My family is getting a new laptop, and I was wondering if all the brilliant people here at SFN had a few suggestions, especially on specs. Since it's for my sister, who's going to college in a year, it'd be great if the comp had a perfect blend of power, mobility, and price. And cooling efficiency (I know, an impossible mix). Price comes first.

 

Thanks to all beforehand.

What'll she be primarily using it for? Writing papers, email and the Internet? If there are games, video editing or major Photoshop use you'll want to get a significantly more powerful machine.

I take it you gave up on your old one with the cooling issues?

I don't know about the newest models, but Toshiba lappies are known to have issues. I have one with a huge heat sink and another whose fan runs almost continuously.

Since it's for your sister starting college, I'm guessing the primary uses are going to be e-mail, facebook, ms word and music/video storage.

If this is the case, I would say your priorities would be

1. price

2. mobility

3. power (as long as you get a decent hard drive if using it to download)

if you don't mind something that quite frankly looks as ugly as hell, get a thinkpad. i've got one and it runs fairly cool, has a decent amount of power(although you'll be hard pressed to get one as slow nowadays) and is fairly luggable.

if you don't mind something that quite frankly looks as ugly as hell, get a thinkpad. i've got one and it runs fairly cool, has a decent amount of power(although you'll be hard pressed to get one as slow nowadays) and is fairly luggable.

 

Hey, thanks. The looks aren't important, just the brains. Seems like the Thinkpads are a good choice.

 

What'll she be primarily using it for? Writing papers, email and the Internet? If there are games, video editing or major Photoshop use you'll want to get a significantly more powerful machine.

 

She'll be using it for Internet research, word processing, powerpoint, and excel. You know, the classic academic stuff.

 

I take it you gave up on your old one with the cooling issues?

I don't know about the newest models, but Toshiba lappies are known to have issues. I have one with a huge heat sink and another whose fan runs almost continuously.

Since it's for your sister starting college, I'm guessing the primary uses are going to be e-mail, facebook, ms word and music/video storage.

If this is the case, I would say your priorities would be

1. price

2. mobility

3. power (as long as you get a decent hard drive if using it to download)

 

Yeah, I was thinking that ranking, too. Thanks.