Let's help Matrix find a computer

[Matrixdude]

Heya so I'm graduating high school and I'm gonna need a laptop when I head to university next year. Obviously I initially turn to FFR when I'm in need =D I do spend most of my time on the computer but I really don't know much about what brands are good for what and so on.

This is where you come in. I'd love some suggestions on what's good and what I should get within my budget.

I do want a computer that I can have and use vigorously for quite some time, at least for the four years I'll be spending in college. My budget is about $1000 which I realize is not much but I just don't have the money for anything fancy right now.

Macs are entirely out of the equation, I can't stand them and they're way too expensive for what they have to offer.

I can't imagine that I'd be playing too many high quality pc video games so a high end graphics card isn't needed I don't think? I would like a good quality processor however.

I have an external hard drive so I'm not too worried as far as memory is concerned.

Size I don't really care about, nothing too small though.

Sorry I'm a total noob when it comes to buying computers and even understanding exactly what everything does haha but I would certainly appreciate help/suggestions.

Anyway thanks for whoever wants to help me, if you have any more questions for me I'll be glad to answer them.

[ELRayford]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220955

[Thatskier]

dell> everything else.

Dell makes very good business oriented laptops. Which is good for college.

[Phlegmatism]

Dell Laptops I've found are nice laptops. Especially the business oriented ones like Vostro and Latitude. I don't know too much about specs but I can tell you one thing for sure. The same specs a year from now are probably going to be half the price. Asus has some crazy high-end stuff from what I've seen, but I've used two Dell desktops, and three Dell laptops and am satisfied with what they have. Whatever you do avoid Toshiba.

[foilman8805]

lol I've had two incredible Toshiba laptops and am currently typing from one now.

[darkshark]

I used a Dell Latitude D600 to conquer FFR back in the day, really awesome and responsive keyboards.

But those are outdated now, so go with something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834131116

It will certainly last you your 4 years of college, Blu-ray player is a must. Normal DVD's will begin phasing out in the next 2 years. Plenty of power for the normal user with an i5, plus if you so choose to run any higher end games on it, it should be able to handle it with a 1gb nvidia card.

Also has 2 USB 3.0 slots, which will help a lot in the future as well.

[Crashfan3]

Yeah don't hate on Toshibas too much. Those Qosmios are nice if you get them configured right.

I'm typing from a 2006 model Dell Studio that was originally a hand-me-down and I removed 3 viruses the day I got it. The only major problem I have with this now that I've fixed it up is heat issues but hopefully the newer models don't have this... so if you can find a good Dell studio, it might be worth it.

From what I'm reading in your post, it doesn't sound like you need an extremely powerful computer. You play some non-graphics intensive games, you do a lot of web browsing, and you want something that is durable. $1000 will get you that easily, and if you're shopping on Newegg, pretty much any computer in their $750+ selection will meet your needs. Just read the feedback and make sure that the specific models don't have any design flaws, high failure rates, etc...

If you can kick it up to $1200, get one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ica-_-34215062

[Mans0n]

Originally Posted by foilman8805

lol I've had two incredible Toshiba laptops and am currently typing from one now.

Yeah My laptop is a Toshiba and it is actually pretty bad ass :P

[darkshark]

@ Crashfan: battery life on that is 2 hours.

[00Razor00]

Dell all the way~

even though I have a Sony VAIO.

[Wineandbread]

Dell computers are pretty good but maybe not the best

I own a Vostro 3500 myself, and I am pretty content with my purchase. I have had some overheating issues with it (resulting in crash) so I bought a cooling stand and I don't leave the lid closed when I plug it into my external monitor anymore. (Mind you this is generally only when I'm playing games; for the record I play LoL on medium settings and SCII on low/medium settings, but it can theoretically handle higher) My graphics card is a GeForce 310M (probably one of the lowest tier cards you can find on the laptop market atm)

I'd say the battery life is about 3 hours of casual use (using an internet browser). I think I'll run it right now and post a result.

Lenovo is definitely a brand you want to consider. Thinkpads are built really sturdily and will last you a long time. I also have friends with Ideapads and they quality seems rather good as well. Thinkpads are pretty expensive though.

If you do plan on gaming at least a little bit on your computer (like semi-high end) then as ds said, you do want to get some kind of GPU

Regarding Bluray and USB 3.0 on a laptop,

a) I dunno about you but I own a whopping total of 0 Bluray media. I think that you will find many people (perhaps including yourself) tend to use digital formats to store mostly all media these days, and while having a DVD/CD drive might be useful for some things, I don't think you'll find yourself using it that much. Unless you happen to be a stickler for legality of acquiring media or an encoding expert, I would say Bluray is not necessary at all for a typical college student. It also is a tad on the expensive side to add to a laptop.

b) I'm not too into tech news, and USB 3.0 I would still consider very new technology. I believe USB 2.0 will still remain standard for a good while before 3.0 starts taking over the market; iirc 3.0 is backwards compatible with 2.0 though so you might as well get it if you're planning on getting things to benefit from your 3.0 slots, and it's giga faster. Basically, if you're not planning on getting any equipment for your USB 3.0 slots, I wouldn't bother; otherwise go for it.

[jimerax]

Graphics performance of sandy bridge (Intel HD 3000) got a lot better compared to previous ones, so it will be fast enough unless you want to play medium-heavy 3D games (in this case, graphics cards will just be waste of battery/money).