Laptop Decisions...

Why not just use the laptop you are forced to buy? It gets the same job done as the laptop you would want to buy. You could always get the upgraded laptop option from your University if needed.

If you need any additional storage space, just get an external harddrive to use with the laptop.

Why waste $2000 on an additional laptop, when you are "forced" to buy a perfectly good laptop from the college? Plus, the college gives you a four-year warranty with the laptop AND you get to keep it when you graduate.

You could put the money to work that you would have spent on the laptop in a good mutual fund, or something similar. Assuming a 10% return compounded on the $2000 for four years, would give you a $928 return (46.41%!). Not bad IMO.

I don't see the point in spending the $2000 on the laptop, when they give you a laptop. Do you?

If you REALLY want another laptop, get one when the Dell you are forced to buy from the university is "out of date" (another 2-3 years). That way you would not have two laptops that are "out of date" paperweights.

Hope this helps.

 

Chris I have an IBM T42 that I love and has been trouble free (knock on wood) for the last 1.5 years. I beat the crap out of it going to and from class, library, home, dorm, etc. I am not a gamer or anything but I do use photoshop, limewire, and IE at the same time a lot and never have any problems. Just my two cents.
Erik

 

I have a t42 too. I just loaded call of duty 2 and I just finished Metal of Honor-pacific assault without issues.

 

Is that from the EPP site?

 

yes

 

Ok, thought I'd chime in here to give you some different advice. I'm a junior in college right now, and I work for the University's student technical bench (I'm actually the student manager of it).

Just thought I would say that that may sound like a good idea now, but seriously, that plan will almost definitely come back and bite you in the a**. I've had two years of living in college dorms, and 2 years of technical service to students. Students and Laptops in dorms are basically an accident waiting to happen.Its a big enough risk just to have one laptop in a dorm... much less two. You are going to have stuff broken, stolen (or just missing), 'borrowed', used as a food tray, used as a toilet, coke, beer, liquer, etc. spilled on stuff. If you can imagine it, it WILL happen.

On another note, if you do actually get that second laptop, you may keep everything seperate for a little bit, but it won't take long for you to realize just how much of a hassle that will be. Trying to keep everything seperate, and then making sure that you have the right laptop at the right time is going to be frustrating. There are going to be mornings where you are going to wake up late, have to rush to get to class, and get there to realize just 1 minute too late that you grabbed the wrong laptop.

In terms of external hard-drives... that would be a muuuuuuuuuuuuuuch better use of your money. Do not trust your laptop hard-drive AT ALL. They fail, alot, at random times, and many times without any warning at all. The simple fact that they are smaller, not too mention that they are dealing with being moved around and so much, makes them highly susceptible to physically breaking, and when that happens, there is no cheap (read... less then a few $100s) means of getting your data back. External, 3 1/4 in drives, are much more reliable, and you can get them up to $500 gigs now, thats far more space then the two laptops combined, you will have redundancy, and its going to be a lot cheaper.


Honestly, if you want my advice, go with the dell you have to get through the school. Make sure it is a Lattitude. Dell's warranty system is the best... period. On the lattitudes with complete care, they get parts/technicians out to you the next day over 50% of the time, and you will be taking advantage of the warranty, no matter what make of laptop you have.

Sorry if I seem a little pushy, but I work with those laptops almost every day of the week... just don't want someone inadvertently putting themselves in a situation that can easily go bad in so many ways.

 

As somebody who works for IBM and has the pleasure of having pretty much every Thinkpad in my office I have to say that nothing comes close to these machines. I'm slightly worried what will happen to them once Lenovo starts making them but for now they are the best thing there is out there.
IBM's deals right now are pretty good ( I don't make any money if anybody here buys, fyi....)
These are internal IBM prices that are quite a bit better then what is available outside.

Right now they have R51 and R52 new for $800.
Used ones: T40 for $700 and T41 and T42 for around $1000.
I think T41 is by far the best buy right now.

Dejan

 

Completely anecdotal, but I would avoid Toshibas. I purchased a Toshiba notebook several months ago and it has been in for warranty service twice already. When I walked into the authorized service center, I noticed that the two other customers also had Toshiba notebooks. I didn't think anything of it until the tech advisor told me that his company services all brands of pc's...it's just that Toshiba's are about 85% of his warranty work.

He did note that Lenovo's are absolutely bullet-proof and tough as nails.

 

Dell,

Great choice.......

You should consider a warranty upgrade.

I have a XPS laptop and the screen went bad. They had someone out to replace it the next day. For me, it went bad because the second screen was bad also. To make a long story short, they ended up sending me another laptop that was a bit better then what I purchased. They were also understanding when it took 3 weeks for me to send mine back to them. I had to copy all my info then scrub the drive.

 

Gee, the heading led me to believe that John Lamour was back.
Good thread.

I'm going for a Univac. All tubes. No field servicing issues. What it lacks in portability is more than made up by its reliability.
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Have been using my toshiba satellite r15 for a year know problem free. This includes my freshman year of college. Tablet function is working great, and have even dropped it twice without a problem, definatly the scare of my life though. Honestly, not 1 problem. I will definatly be looking at toshiba's in the future.

 

Good man

 

I've had my Dell Inspiron 5100 for 3 years now. It's never had any problems for me and I'll replace it with another Dell. I configured a Dell laptop a few weeks ago for $1,100. 1.66 ghz Intel, 100gig HD, 1 gig ram, DVD-rw, 17" screen, good deal. I'll probably wait another year to buy one if I go to medical school.

 

Get an apple power book!!

 

I have a four year old dell and no matter how hard I try to kill it, just keeps going! Great prices at dell to. They need to get their **** together though when it comes to design its good to see them finally spending some time and money on design but they are doing pretty poorly with it

 

If you have the warranty, that should be all you need. Just don't drop it!

 

Great deal........

That 2gb will come in handy if you keep multiple applications open.