Help mr pick the best laptop for what my $800 budget

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

Okay, So I'm about to start college next year and I have been wanting a laptop for a while now anyways. I've been saving up some extra money and I really only want to try to spend $800 max on this if i have to. This is going to be my first laptop so I don't really know too much about the parts in them. I'm not really going to use this for gaming because I've got the rig in my sig but I want to use it mainly for surfing the internet, music, DVD's, schoolwork, photoshop, and an occasional CS 1.6, or War craft 3 if it's possible. I mainly want to use it for entertainment, but with minimal, if any, gaming. These are the main features that I'm looking for:

1- 14.1" HD Screen
2-Intel or AMD are fine with me as long as its dual core and has at least 1mb cache.
3- at least 1gb ram
4- any hard drive size is ok. 120gb is what I've been seeing for my price range.
5- Not really sure on the brand, but I don't want anything too cheap. I've been looking at HP, Dell, Toshiba, and Sony, but will consider others.
6- I'm probably going to go for windows vista home premium.
7-Not sure about the graphics, but as long as it will work fine with vista, but then again if I'm getting an HD screen I want a video card that will keep up with it.
8- I at least want it to look somewhat nice lol, I mean not too ugly.
9- I want a good battery that will last at least a good 4 hours or so. Is that hard to find? not really sure.
10-Want a dvd burner in there to burn DVD's and also watch movies.
11- built in wireless network card

So anybody have any recommendations or suggestions that they think will fit my budget?

 

[Peter.Cort]

ok lets see here.

Most laptops have integrated wifi cards. also if you have your gaming rig then concentrate on just getting the best things you can in the laptop in terms of battery life and portability.

Finding 4 hours of battery life is going to be hard, unless you just plan on using it for not taking and low end stuff. I would definitely recommend a macbook pro if you can afford it. Granted they are pretty expensive but if you can fork out the cash you won't be disappointed in it. My brother has one and can easily get 5-6 hours out of it on max battery and just using word and light internet.

you can get a 13" macbook for 1200, and if you can afford it i would strongly recommend it. also if you do need to fit into the 800 dollar budget, i'll search around and find some good stuff that fits your preferences.

 

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

macbook pro is like 2g's man, lol. Besides I don't think a bettery of 4 hours is that hard to find. On dell they 9 cell battery said that ti would last long enough to watch 2 full movies.

 

[Peter.Cort]

i doubt that... but here's one off the egg.

Newegg.com - Acer Extensa EX4620-6194 NoteBook Intel Core 2 Duo T5450(1.66GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 1GB DDR2 667 120GB DVD Super Multi Intel GMA X3100 - Retail

also you could take your chances with a recertified or an open box and get more stuff, but you run the risk of getting something messed up.

also you can get a dell inspiron 1420 for 700 baseline, and you can put in 100 bucks somewhere, either on more ram, faster cpu,

 

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

I think i just might get this oen from ibuypower.com. It's $818 with everything and it has:

Case ( Battalion-101 HEL-80 [VBI] 15.4" 16:10 Wide Screen WXGA 1280x800 LCD TFT Notebook w/Li-Ion Battery, Universal AC Power Adapter, Deluxe Carrying Case Original Metalic Silver/Black 2-Tone Color )
Processor ( Intel® Core 2 Duo Mobile T5200 Dual-Core Processor (2x 1.60GHz/2MB Cache/533FSB) )
Free Software/Game ( Free Game - [Lost Planet: Extreme Condition] must purchase with Intel Core 2 Duo Mobile Processor based system )
Free Software/Game ( [Free] iBUYPOWER T-Shirt with Archlord Game Graphic on Back --- $19.99 value )
Memory ( 2048MB(1024MB X2) DDR2-667 PC5300 [Notebook Memory] Corsair Value or Major Brand )
Video Card ( Mobility 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 7600 PCI-Express 3D Video )
Hard Drive ( 160 GB 5400rpm Serial-ATA-150 Super Slim Notebook Hard Drive )
External Hard Drives [USB 2.0/eSATA] ( None )
CD-RW/DVD-RW Drive ( 8x Dual Format DVD±R/±RW + 16x CD-R/RW Combo Drive [HEL-80] )
Sound Card ( 3D Premium Surround Sound Onboard )
Fax Modem ( Build-in 56K V.92 Fax Modem [Notebook] )
Network Card ( Build-in 10/100/1000 Network LAN [Notebook] )
Mouse ( None )
USB 2.0 Accessories ( Build-in 3x USB 2.0 Ports [Notebook] )
Flash Media Reader/Writer ( Build-in 3-in-1 Media Card Reader/Writer [Notebook] )
Carrying Case ( Free Deluxe Carrying Case )
Operation System ( Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium + [Free 60-Day !!!] Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Access ....) 32-Bit )
Media Center Remote Control & TV Tuner ( None )
IEEE-1394 Fire Wire Card ( Build-in 1x IEEE-1394 Firewire Port [Notebook] )
USB Flash Drive ( None )
TV Tuner ( None )
Video Camera ( Build-in Digital Web Video Camera )
Internal Wireless Network Adapter ( [Free !!!] Wireless 802.11g 3945 Mini-Card )
Warranty ( Warranty Service Standard One(1) Year Limited Warranty + Lifetime Technical Support )
Rush Service ( Rush Service Fee (not shipping fee) No Rush, Ship Out in 5~10 Business Days )

 

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

sorry here's the link instead:
IBuyPower Computer :: Battalion 101 HEL-80 Notebook

 

[Peter.Cort]

thats a really good deal... i would say go with that one, unless you can save up some more then i would hold off as long as you can so you can get the most laptop for your money.

 

[tariqadkhan]

thats a great deal, go for that!

 

[Jayce]

My laptop is 700 dollars on average @ Circuit City. I got it on sale, which you can often find it on sale with a 150 mail in rebate. Therefore rendering it @ 550 dollars.

It came with...

AMD X2 64 bit Turion TL-58
1gb DDR2 667 RAM
Vista Home Premium
DVD Burner
Integrated WiFi
15.4inch screen
160gb HDD

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422.

Note - I spent 39.99 on newegg.com and bought a 2gb stick of DDR2 667mhz G. Skill RAM and have also ditched Vista for the time being and replaced it with XP Pro SP2.

I'm very happy with it. I've always been a Toshiba fan. I know you said you wanted a 14.1, which is cool, but I wanted to tell you what I got for the price.

 

[BiGyLiLuPdAmIdL]

My laptop is 700 dollars on average @ Circuit City. I got it on sale, which you can often find it on sale with a 150 mail in rebate. Therefore rendering it @ 550 dollars.

It came with...

AMD X2 64 bit Turion TL-58
1gb DDR2 667 RAM
Vista Home Premium
DVD Burner
Integrated WiFi
15.4inch screen
160gb HDD

Toshiba Satellite A215-S7422.

Note - I spent 39.99 on newegg.com and bought a 2gb stick of DDR2 667mhz G. Skill RAM and have also ditched Vista for the time being and replaced it with XP Pro SP2.

I'm very happy with it. I've always been a Toshiba fan. I know you said you wanted a 14.1, which is cool, but I wanted to tell you what I got for the price.

thanks man, that's actually a really good deal for $550 after rebates.