Interested in a laptop, any suggestions?

My first post in this forum, wooo. Anyways, I was trying to figure out if a laptop is something I'm going to need for college, and if so, what type I should get. I've considered Dell and Alienware, but Dell pc's suck for serious gamers like myself. Alienware's Area 51-M (mobile) looks pretty good, but is that as good as it gets? I know almost nothing about laptops, small things like battery life, weight and performance.

Ok.. for you college students/grads, is a laptop really that great? I haven't checked with my college yet (Embry Riddle, Daytona Florida) about courses that may require them, which I will be doing shortly. My main concern is money and the good use of it. I can think of three scenario's for college concerning PC's, the first being going to college with just my desktop and carrying a floppy disk around everywhere I go. The second, is leaving my desktop at home and buying a really nice laptop, which could potentially get stolen or screw up and leave me in a world of hurt. Third, take my desktop and buy a really crappy 300-500 dollar POS word processing laptop. Thanks for your time..

Another comment: it sucks that the comment system on the driver and software download pages has been removed, thanks to those who ruined it for all the rest of us! (DIE) :bang: :bang: :bang:

 

Let me be the first to welcome you here , I'm sure you will enjoy your stay as I do (and many more).

As for the laptop Sony have just released 2 new models, the 12" and 17" screen sizes, good system specs and at a reasonable price if you look around.

I too currently go to college and I'm studying for a IT diploma, I have not found the need for a Laptop as the college has PC's and you can work on them and then continue on your Home PC. I would reccomend a good size USB drive so you can transfer your work between college and home.

I would seriously think about a laptop, decide if you REALLY need it, plus consider the fact if it gets stolen you have lost your work and new laptop.

 

Hi and welcome!
As I'm from Germany I've never been to an American college but if I compare it to the higher schools here a laptop is way too much. You said you are a serious gamer; one more reason NOT to get a laptop. I'm not a big fan of laptops because I don't think you need them anywhere. I mean I never came across any situation where I could have needed one. Like Zeroimage said, I would think about getting a nice USB HD or something like that to move data from the college's PCs to your desktop at home but I would never buy a laptop.
Save the money for something you can upgrade, instead

 

i'm probably not too much help in terms of what to get, but i can provide my perspective on whether or not to get one. i'm probably not nearly as into gaming as you, but i definately like having a powerful machine. i went the desktop route for my first year of college and definately have not regretted my decision. most people i have talked to that got desktops were happy and those that actually had laptops tended to use them as desktops most of the time anyways. now that i'm going into my second year, i'm actually considering getting an ultraportable laptop to supplement my desktop. i go to the university of michigan, and the way campus is set up all of the engineering facilities (which i'm majoring in) are on a different campus from the other classes, and even farther from where i'm going to be living. although there are computers around that i could use, i just don't like using public computers. you also run into issues of file transferring and availability. we have wireless hotspots in a lot of buildings, so wireless internet on a laptop would be very convenient.

 

after checking out the prices of an alienware laptop you could easily build a great gaming machine and get a reasonable ultraportable laptop, maybe even for less money! i was looking at a fujitsu p1000 for about $1200. (i'm kind of a sucker for cool gadgets like that...) with between $1000 and $2100 left over (considering the prices of the alienware laptops) you could easily build a killer gaming rig. just a consideration...

edit: hmm, seems that you've already considered this option. :O oh well, maybe you'll get something out of my thoughts...

 

I am also considering a laptop, I got to college but I can't bear to be stuck on their slow and sluggish computers all day and also working in my room most of the time. I have been considering a laptop with an AMD 64-M processor, a laptop that is over 2GHz is suited. Also, hopefully it will feature a decent graphics card so I can play games when I get bored. It also has to feature network ports and many USB ports (version 2 would be best) And also a dvd/cd-rw. I hope you can also advsie me a laptop that I can order in the UK.

 

I would buy a cheap laptop, and use a desktop for gaming. Unless you really wanted to play games in class (which some people I know do)

 

Of course it would be nice to play games without carrying a giant desktop pc on your back.