Windows Laptop under $1900 budget

[akasixcon]

I decided to put in $1900 for my college laptop. What are some good websites / vendors to buy a very good laptop of this price? Is putting in 1900 a high-end or a mid laptop?

Laptop will be used for multimedia and gaming and of course school work.

 

[Lexluethar]

It will be higher end. I would say budget would be 600-1000, mid range would be 1000-1600 and anything above that will be top of line.

I have always loved HP laptops, still have mine from 4 years ago - and as my time as a computer tech i've had far fewer service calls on HP compared to Sony and Dell (the most).

I've also read (not experienced) that Acer has some really nice laptops.

 

[akasixcon]

I found this laptop:
Gateway P-7811FX specs and Laptop specifications - CNET Reviews

Can anything beat this?

 

[Redmo0n]

Seems alright, maybe a bigger HD?

 

[Lexluethar]

Keep in mind 9 pounds is very heavy for a desktop... i mean laptop. Mine is the 17'' monitor too, it is a beast. So just remember you won't have much battery life and it will be relatively heavy. If it is staying in the dorm room then this is a good buy, if you want to carry this everywhere with you i think you should rethink your purchase.

 

[Kerosinek]

Just throwing my $.02 in here... I would pick up a $600-$700 laptop mainly for school work and some mild gaming/multimedia and then put the other $1200 towards a desktop. You can build a beastly rig for that much that would be able to run anything on the market and probably most games for the next few years.

Plus, gaming on a laptop sucks... Horrible battery life and you better be wearing some thick jeans if you ever actually set it on your lap as those suckers get extremely hot.

 

[Lexluethar]

Just throwing my $.02 in here... I would pick up a $600-$700 laptop mainly for school work and some mild gaming/multimedia and then put the other $1200 towards a desktop. You can build a beastly rig for that much that would be able to run anything on the market and probably most games for the next few years.

Plus, gaming on a laptop sucks... Horrible battery life and you better be wearing some thick jeans if you ever actually set it on your lap as those suckers get extremely hot.

Agree 100%

 

[akasixcon]

My argument to that is that I would only be using one or the other. I mean if you have a laptop, you'd only be using the laptop when in class or when in your dorms or the cafe or something.

 

[CalcProgrammer1]

I got a Pavilion dv9700t. It has a really fast 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo, a nice 17" screen, optional second hard drive (not installed yet though), 3GB RAM, a fairly capable GPU (8600M GS, not the best out there but good enough for most games short of Crysis). I like the design of this laptop. I take it everywhere, if you have a good carrying backpack or bag, it won't be a problem. I have a backpack because you can carry all kinds of stuff in it (got it from HP), it is designed to fit up to 17" laptops. I don't see why people advocate little laptops so much if you're going to stick them in bags that could hold bigger models anyway. When I have just the laptop in the backpack, it feels really light, usually it's a bit heavy because I have my laptop, chemistry book, notebooks, etc. I like to use it to play games before class starts, but since the dv9700t is technically an "Entertainment PC" more than a gaming one, it handles video, music, and simpler tasks well. Plus, if you're not doing anything extreme, putting it in low power mode gets great battery life.

 

[Puddle Jumper]

From my experience I think it is better to have a fast desktop for gaming and a small and light laptop to carry with you around campus. I have a 14' Compaq laptop that I take to class and I wouldn't want to carry anything much bigger. If I need a faster system I can always use my $600 gaming pc that is faster than laptops costing twice as much.

I think a small light laptop with good battery life (>4hrs) like the eeepc 1000h, Acer Aspire 1 (6 cell) and Dell Inspiron Mini 9 are perfect for college. All of those laptops are around $500 or less and you could spend the rest on a good gaming pc.