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Alrighty here goes nothing.....

Bassicly I intend to purchase a new computer. I was looking into laptops because in a few years when i go to collage it would be easy. I plan on spending anywhere from 1300-1750 american dollars at the most. I want a computer that works GOOD. I was looking at a few dell laptops and love the dimension 9100 series. It looks like everything I need (after i upgrade it). I have only used 3 different types of computers in my life the first being a gateway which i will never buy again. At school i have used macs and hate them. I am using a dell currently and it seems ok. I need to know what i should get bassicly.

Here are some specs it needs to have:

~ 1-2 gigs of ram (thats important)
~ A 60 gig harddrive (i dont need a huge 100 or 80 gig one. I wont use it.)
~ A fast prosser (i know nothing about this so im trusting everyone here.)
~ A big screen with very good picture quality.
~ A graphics card that can run most games, and programs that are out today. Again i dont know much about this.

Bassicly a fast computer that can do a crapload all at once with good picture quality.

If anyone has any suggestions on brands, models, or whatever please please please post it!

Second....

I have internet called "Zoom". Its cabel and it has around 30 kbps downloading speed. Its not the most common and i dont think many people here would know about it. It works great for my needs. The new computer will go in a different room than my current family computer and i was going to go with a wireless connection. I had a few questions....

~ Does wireless slow down the speed at all? This is very important...
~ What brand of card and router should i get?
~ Anything else thats important that you think i should know

I normally run on windows and would like to get media edition. I use my computer a ton so if you have to go over the price limit a tiney bit its ok. Dont count router price in the computers price. With all the christmas ads and how prices are falling i dont think it will be that big of an issue.

I dont know many other brands and i need help in decing on what to get. I gave as much info that i knew i needed and am hoping someone here can help me. Thanks to anyone who does.

Hi

I don't have a laptop (can't afford one). I am looking for a new power supply and found this site: http://www.newegg.com/ They seem reputable and have different brands and customer reviews. So you might want to look around there and see if anything catches your eye and from there go to the actual manufacturer's site.

I've heard Acer is a good brand of laptop. I too had a gateway PC and never, ever again! My roomie uses a Dell at work and despises it - nothing but problems. But these are desktops, not laptops.

We're not wireless here, have cable but only one computer. So can't help there. Again, newegg has cards, routers, etc.

As for the O/S? Do NOT get the media edition. I've read loads of bad things about it. go with XP either home or professional. The only real difference I've noted (have home edition) is that professional can be installed on 2 computers, home only 1.

The only other thing to think about is you're thinking of getting a laptop now that you can take to college in 3 years. Alot can and will most likely change in 3 years from 0/S and other software to hardware. I know right now technically my BIOS needs updating, but after reading what goes into that, there's no way on earth I'd ever even attempt such a thing.

First off, I wouldn't bother with windows XP media center edition unless you plan to be watching TV on your laptop.

Well you should be happy to know that you can get what you want and a lot more for your price range.

First off, keep on eye on deal sites such as gottadeal.com, as sometimes really good laptop deals come by. Currently there really isn't any great one, but you never know when another one will come by...

Anyway, I configured at dell 9300 laptop, 17" high resolution display (they highest choice they had for it), Pentium M 740 (1.75Ghz, don't be fooled by the lowish Ghz, this processor is actually very fast) 2GB of RAM, DVD writer, 60GB 7200RPM hard drive (going for 7200RPM bumps the price up a lot, so if you can stand it being a little slower, 5400RPM is also a good choice and is better for the batteries), wireless built in, 128MB ATI x300 video card. Add this to the card, apply this coupon that i found at Gottadeal.com ( J2SK0J?KC21T12 ) for a final price of $1449 +shipping.
And you could certianly tone down some of the thigns (like downgrading to 5400RPM hard drive saves you about $100) if you want to spend less.

In regard to your questions about wireless, no, it shouldn't slow anything down. 802.11g routers can have speeds up to 54Mbp/s which is well above the speed of your internet.
Basically any wireless router will be fine, but I would advise going for an 802.11g router as they are a bit faster if you ever need to transfer files between computers.
I would advise newegg.com for purchasing your wireless router, they have very good customer service and almost always the lowest prices.
Both the Linksys WRT54G and the D-Link DI-524 get good reviews ($40 and $25 respectivly after rebates)
And almost every laptop now has wireless built in, so you don't need to worry about any wireless cards on your laptop.

Best of luck

Wow thank you both...this is helping alot. The only reason i wanted media center was because one of my buddies got it and ive seen it. Its pretty nice and i like how organized it all is. He has TV running while playing a game or something also looked pretty cool and since i have TV in my room i could probaby manage it. But now that I hear some second opinions ill look it over a bit more. Thanks for the advice but please keep it coming. Its realy helping.



EDIT:

A few questions...

What exactly does a 60 gig 7200rpm hard drive do? whats the difference compared to a normal one?

Also the media edition comes standard with the 9300 series so why not...

And as far as upgrading goes how easy is it with a laptop? Like in the future if i need to upgrade a vidieo card or something like that can i just pop it open and stick it in?

For it being out of date for collage i think ill be ok. My current computer has 3 regular users and weve had it for about 5 years. I take good care of it and know how to make it run fast so as long as I pump the vital stuff like ram it should be great. for example I have 256 ram on this and I can run PSP8 and guild wars without it freezing up too much.

7200RPM is what almost all desktop hard drives spin at (at least ones built in the last couple years), basically it allows the hard drive to find what it needs to a little bit faster. There isn't a huge difference between 5400RPM and 7200RPM, but it is noticable. Whether or not it is worth the price difference is another question.

As far as upgrading goes, it is usually pretty hard to upgrade anything besides the hard drive or RAM (I guess CPU is possible as well...) on a laptop. So don't expect to be able to upgrade your video card (I am sure it is possible, but the new video card would probably cost a lot, and would be hard to find a place to buy it...)

And since in this case there is no difference in price between Windows Media Center and normal Windows XP, there shouldn't be any harm in going for Media center, as is it is basically Windows XP with extra tools built in.


If you have worked with computers before, one way to save money (over $100 in this case) is to buy the 2GB of ram at a place like Newegg.com (for example, http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6820227110 ) for around $200 instead of getting it at dell for $360. It shouldn't be that hard to install RAM (usually just unscrewing a few screws, removing a panel, and swapping the RAM)

And while it is not certain that the RAM will work correctly (laptops are often more picky than desktops in that regard) it is still very likely that it will (and you can probably read up online to see what RAM does or doesn't work with the Dell 9300 laptop, just to make sure). Just make sure that you get the right kind of RAM, in this laptop it is DDR2 533MHz RAM but other laptops might take different types of RAM.

Well the 7200 seems nice but i dont think i need it. But as far as the ram idea goes thats great...if it saves 150 dollars im all for it

'Lo, I have a Inspiron 9300 as well...

The RAM idea is good, so long as you know how to change it (instructions can probably be found at Google).

For the hard drive, just get the standard 60 GB if you aren't using the laptop for more than simple games and school work.

As for upgrading, eh. The CPU is not that easy to upgrade. I've never taken apart THIS laptop, but taking apart my other one required a bit of elbow grease and irritation (also with changing CPUs, you can hit barriers of compatability...).

The Media Center is okay, but it sometimes get annoying. It's free by all means, but sometime I accidentally invoke it by the QuickSet.

The standard monitor on the 9300 is great, but like abqprg62, I upgraded it for TrueLife for 100 bucks. It's pretty sweet. It doesn't have the standard LCD-ish invertion of colors when you're at an odd viewing angle.

Anyhow, your best bet? Take the suggestions on the hard drives and RAM, but pick a CPU on Dell that is decent, so you don't have to change it.

Oh good i wanted to ask someone about that...for the truelife what exactly does it do? Walking around best buy i see all these off brand laptops on display with amazing picture quality. They have realy shiney screens and care realy nice. Is that what the truelife is? ive never seen one without it and one with it so i dont know what it is.

But the 9300 just seemed like a good model for some reason... The screen is amazing for a laptop. Its an inch bigger than my DESKTOP's monitor.... so thats pretty big.