has a Dell 600m and hasn't had major issues, he just thinks it gets too hot and complains about some loose keys. I'm not sure what the internal specifics are on the machine. I walked around Best Busy and liked some of the Toshibas and eMachines, but I've heard Toshiba build-quality can be lacking and eMachines was just bought by Gateway I think and I don't know if I'd ever buy anything with the words Gateway on it.
An unknown quantity seems to be ASUS notebooks. Some people swear by them and they do look rather nice, though I obviously haven't seen one in person, it also seems like you get more for your money with them (ATI 9600 graphics as opposed to the integrated Intel graphics in most of the dells at the same price range for example, though ASUS doesn't include the OS in the price), and ASUS is a well-known graphic hardware and motherboard manufacturer so it's not like it's some nobody company. I was looking at the M6Ne, which is a 15.1" widescreen laptop at 5.6lbs. Is 5.6lbs really heavy to carry around all day (depending one what kind of bag you get)? As I said, 12.1" screens would kill me I think so I think I'm stuck in that weight range.
Anyway, what are people's recommendations and opinions on different manufacturers? Thanks guys.
However, I'm entering what is (hopefully) my last semester in grad school for electrical engineering and I'm rather tired of being leashed to the PC computer lab to simply write a paper or do research or database searches through the IEEE archives. So I'm thinking of buying a laptop soon to take advantage of any possible Thanksgiving deals.
My basic requirements are light and portable enough that I can carry it around with maybe two textbooks and one three ring binder, but a big enough screen that I don't kill myself typing on it (which basically rules out 12" screens I think, which then basically rules out any of the 3lbs or less notebooks). I've decided to live at hom this semester, an hours commute away from school, as to find a five month sublet for one semester is a major pain in the ass. So it will be carried to school 2 or 3 days a week and hauled around campus most of the day.
Any heavy-duty electical engineering stuff (might take another VLSI course) would be done on Sun workstations in the Sun lab anyway so it's not like it has be to a huge workhorse - though I may run some UPPAAL simulations on the thing (if you don't know what UPPAAL is it doesn't really matter, the state space I'd be simulating won't be too terribly huge and if it turns out to be too much I'll just claim a lab PC for the night and run the sim overnight). Basically, it would be used for writing papers (and my thesis), writing code, may stick Visual Studio .NET on there, using the campus wireless network for research, powerpoint presentations, and maybe the occasional game, something like Guild Wars or something, but nothing too terribly taxing.
My budget is probably in the $1200 range give or take $300.
So the obvious stand-by would be Dell I suppose but depending on who you talk to they're fine or they suck. My brother has a Dell 600m and hasn't had major issues, he just thinks it gets too hot and complains about some loose keys. I'm not sure what the internal specifics are on the machine. I walked around Best Busy and liked some of the Toshibas and eMachines, but I've heard Toshiba build-quality can be lacking and eMachines was just bought by Gateway I think and I don't know if I'd ever buy anything with the words Gateway on it.
An unknown quantity seems to be ASUS notebooks. Some people swear by them and they do look rather nice, though I obviously haven't seen one in person, it also seems like you get more for your money with them (ATI 9600 graphics as opposed to the integrated Intel graphics in most of the dells at the same price range for example, though ASUS doesn't include the OS in the price), and ASUS is a well-known graphic hardware and motherboard manufacturer so it's not like it's some nobody company. I was looking at the M6Ne, which is a 15.1" widescreen laptop at 5.6lbs. Is 5.6lbs really heavy to carry around all day (depending one what kind of bag you get)? As I said, 12.1" screens would kill me I think so I think I'm stuck in that weight range.
Anyway, what are people's recommendations and opinions on different manufacturers? Thanks guys.