Well, Ill be sucking it up and heading back to school next semester...so Im getting my student loans and such ready. Ill be going into Digital Arts (Graphic Communications/Advertisement) so I'll be figuring in the price of a new laptop into my school loans. Now...I want it to be something thats good enough that it'll be somewhat "up to date" for the next several years. Small upgrades can be done along the way if needed. Now, although I'll be using it for school...I also plan to use it at home for...music...gaming...as well as freelance work so it needs to be "multi-purpose". I understand how expensive high end laptops can get but...I definitely don't want to top 4grand and would prefer to stay ~3k... Now what I'd like to see out of it...19"+ monitor is almost a must for me...I had a 19" wide monitor for my desktop and I previously owned a 19" powerbook G4...Im very fond of having a large monitor. I plan to upgrade the RAM myself if needed...Id prefer to get a solid dual-core processor...a single 8series geforce video card...preferably a 512+ 8800. Now....Ive checked over Dell...HP....*cough* alienware *cough* and everything i see seems insanely overpriced...if anyone could give me some direction in a system that would please my needs...or suggestions on builders/companies...anything that'll help out...please post up EDIT: Well this is the system im currently looking at...(from HP) Processor: Intel® Core 2 Duo Processor T9500 (2.60 GHz, 6 MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB) Display: 20.1" WSXGA+ High-Definition HP Ultra Brightview Widescreen Display (1680 x 1050) RAM: 3GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm) G-card: 512MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTS HDD:320GB 5400RPM SATA Dual Hard Drive (160GB x 2) total being: $2,869.99 any opinions? This would be perfect for my needs/wants...and still under my price range... Thanks in advance
That system from HP should be perfect for what you want to do. I'd also recommend, since you're doing graphic design, that you get a secondary monitor that you keep in your dorm/home. So when you come back from school, you'll be able to plug your laptop into a real monitor. Sometimes the colors (and definitely) the viewing angles on laptop screens are not great.
