I'm about to head off to college, I've saved about $1700 dollars and now it's time to get me a labtop. Right now I'm debating whether or not to go with the pentium 4 or centrino processor, and haven't decided what brand to go with, whether it be sony, gateway, or dell, or any others I don't know about. Anyways, I guess I'm just askin' for suggestions on processor and what brand.

Thank ya!

i got my girlfriend a HP pentium 4 for christmas, and it has been nothing but great so far......

First, figure out what you want it to do. There are high end laptops that are desktop replacements, gaming rigs,etc. If you just want it to web surf, word process, play tunes, you won't need the latest and greatest. Secondly, check with the school that you're going to to see what it recommends as far as specs go.

But to answer your question, Dell and HP seem to be consistently top rated, however, you'll find folks split into different camps about who's better. As for processor, the Centrino has gotten better over the past two years--better speed, better power consumption and has the wi-fi built into the chipset, and that would be my pick. Hope this helps.

If a Centrino fits your budget, definitely go for it. The integrated wireless will be nice at college, as will the extended battery life.

As far as brands go...I own two IBM notebooks, one personal and one for work. You're not gonna do better than that quality-wise. But other brands like Dell or Toshiba may give you more bang for your buck.

I previously owned a Sony Vaio, but sold it due to their total unresponsiveness due to some troubles I had w/the DVD-ROM drive.

i wouldn't go with a gateway, they are trouble waiting to happen. everyone i know (including me) have had troubles with theirs

If you don't do any gaming, I'd recommend a Mac. You can get a great deal on them as a student and you won't have to worry about viruses and spyware. The new 10.4 Tiger OS is light years ahead of what Microsoft's Longhorn will be.

AMD > Intel

I usually agree with this logic, but tend to prefer Intel for notebooks.

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ok, here's some more details on what i need it for, thanks for all of your help by the way....

Headed off to college so I'm gonna need wireless internet support and all that good stuff which I know nothing about. I want a fast processor but it doesn't have to be like lightning speed as I will most likely use it for primarily browsing the internet. Battery life isn't a huge priority.


Obviously, I have no clue what to look for. I have no clue what the difference is between an AMD Athlon chip and an intel one. Right now at home we have a hp pavilion running an athlon chip but I know nothing about it, speedwise I mean.

The internet hasn't changed that much. You can browse the internet on a 100mhz machine and you can do it on a 4ghz one.

find something from one of the companies recommended that fits your price range.

don't underestimate battery life.

for $1700 you can get a LOT of computer these days. don't waste money on stuff you don't want or need. if you find a good deal for $749, take it and run.

personally what I would do is watch sites like http://www.slickdeals.net for when they have all sorts of coupons+rebates. happens pretty often with dell. just last week, they had a $750 OFF coupon, you could get a $1600 laptop for $850

If you're not leaving until the fall, you've got plenty of time to wait for a deal.

i love you guys