Laptop Choice Help!!

I'm going to university in a few weeks (as are many) and I need help picking out a laptop...I know little about laptops so if someone could help me choose a laptop that is approximately $1000, and has fairly good quality I would be greatly appreciative...My mom told me to look at a Toshiba Satellite U500-00S but I don't even know if that's good or not. lol...Please help.

What do you need it to do? Also, how big of a screen would you want?

Mainly for school, I don't really want to play very many games...Maybe one or two somewhat big games...Small screen size preferably!

Best Buy has a thing where if you buy an $850 laptop (6gb od RAM, 500gb hdd), you get a free Wii. Worth looking in to. Check www.Cheapassgamer.com

I don't understand what RAM and all that stuff means. lol Can someone please explain?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152087 check this one out.

I don't understand what RAM and all that stuff means. lol Can someone please explain?

420_Forever

it's how much power a computer has, really. 1 or 2 gb of it is pretty standard in most computers these days, but people who are going to be playing lots of games need more than that. 6 or 8 gb is the most you can get on the market, and makes for an insanely powerful computer. The hdd (hard drive space) just means how much stuff you can store on your computer. Games can take as much space as 10gb, or as little as 100mb. It really depends. Just look at the specifications of each model and looks up the stuff that looks important. Get at least 3gb of RAM though.

The laptop I posted the link to will most likely be the biggest bang for the buck you can find.. It has 4gigs of ram, a nice AMD turion dual core, a kickass video card for a laptop.. 3850 mobility radeon 512mb of dedicated memory.. 17 inch screen.. And all the other usual benefits with a large 320mb hard drive.. The only thing that I have read about it, is it does get alittle hot but a $20 notebook cooler can fix that..

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

Punjabiking101

[QUOTE="Punjabiking101"]

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

sSubZerOo

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]

[QUOTE="Punjabiking101"]

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

[QUOTE="Punjabiking101"]

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

sSubZerOo

[QUOTE="sSubZerOo"]

[QUOTE="Punjabiking101"]

I got my HP with 4 gbs Ram and a 320 gb hardrive for only $449. So with that much money you have right now buy something with a Centrino 2 processor.

Punjabiking101

That's not bad at all...I have a 256 mb nVIdia and I can run The Witcher comfortably.

Get a Macbook Pro because no one is going to want to steal it. :lol:

Get an IBM/Lenovo Thinkpad. They're sturdy and have great keyboards.

The Thinkpads have a reputation for being built like tanks. The only notebooks I know of that are more resistant to damage are the Panasonic Toughbooks, but those would be well out of your price range.

Fujitsus are also really good laptops.

If it absolutely must come from a brick and mortar place, go with a Sony Vaio or Macbook.

[QUOTE="Punjabiking101"][QUOTE="sSubZerOo"] .. Ram and hard drive are the cheap parts.. Every laptop has a decent size now a days.. Its the video card you are after, if you are after just mundane tasks than that will be suitable.. But if you want the biggest bang for the buck in features, and performance in both mundane tasks and the occasional gaming.. I havn't seen any laptop beat the one I posted for the price.

That's not bad at all...I have a 256 mb nVIdia and I can run The Witcher comfortably.

Something like this maybe...

If you look at the top of the page and click laptops/notebooks there will be several search options on the side (size, price, processor, brand, etc), use those to find others.

Get the $1000 Macbook model. I have a MacBook Pro which is a bit more expensive, but regardless, Macs are reliable computers. Apple has the best tech support, and you can dual-boot with Windows. For school, a Macbook is the best choice.

EDIT: If you're at a qualifying university, you'll get a free iPod Touch.