[Dragonman]

I need to get a new laptop for college, but I'm not sure what to get. I've been thinking a lot about Alienware, because I can't stand it when a laptop gets slow, and if I get a laptop juiced up to handle gaming, it should be perfectly fast for all the school-related things I need to... and still be able to work fine if I decide to add in a game or two.

Anyone have experience with Alienware? Or any other laptop that you recommend? I'm trying to see if I can find an Alienware notebook on ebay, which I've never used either.

[MA-53]

I have had experience with Alienware computers, and in general they perform terribly. The hardware they are equipped with is capable, however the design leads to stability issues, especially in their laptops. While you'll be able to play half-life 2 comfortably on an Alienware laptop, the power supply has a nasty tendency to overheat and fuse inside. I know a couple people who have bought Alienware laptops, and both of them owned them for about two weeks before this happened. First they get slow and then they won't power up.

If you're looking for a machine that's capable and not prone to explode and inconvenient times, the HP entertainment series is probably the best on the market at this point. They're well made, not too expensive, and fast as a bat out of hell.

You can find them pretty easily on www.newegg.com, which is my favorite spot for computing needs. Or if ebay is your thing you can probably find one there.

Anywho, hope that's helpful.

[Jake]

<3 my ASUS. Sadly, the battery life sucks with my GPU and Aero turned on.
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16834220305

[Nate]

Gonna be getting one of these from my College for being a computer major.

Lenovo T61n
>> Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T9300, 2.4 Ghz
>> 6 cell lithium ion battery
>> 2 Gb RAM
>> 3 USB 2.0 ports
>> 160 Gb Hard Drive
>> 14.4” Wide screen LCD (WXGA+ 1440x900)
>> CD/DVD Multiburner (burns both CDs and DVDs)
>> 802.11 a/b/g/n internal wireless
>> Discrete NVidia Quadro Graphics Card with 128 Mb RAM
>> 5.3 pounds total weight
>> Firewire
>> 4 in 1 Card Reader
>> PCMCIA slot
>> Fingerprint Reader
>> Bluetooth
>> Webcam

[Pureblade]

Agree with Mase on the Alienware, definitely not as good as the advertisements.

[Dragonman]

Thanks for the warning about Alienware. I found this so far on newegg, it seem pretty solid for what I said I'm looking for... laptop for college that can handle anything school-related along with art-related stuff (photoshop, video-editting) and maybe a few games.

[Troll]

Basically perfect for what you want, although that 8400 won't do too well with some newer games but will run any source game at all high easy.

[Dragonman]

Could I buy a separate graphics card for it and get it switched in?

[Troll]

No.

Laptops do not work like that, most GPUs and CPUs will be soldered in or just not replaceable.

[Atilla]

I can run half-life 2 (on low settings, at least) even though all I have is onboard intel graphics. Unless you really want to play games, processor speed and the amount of RAM is what you really should look at. My laptop has a centrino duo with two 1.66ghz cores and a gig of RAM. Needless to say, it boots up insanely fast. Usually under a minute.

Although this is still on xp, I've had it on Vista before, and it still runs very smoothly.

Now, if you're going to be doing things like video editing or coding or anything that's really graphics-intense, onboard graphics aren't good as they use shared RAM.

[Darkness]

Notwithstanding Alienware's tendency to explode at inconvenient times, you can get the same -- or better -- for less with other companies HP is good. I've heard that Toshiba can be good for laptops, too, so that might be something to look into... Not sure though xD I'm not all that familiar with what's good for computers anyway.

[Atilla]

Notwithstanding Alienware's tendency to explode at inconvenient times, you can get the same -- or better -- for less with other companies HP is good. I've heard that Toshiba can be good for laptops, too, so that might be something to look into... Not sure though xD I'm not all that familiar with what's good for computers anyway.

Truth. I forgot to add, mine's an HP.

Also, whatever you do do not get a Dell, or a Compaq. I won't go into it very deeply; they just plain suck.

[Ratty]

If you were looking for laptops with specs like the Alienware one, but more reliable, check out the Dell XPS series. They're expensive, but damn, they're good. Friend of mine has one. xD All flashy, seems to be reliable enough so far.

I've got an Asus, fairly old now, but still manages to run most things.

[Kimojuno]

Do not get a Dell or an Acer. ..trust me! ><

[Ratty]

Definitely not Acer. >.<