It's high time I started looking into a laptop, only I have no idea what a good deal is. With a home compy, I pretty much find the best deal on all parts, and build it, but a laptop is not that simple. Anyone have a good price:specs comparison?

(Post your Laptops also)

Depends on what you want it for. Do you want to game on it? School? Do you need a long battery life? Is the weight important?

My baby:
Centrino 1.5ghz
512 mb RAM
80gb HD
15.4" widescreen
Radeon 9200 w/ 32mb dedicated memory
6 lbs

Important features:
Battery Life
Screen Size
Speed (But will be for school, I just like Word to open UBER FAST)

If battery life is important, then definitely get a Centrino processor, but they are more expensive. You should be able to get a decent 1.6 ghz (loaded somewhat like mine) for around $2000 Canadian, probably a little cheaper now.

I've got a Dell Precision M60 and love it. I use it for gaming as well as all sorts of other stuff.

Specs:
Pentium M 1.5 GHz 2 MB L2 Cache
1024 MB DDR RAM
128 MB NVidia Quadro FX Go1000
15.4 in Widescreen 120 DPI at 1680x1050
XP Pro
60 GB HD
8X DVD+RW/+R

Apple Macintosh Powerbook 190cs

It's old. Very old. About the only specs I can quote to you exactly are the processor speed (33Mhz) and the HD size, which I think (been awhile since I had to know or looked), is about 100, or 150 meg.

I love it. I love it ALOT. This computer is awesome. It was dropped once, and we had to have the display replaced. It's current battery life? About 60 seconds. I can recondition the battery as many times as I want, it simply won't hold a charge anymore. I have Photoshop 3 installed on it. It runs fairly smoothly. It also has an anchient version of Freehand on it. A version released by Aldus, not Macromedia. It's gone to school with me many times to provide a small dose of entertainment (Yes, I have games that run on it.), or to help out with some last minute paper writing. The power supply had to be replaced. Our cat chewed through the cable (He did the same for a mouse. Guess Apple's taste better than PCs.) The trackpad? You can use it, but you're better off with a mouse. The trackpad can be slightly finicky. All the same though, I love it. Any computer that has been around THIS long, and still works well, is a great machine.

Bob- Post price (in CAD if possible)
Phoenix- I considered a Mac very hard, but then I realized it's basically a gimped PC, despite a lot of sexy qualities, and so it's no longer a consideration.

Can you get custom built laptops? Are they more expensive?

You all have laptops better than my desktop.

Oh well. I've discovered other computers I can use with my portable HD. Like the one at my church, which even has DSL. Yay!

Note I said it was OLD. Plus the fact that you said to "Post your Laptops also". That's what I did.

But yes. If all you're going to be using it for is school stuff, a PC labtop is the way to go. They're far cheaper. When I get a new one though, which will probably (hopefully) be within the next year, I'm getting another Powerbook. Games on it don't concern me terribly much. Having something I can port around that will allow me to do school work, play DVDs on occasion, get online, and screw around in Photoshop, does. Plus the fact that I prefer the clean look, style, and function of OSX more than I do Windows, and I won't have to worry nearly as much about viruses and other malware. I have to also admit, that if they build those like they built my 190cs, the idea of having it around for a good number of years is quite attractive.

But all of that is what I want, so it's kinda unimportant to this thread.

If I did the exchange rate correctly, my laptop cost me 2376.82 CAD.

ibm thinkpads are nice for work also upgrades are a snap

mine:
ibm thinkpad 600x
Pentium III 500 mhz (yes i know its sad but its fast enough for what i do on it)
576 MB RAM
80 gb hd at 7500 rpm
xp pro + linux
cd/dvd drive
NETGEAR a.b.g wireless card
6 hour battery
3.5 lb

I have a Dell Inspiron 5160

specs:
2.8 ghz P4ht
40 gig hd
1 gig ram
nvidia gforce go5200
cd-rw/dvd drive
15 inch screen
XP pro / ubuntu linux dual boot

the thing works well, I can run hl2 almost maxed out. The only problem is the thing is a brick.

It still kicsk the crap out of most of our desktops though.

yeah but what’s the point of a laptop if you cant bring it anywhere

i think that a laptops main features should be that its light/small and has a long battery life otherwise what’s the point of it being a laptop

i hate it when people get those 20" windows media laptops because they are utterly pointless as a laptop they are pretty much a desktop that’s $2000 more for the same stuff.

Pentium M 1.7 GHz 2 MB L2 Cache
1024 MB DDR RAM
128 MB ATI Mobility something
15.1 Widescreen
XP Pro
80 GB HD
8X DVD+RW/+R
Around 4-5 hours battery life.

IBM Thinkpad T20

PIII 700 mhz
128 megs RAM
12 gig HD
DVD-ROM
S3 Savage video - 8 MB
14.1" screen
Windows XP Pro
~2 hours battery life.

I got this one refurbished, so the battery is a little questionable. I usually get 2 hours from it, but the IBM site says a new one should last about 4.5 hours.

And it only weights about 4 and a half pounds.

That's what the gravity gun is for...

Anyway, my sucky one:

IBM
750Mhz PIII
128MB RAM (8MB shared video)
Windows 2000 (Only saving grace)
Knoppix HD-Install (Didn't want to bother with anything else till school was out)
10GB Hard drive
Dunno the screen size, but it's not bad.
Speakers suck completely on it. (1 Watt... wtf?! Why BOTHER)
Onboard 10/100, 24xCD-ROM

Oh, forgot my ultra-sucky one. (Aka the DOS Gaming PC)

IBM
10" screen. Yeah. Max res 640x480, no joke. But its bright as living hell.
75mhz 486 DX (Hell yeah, SMOKING!)
24MB Ram (Hey look ma, it can run win95!)
External CD-ROM that doesn't work half the time.
10mbps PCMCIA card, that doesn't work half the time.
Runs Win95 when I feel masochistic, DOS the rest of the time.
750MB hard drive. (Thankfully NOT COMPRESSED.)
Mono 1 speaker (But its like freakin 50watts. I swear this thing outpowers my car.)
Battery life == No such thing. You unplug it, you maybe got 30 seconds to find another outlet before your commander keen go byebye.
Plays solitare like a champ.
Will play MP3s with DOSAMP. (Yes, that's DOSAMP. And have to have all settings to the lowest. 8BIT, Mono, 11khz, etc etc.)
Screen refresh rate ~75ns. EAT THAT YOU NEW LCD PUNKS!!! (When I play Raptor, my ship looks like it is flying in bullet time :p )

I' have a Dell Latitude D600
Intel Pentium M processor 1600MHz
799MHz
512MB of RAM
30GB Harddrive. (Not huge, but more than enough for all the standard school-related programs, all the stuff for Engineering like SoldWorks, AutoCAD, MathCAD, etc. plus plenty of games and personal programs)
It's running XP Pro.

I find it good. I wish it was better for gaming, since it's been filling the place of a personal computer at college too, but I suppose it's not what laptops were meant for.

I just timed Microsoft Word's opening at 11 seconds to when you can begin writing, from the click of the icon.

[edit] oh, and the full battery gives you about 3.5-4 hours, it charges pretty quick (20 minutes, I think, never timed it). SolidWorks tends to drain the battery more quickly, and so do some games. It's the standard laptop for the engineering program here, and my next-door neighbor tells me that Half-Life 2 drains it quicker too, giving you 1.5-2 hours.

Standard stuff like word-processing and internet doesn't tax the power though.

That's kind of slow, but your CPU is throttled at 800mhz. Plug your laptop in and check the CPU speed, it should go to 1600. If not, grab SwitchXP (Google it, or download.com has it, I think) and put your speed up and try again. It should be faster.

I have an HP Pavilion ze5375 that I got for graduation. It was meant as a desktop replacement for my first year in college, so it's a bit overpowered and overweight, and has low battery life. Of course I wizened up fast and built me a desktop I take with me to school now.

Anway, specs:
P4 @ 2.4 ghz
512 mb RAM
Integrated Radeon IGP 345M, currently using 128 mb RAM, and because it's shared, I only have 384 system memory. I was considering upgrading my RAM, but I have a desktop now, so there's no point.
80 gb hard drive
~2 hour battery life, when the battery didn't suck. I think it's dying now.
DVD/CD-RW combo drive
Integrated 802.11b
Integrated IrDA
3 USB ports
S-video out
1 parallel port
1 4-pin firewire port

My laptop has 6 buttons, a d-pad and it is usually playing mario

Machine Model: iBook G4
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.07 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 768 MB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 4.8.5f0

I'm thinking about getting a laptop for University, but I'm not sure what's better, a desktop or a laptop? I mean... laptops may be useful at lectures and things, for typing up what he says, but then maybe note taking is better

Does anyone know of somewhere I can get a custom laptop, designed to my specications? Do they even do custom laptops?

[url]www.voodoopc.com[/url]

I dunno about complete customization, but they have some WICKED laptops there. And they have a lot of options. (What speed and type of processor, video, ram, hard drive, case design, etc.)

I can't seem to find any customize option Matty

machines-notebooks-anything-"configure your ..." link on the image

You are wise, thanks.

Upon designing:
Wow... It's like alienware, yet somehow MORE ridiculously expensive.

http://www.cyberpowersystem.com/

nice place cheapish

The customization is cool... Why are laptops so darn expensive

because people put things in them that they really dont need e.g. a really nice graphics card

That website has the perfect latop for me, specs, and price, EXCEPT no video card to speak of. It's also $300 under my established budget, so... another $300 could put a decent card in there, I'm sure, if they'd do it...

why do you need a good graphics card in there anyways?

i don't get why people get laptops for gaming .. its utterly pontless

[sry i know i already said it, it just really buggs me]

What's wrong with wanting to play a game to pass the time at school? Seriously.

I bought my laptop for portability and its long battery life, but I got one with a Radeon 9200 just so that if ever I felt the urge to play a game during some spare time at school, I could. I am damn happy that I spent the extra money, because now I can play HL2 in my boring programming classes. :p

If I've finished typing up lecture notes and I have time to kill between my next class, and none of my friends are about, I'd like to be able to play some games.

yes that is an up

but how much did it cost and how much dose it weigh and whats its dimensions

because most gaming laptops are huge expensive heave and have very short battery life

I mean if your happy with it w/e its just a pet peeve of mine

Well the one I designed is about $1300 Canadian, and I'm looking to spend about $1600, so.... Yarr

And it runs HL2 better than most people's PCs. It's not more than an inch thick either. I get about 4 hours of battery life.

not bad but still heavy and is that w/ playing or w/o because anylaptop can get 4 hours doing nothing

Six pounds is far from heavy and I'd seriously like to see a P4 get 4 hours of battery life.

I get 4 hours doing whatever (Word, net, games), 5 if I'm careful. Straight gaming I get about 3 hours.