*shudder* I am thinking about getting a laptop

[felinusz]

And I need advice from owners, and previous owners about the best OEMs, manufacterers, and components to get (P3 vs. Celleron vs. P4 - video, optionals etc.).

I will be using it for school, the net, some gaming, and emulation - as well as for Photoshop and graphic design. My price range is < $1000 (heh - that's why I need advice - I'm prolly going to be getting refurb or a new, but "low-end" laptop....). I also would like as long a battery life as possible!

Thanks for all the (to come!) advice!

[Regulus]

I actually thought of getting a laptop. That would be cool to take along on long trips and stuff.....

[zerocopy]

ebay is a great place to find laptops

[Gamer1]

okay, 1 don't get a p4 laptop or a celeron derivative of the p4, they are battery guzlers. 2, do not get an intel integrated video or any video that doesn't support T&L, you can't play any games like bf1942 (you can just imagine my grief and anxiety trying to bf1942 on a laptop that's a 2.4Ghz p4, with an intel integrated video, cuz it won't run... it will get you to the main menu... but the screen turns black when you want to start a game).

best laptops to get, an amd athlon, or an intel centrino.

bestbuy was/is selling a 2200+ laptop with the radeon igp320 for $750

*but i really doubt you could find a centrino for less than a 1000 bucks

[Regulus]

Dont get Celeron. Celeron sucks IMO. and no Int. Graphics......like Gamer1 said.

[Demigod]

Well, personally I would get nothing short of a Centrino. The processing power and battery life on those things are incredible (5 hours on a single battery). The Athlon are pretty good performers as well (except in low power mode), although they don't last as long as the Centrino. The worst thing you could do is get a P4. They're hardly on before they have to shut down.

Considering your price range I think the best option for you is a cheap Athlon 4 laptop. Centrino is too expensive and the P4 is too power-consuming. An alternative may be a Celeron 1.2 Ghz, based on the Tualatin. The Tualatin isn't nearly as power-hungry as the P4 or Athlon, yet performs decently.

[Kane]

I'm with Demi on this, although I'm a devout AMD follower, the Centrino is the chip for laptops

While I agree that the Centrino would be the way to go, if you could, I'll also state that the Athlon isn't half bad either. I have a Compaq Presario with an Athlon 2000+ in it and ATI graphics. It is a very nice machine. It runs games, plays CDs and DVDs, and does other things quite nicely. The only downside is that it doesn't see too much usedue to my desktop.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[dukenukem]

your in luck here are some that i found for you.http://store.yahoo.com/3btech/laptops.html

[S.SubZero]

I own a Dell Inspiron 8200 P4m 1.7Ghz. Getting a bit old, but it does the job. If you intend to play games, look at something with the Mobile ATI Radeon chipsets, they supposedly do really well for laptops. Also be aware that TFT panels have fixed-size pixels, so if you get a high-res screen (Dell has 1920x1200 laptop panels!) and you do something in a lower res, it has to scale the image and it tends to get a bit grainy.

One other concern, which I have experience with, is maintaining the screen. My laptop gets alot of use, it's with me at work and at home, and it is moved around alot. The laptops now, the keyboards get really close to the screen when it's closed, and can press against it, possibly leaving marks in the panel. My panel has no bad pixels luckily but has a fair number of scuffs and pressure marks from the keyboard.

I enjoy my laptop, it's about 17 months old now and it still does what I need it to do.

[felinusz]

Thanks for the links and informtion - I am searching eBay right now and considering some options.

Those prices are really good and low dukenukem - but they are P4 laptops, and the 1600+ doesn't have the video power I might need...

Any advice on OEMs (DELL, HP, etc.) ? Or should I go with an established laptop "company" like Toshiba?

[dukenukem]

you could try and get a dell sytem since some of their laptops have a small price and good battery life.

[Ipswitch]

you need the power of CENTRINO technology. try Sager Notebooks. alienware gets their laptops from them.

[Raqia]

I just ordered a Dell laptop w/a 1.6 Ghz Centrino laptop (w/a Mobility Radeon 9000 32 MB accelerator) through my school. It's a pretty sweet deal for $1300 but Dell just told me there would be a delay in shipping . You should also consider getting 802.11 wireless internet when you look for a laptop. There are lots of free public nodes in metropolitan places like NYC. I can't wait for this thing to arrive... it ought to wipe the floor w/ my desktop!

[felinusz]

Sounds good... I am still looking at prices/performance and trying to make up my mind - I will probably be getting a platform similar to yours Raqia, although I won't be buying *quite* yet.

[op3n_skill]

Try Transmeta's offerings...

[Demigod]

Transmeta don't offer nearly enough performance. The Pentium-M would completely blow it out of the water. They're made for low performance and low power consumption. The Pentium-M offers high performance with relatively low power consumption so is the best choice.

[Chinoz]

At least get:
Centrino 1.3
512mb ram
40~60gb HDD
64mb radeon9000 (a mobility 9600 would be l33t)