College Laptop

[Iggy2010]

I'm heading off to college next year, and I'm going to have to start shopping for laptops soon. I don't have a great idea of what I want, but I was hoping you guys could give me some ideas. I'll narrow it down as much as I can, but I'm not very proficient in the area of laptops, so I can't really get into the nitty-gritty just yet. The most important criterion is that it isn't too expensive. I'd say $400-600 is my price range. I'd also like it to be relatively fast. It will mainly be for schoolwork, but I'd also like to be able to run games on it. Aside from those two issues, not a whole lot else matters. I'd like it to be portable, and to have a good keyboard, but I can't really think of anything else that would help narrow it down right now. I hope you guys can help, and I'll keep you updated as my needs and purchases change.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Newegg.com - ASUS K50 Series K50AD-X1 NoteBook AMD Turion II M520(2.3GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 - Laptops / Notebooks

This is my suggestion to everyone asking for laptops in this price range.
Because it is good for all of the things you asked for.

 

[MindoverMaster]

You like ASUS, dont you, Shiro? lol

ASUS is par IMO

 

[Iggy2010]

Hmm, I like it, but it's a bit pricy for me. We'll see how jobs go heading into the summer, but right now I know I would not be able to afford that by the time I leave. It also seems that it has a bit more memory than I need. I'd be willing to sacrifice memory for cost if that were an option. But what would you recommend, Mind?

 

[MindoverMaster]

This is still a good buy if you need it a bit lower:

Newegg.com - ASUS P50IJ-X2 NoteBook Intel Pentium T4400(2.20GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel GMA 4500M - Laptops / Notebooks

(btw, call me MoM )

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

Newegg.com - COMPAQ Presario CQ61-420US NoteBook AMD Athlon II M320(2.1GHz) 15.6" 3GB Memory 250GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Radeon HD 4200 - Laptops / Notebooks

$420 after rebate and the ATI 4200 is better than the Intel GMA 4500

My only beef with it, is that it's Compaq.
Bleh.

 

[Iggy2010]

Thanks, guys, both of those look really good for what I want. Both are very affordable for me, and both seem to handle all of my technical issues very well. I think I'll have to do some more research on them, read some more reviews, and actually get some money before I make a purchase. Thanks for your help guys, and MoM, I'll keep that in mind about your name. No disrespect meant, and I apologize for the confusion.

Also, a question. The word "bloatware" has been coming up in these reviews. What exactly is that?

 

[Fat.Clown]

I like Asus too ;p

free 1 year accidental insurance? I am in.

"bloatware" is something you'll never use, but they install it anyways
mostly trial softwares
like 30-day trial anti-virus (most likely McAfee, which is crap)

 

[Iggy2010]

Huh, that insurance deal is pretty cool. Thanks for clearing up that bloatware issue for me though. I have another question. They talk about a partitioned harddrive in a lot of the reviews. I get the basic concept of that, but I guess I just don't fully understand it. So, if it's not too much to ask, could someone kinda give me a brief rundown of it? You'll have to excuse my ignorance, haha.

 

[orihS ‪‪‪Shiro]

A partition is a way for a computer to logically section off part of the hard drive and have your computer treat the different partitions in a way, as separate hard drives.

Why is this useful?

So you can have a partition for storage and a partition for your operating system.
If the operating system gets corrupted, you could re-install your operating system on that partition, without losing the data you have stored on your storage partition.