Just as the title says...
I'm computer-less at school... so i need to buy a laptop... any recommandations under $1000?

 

my mom's just had a lot of trouble with all of the compaqs she's owned. Mine did, too. Reliability may have changed, but I don't know.

Since all the brands basically use the exact same components, pick the one with the best price, support, and warranty.

On the specifications, DO NOT GET A CELERON. These chips blow hard. At a given clock, they are as bad as half the performance of a Pentium4. The Pentium4 is a good choice, but they are very hard on batteries and run kinda hot, so a P4 laptop will be a "trans-portable" rather than a true portable. Many don't even come with batteries!

The Centrino architecture uses the Pentium M cpu. This is a very good performing system. Don't let the clock speed fool you, they are FAST. They are very good on batteries, too as the architecture can shut parts down to save batteries. Also, there is the "Celeron M"; this is also a good choice as it is based on the pentium M, except with less cache. DO NOT CONFUSE CELERON M WITH CELERON OR CELERON D, they are totally different. For $1000 you probably won't find a Pentium M, but you will likely find a Celeron M.

Also, don't forget AMD. The Athlon XP is a very good performing cpu, and laptops based on this will cost a bit less and they do OK on batteries compared to P4. Then there is the Athlon64; this is the highest performing cpu you can get today.

Seriously, any cpu save celeron or celeronD can give good performance. If it were me, I'd get an Athlon laptop because the price/performance is great. If long battery life was a need, celeron M is the way to go.

Get as much RAM as you can. laptop drives are slower than desktop ones so you'll hear the grinding and the hourglass more. RAM will offset this. Get 512MB minimum. Also, for $1000 you can forget about 3D games.

 

goto...
www.edealinfo.com.... you can get cheap new dell laptops..

 

www.fatwallet.com

 

WHat happened to school computers people!? Get the most out of your tuition fees lol.. hmm, Laptop under $1000 is tough, but can be done.. I would just go custom though, that's probably the cheapest route so you can cutback on some things that aren't really important.. Dell has some good deals though, i'd check them out

 

Apple iBook

Great little computers -- in fact, I'm posting from one right now. They're absolutely PERFECT for school.

Apple also offers educational discounts on all their products, so you can get an iBook for less than retail.

 

Pardon my ignorance, but I don't get the connection. If you are "computer-less", how does it translate to "need to buy a laptop"? If you are "computer-less", wouldn't it make sense for you to buy a "computer"? On the other hand, if you are "laptop-less" then it makes sense to "want" to buy a "laptop" (though I am still not clear on the "need" part).

By the way, there are two other current active threads about buying laptops, you may want to look at those threads to get some ideas.

 

got to represent.

The iBook is probably the most affordable student laptop out there with all it's features.
Centrino is awesome technology no doubt, but for the price, the iBook is the best. It comes with a plenty fast processor, Airport (wireless internet) Extreme, a 32mb ATI 9200 (similar PC laptops come with integrated video memory!!!!!!), a slot load combo drive (cd-rw and DVD), 5-6 hour battery life, and OS X. It comes with almost everything you need, probably only need to get Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac student and teacher edition. So total you'd probably be paying around $1000US for a full-featured laptop that is rugged and portable!!! OS X is a gem, give it a couple of days and you will not be able to go back.

 

I disagree, for the price of an iBook you can get a better and faster PC laptop. Take a look at the Toshiba Sattellite range, they currently have the best price/performance ratio available over the counter with good rebates at places like Best Buy (gag) or Costco (yay).

It kills me to buy Mac after Mac for my damn wife who won't use anything else. I have nothing against Apple, hell I got my start working in a research center partially funded by them... but the lies Apple spreads regarding performance and the premium they charge piss me off.

 

Go to www.techbargains.com and watch for some killer deals. You can get a great laptop at really cheap prices sometimes. If you're not in a rush just go to that site every day for about 2 weeks and you'll come across something good.