I was thinking of buying a laptop for college but I have no idea where to start since this is my first time so I don't want to end up making mistakes that are going to cost me alot of money. So for everyone out there who own laptops, what would be a good laptop that's; -ideal for running photoshop and other multimedia apps at the same time -good for gaming -good for a college student -connects to the internet where ever i go I'm basically looking for a laptop that covers the college aspect and is powerful enough to handle multimedia applications and games at the same time while giving me access to the internet almost everywhere I go. I don't want to give up photoshop/music/games in college just because my laptop can't handle it, basically a really good multimedia/entertainment type of laptop thats also adaptable for a college student.
Well, brand-wise, if you're just buying a from a normal manufacturer (Eg, Dell, HP, Asus), the only one I'd say to avoid would be Acer, because we get almost every Acer we sell back in with some problem or another, and the actuall quality of the laptops are sub-par. Go for a Core 2 Duo (possibly one of the Penryn chipped ones) I.e. the Processors are T9*** (T9300, T9400 etc) as they have more cache (mostly) and are lower voltage chips = more battery life. RAM is fairly straightfoward, and shouldn't even be of a concern when picking models. RAM is cheapest aquired through seperate purchase and takes seconds to install. You could pick up 4gig of DDR2 RAM for maybe a hundred dollars or so (To be honest, I know little of US pricing). Just make sure whatever model you buy has two slots for RAM. Ask the salesperson/retailer. If they don't know, ask them to find out. You'd want a decent graphics card for sure, so look at getting something like an ATi 3650, or a GeForce 8600GT minimum. Graphics card are (nearly) impossible to upgrade in laptops, so get something with a bit of grunt now. Hard drive wise, it's totally up to how much you need, and with flash memory being so cheap (USB flash drives, etc), you can probably get away with being a little conservative if you so choose, however I personally always recommend to people to only buy laptops with a single hard drive, as it does save power. You can get 320gig in a single laptop hard drive now (up to 500gig I've seen, but never in actual sold models to my knowledge). Screen size is totally up to you, but I'd recommend trying to get a laptop with at least a WSXGA screen (basically means a resolution of 1440x900) and if possible, a WUXGA (1920x1200). If you're configuring a laptop online with Dell or Apple, I think you can select this option, however it doesn't normally come cheap. The high resolutions will be a huge help if you want to do graphic work on it. Hope this has been of some help.
For what you are looking for, I would have to say a Macbook ---. They are great all around, and to get something of equal power and performance would cost more than a Macbook --- does. I would hold out on getting on if you do choose to do so, and wait untill next month because the new ones are expected to come out then. Or, you could always check out the apple refurbished site (don't have the link right off hand, google it) and get super discounts on them.
