Looking for a Laptop

[Acquiesce]

I need a laptop for university. I am looking for one under $1000. I need one that is pretty versatile. I want to use it for watching movies, listening to music, and school work (not much photo editing or anything like that). I won't really be gaming...

-I am thinking about a 17" screen but I think that it may be too big (e.g. portability issues).

-The other thing I wanted is HDMI (will this make it more future proof?)

-Even though this is a blu-ray forum, I am not sure if I really want a blu-ray drive (it is a pretty small screen).

I don't care about the processor, hard drive etc (although it should have some good RAM).

What would be the ideal choice?

I am currently looking at http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/nav...=5&item=394073

[jw]

Thats decent for what you need. Remember you can always buy external drives such as MyBooks for added HD space. I would recommend at least 2GB of Ram as with vista it takes almost a gig to run the OS

[Marquoz]

One of the ones I was looking at for myself was this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage....=1203815723334

It differs then the one you are looking at by only being a 15.4" screen, and 2 gigs less ram (which you can get for like 40-50$ at tigerdirect.com)

It's also around 300$ cheaper, so you could drop in an external blu-ray drive!

I agree with the previous comment about RAM, you want as much as you can have, and ideally, you should max out what the motherboard allows. RAM usually will speed up a computer better then a CPU.

A 250gb hard drive as long as you aren't downloading tons of movies/music should last a while before you need to slap in an external drive.

Honestly, the laptop you are looking at is great, just shop around a little bit before buying it from Sam's, also if you have a family member that works for a large company, ask them if they get any discounts for electronics, and maybe contact HP's website to see if they offer a student discount. Might be able to get it a slight bit cheaper that way.

[Acquiesce]

What about HDMI? Is it useful on a laptop?

[blackhawktraffic]

Originally Posted by Acquiesce

What about HDMI? Is it useful on a laptop?

What would you be using it for, if you don't have a Blu ray drive then odds are you wouldn't need the HDMI port to use in case of using another monitor that you hooked up to the laptop.

[PNF]

that is a great deal at $950 with 2.1 MHz (even tho its an AMD), 250G and 4G ram!!

So, thats pretty decent, and it comes with a 64 bit Vista?!

thats more than enough for your specified needs.

[Acquiesce]

I am now thinking that it is too big

[Acquiesce]

This is a smaller HP

http://www.samsclub.com/shopping/nav...=5&item=395913

Is it worth it for $800?

[jadedeath]

I'm waiting for Macbook Pro's with Blu-Ray onboard.

Until then I'm in a waiting pattern.

Logan

[PNF]

Originally Posted by jadedeath

I'm waiting for Macbook Pro's with Blu-Ray onboard.

Until then I'm in a waiting pattern.

Logan

I wouldnt wait for BD to be on computer.. I mean, I have heard enough issues with BD drives in computer and how problematic it was for people to use that as a BD player on their monitor/tv.

Besides, its too expensive to use BD as storage drive anyway, when the portable 500G costing $100 and 320G 2.5" HD costing $80.

I would wait a couple years before getting a desktop with BD drive.