this laptop

[Ilya]

is this a good laptop for a college student? i dont really need it to play a lot of great games or anything special like that.

Toshiba
Celeron® M processor 390, 1.7ghz
80GB 5400RPM hard drive
15.4" WXGA display
512MB of DDR2 SDRAM
DVD SuperMulti drive
DVD-R/RW and CD-R/RW
ATI RADEON® graphics

[Sarien]

And how much are you gonna pay for that?

[Ilya]

$699.. 3 year warranty

i know doing a custom one or building one myself and whatnot will be cheaper, but.. im not doin that

[Sarien]

I'd scrap together the other 400 and get a macbook, and I'm not just talking out my ass here, I really would.

You'll go up to a Core Duo Processor, and be able to boot both OS X and Windows as you want/need.

You'll lose some screen size, 13.3" instead of 15.x" but to me, the ability to do both, and do homework or what not without worrying about every virus on earth would be worth it.

Then you just switch to Windows for anything that requires it, like Continuum.

If that seems like too much though I have to advise against Toshiba. My nephew paid like $1000 for a toshiba a couple years back and it's given him nothing but trouble.

[Mulkero]

Don't ever get Celeron M. The thing doesn't have speedstep, so it'll constantly run at 100% speed which makes it hot thus the fans are always on. The noise is a pain in the ass.

[Ilya]

noted.

thanks for the advice e-pals

[Zazu]

It's decent enough for a student, Ilyaz.
My dad has got a Toshiba aswell. A little more advanced than the one you are talking about though.
Differences are the harddisk, it has got 1024MB-Ram, and a few more other things.

Sure the "Centrino" are the newest processors, but a Celeron is just good enough for a student aswell. The noise is a thing that only nerds care about I think. I use the laptop pretty often and I have never noticed it so far actually.
Sure you have got good-better-best, but I don't think you'll get much better for $699, and for a student .. it's wayyy sufficient.