Looking for a laptop for a college student

[mahina]

Aloha,

I'm looking for the above. Have been reading cnet.com reviews and am wondering if any DU'ers have suggestions for how to make a good decision. I'd rather not spend more than 500. or so; he says he's fine with a netbook, but I am not sure if that will be adequate for engineering.

What do you guys think?

Thanks very much in advance!

[steve2470]

1. Check this one out, comes well rated by Newegg customers and it's $380

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215126

YMMV, caveat emptor, etc. Good luck !

[mahina]

4. Thank you!

Mahalo for your suggestion, it is really appreciated.

[BlueJazz]

2. Steve's choice is good....also I would add the "one day replacement option for$109.00.

I had a Sony laptop 2 years ago that I purchased the same option.
I dropped it (ouch!)
They replaced it in my hands in 33 hours. NICE ! :)

[mahina]

5. Good idea!

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts.

[Betty88]

3. Second Steves choice

as much as I love my netbook I would not want to have it be my only computer. Also you might want to check and see if he is going to have required software for the engineering program and make sure the laptop meets those specks.

[mahina]

6. Mahalo Betty,

good idea!

[struggle4progress]

7. Before you get in a hurry, find out what the school offers: more and more schools are

requiring incoming students to have a computer, and sometimes the school may have bulk contracts with vendors enabling them to offer machines at attractive prices

Your student might also seek special advice from the engineering dept or other engineering students

Steve's suggested device does hit some high important points: the 15" screen is large enough, the dualcore 3ghz cpu is fast compared with many notebooks, the 4gb of memory should be adequate

I agree with the poster who said a netbook probably isn't good enough: the screens are small, the cpus are typically slow, and they usually don't have or support much memory

[canetoad]

8. I've always found

Toshibas are steady machines and give a lot of bang for your buck.

Of course they still come with a payload of shitty proprietary garbage but it's not half as bad as HP.

I'd be searching for something with a 17' screen. Your student will likely be learning CAD programs and the extra screen real estate is handy for all the menus.

Whatever machine you select, chances are it will come with a pre-installed operating system. Immediately search for the utility that enables you to burn system backup DVDs or ensure there is a recovery partition.

[mahina]

9. Thank you!