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General discussion

Medical/graduate student needs notebook in 2005

Jan 15, 2005 4:54AM PST

I have many questions but first some ideas of what I'm looking for:

+ must be widescreen (15.4" ideally)
+ mid-range weight pref.
+ must have Wi-fi
+ must have decent battery life (>3 hrs)
+ must play Warcraft III with NO LAG
+ cost less than $1800
+ must have extended warrenty option (3+ years)

1) Do you think it is right to wait for the new Intel Selena (sp?) processors to come out before buying a notebook?

2) When/where online is the best time to buy notebooks for college graduate students in 2005? (I'm a tad biased toward Gateway and Compaq but I'm completely open to a good deal from Dell or another company.)

3) What are essential features to have in a notebook that will likely replace my aging desktop?

4) Is there something else I should be considering for my first notebook purchase?

Discussion is locked

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I'm looking for basically the same thing...
Jan 15, 2005 5:46AM PST

I am just about in the same boat. I am going to be starting law schol in the fall and I am looking for something similiar. Definately wait until you take a look at the new laptops that are supposed to be introduced next week before you make any decisions. The Sonoma platform is supposed to improve performance.

When you buy, I would go to the manufacturers site to purchase, just so you get the configuration that you want (hpshopping.com, gateway.com)

Check out what comes out this week and you'll probably have a better feel for what you want.

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You want ATI 9700 video card with 128mb dedicated video
Jan 15, 2005 1:54PM PST

Supposedly, Intel will improve integrated graphics performance and audio performance on notebooks with the new Centrino specification update (Sonoma) but for top games to run without reduced settings right now you need the ATI 9700 with 128mb dedicated video RAM. 64mb with the ATI 9700 is good for many but that is the bare minimum for Doom 3 and requires you to lower textures, etc to get an acceptable framerate.

The Dell 8600 has both the 128mb dedicated video option and the screaming fast Hitachi 7200rpm hard drive option which is important for faster seek time on games using the hard drive alot.

HPshopping.com has a 6% student APP discount (instant discount not a rebate) in addition to all other discounts for any custom order model for US college students.

See the Compaq X1000/HPZT3000 model I have at X1000forums.com and that does have 64mb dedicated video but only an ATI 9200 video card.

There may be new specs coming as was noted above though so definitely wait for the new models in February/March if you don't get a good deal on something that suits your needs now