College Laptop Recommendation - Honda Forum / Acura Forum

IHIPrelude94 · 05-09-2005, 01:50 PM

I'm going to NIU in 3 months and I'm looking for a SECOND laptop to use at school.

I currently have a Dell Inspiron 9100, P4 3.2Ghz, 64MB Radeon 9700, 60GB HD, 1Gig Low-Latency RAM, and WiFi card.

I've never had the laptop exposed to the internet before and would like to keep it that way... I've been looking around trying to find a second Inspiron with DVD+/- RW, 128MB radeon, and no wireless card so I can switch parts around... 128MB Radeon and Burner into my I9100 and Wireless card into the new laptop. I also have my old pair of 64MB memory sticks that I could use to upgrade the ram to 128MB if it has 2 slots...

Anyone an Inspiron expert? I was looking at 8600's... I want to keep the price low too... don't really care about LCD size or resolution... just need compatibility between the two laptops.

Trying to get a portable and internet ready laptop with long battery life to carry around school so I can leave my 8+ pound 9100 Inspiron powerhouse at my apartment...

Sorry about the long post.

~Peace

5gencivic · 05-09-2005, 08:05 PM

You can't move video cards between laptops. atleast not the models that i've seen. today they are still, sadly, proprietary connections or soldered in. you can't move them.
Your best bet is probably to get a nice cheap white box or Dell, since you seem to be attached to them, and expose that to the internet.
BTW, just asking, what is this attachment to not allowing your pc on the internet? the worst thing that can happen is you screw up your OS and simply reload it...

joeyl · 05-09-2005, 08:08 PM

if you really want a dell you should check out coupons sites such as techbargains.com, you can get a fully loaded Inspiron 700m (my current Dell favorite) for 1000 bucks after 500 dollars off. If money is not an issue, you can also check the toshiba laptops they are slightly better build quality but the price is usually steep and no coupons

AlSi · 05-09-2005, 09:04 PM

i had a 600m, worst laptop i ever owned. very cheap and flimsy design.

sold it and bought an IBM X40, wont play games as fast; but that's what the desktop pc is for. much much better keyboard feel, sturdiness, screen, plastics, fit & finish, battery, & support.

though for school purposes; consider a iBook G4. they're cheap, light, fast enough for anything you could need it for, & more secure on wifi than a pc. make sure to get the educational discount if you get one.

joeyl · 05-10-2005, 07:55 AM

the 600m is about to discontinued and they did have a few build quality problems, the new ones such as the 700m is much better.
Apple laptop? works great but you are limited by not being PC compatible (bring it, MAC PARROTS

)

AlSi · 05-10-2005, 05:47 PM

PCs & macs are both good for their own purposes. if you're running games or tailored analytical software written solely for PC; then PC would be the way to go. just for school work though, like i said the iBook is a better bet. it comes w/ appleworks which can open and save MS Office documents; & if you want office from MS they have it for OSX as well. doesn't hurt that it's inherently more secure if he's going to be sitting on wifi all day.