OK...Seriously. Doesn't anyone have a suggestion?

[Mary.Poppins]

HELP...we need to get a PC laptop...but what should it have???

Hello Everyone,
We are getting my daughter a PC laptop and need to know what we should get.
Memory, processor speed, hard drive, battery, etc? She'll be taking it to college with her next year. She plans to use it for watching DVDs, writing papers, gaming, editing movies, etc. HELP!!! I don't know where to start!!!

 

[Mary.Poppins]

Wow...I have to say I'm a bit disapointed. I told my daughter that we'd get some anwers from this web site. Considering everyone who answers will be answering from a computer. Well...I guess no one knows anything more then I do....

 

[java]

My son has a Sony Vaio that works well for him.

Perhaps you can call her college of choice and ask for suggestions. They often have laptop deals too!

The things she is talking about doing require a higher processing speed and a GOOD GRAPHICS CARD! So the important things for you to ask about imho(and I don't know much about computers) is to ask for at least 2.2 or 3GHz. And I would buy as much ram as you can afford.(at least 3)

Good luck and I hope you get better advice than I can give.

Oh and an extrenal hard drive is a gift someone can give her for Christmas as it's a great way to free up space on your laptop. They have great deals on those on Black Friday every year.

um and I wouldn't get so upset you posted later in the day many are work hour posters. patience and I would change your subject again or you might not get help as they won't know what you are talking about.

 

[RadioNate]

Buy the laptop with the best specs you can afford. IMO Ram would be most important. I wouldn't consider less than 4GB and if she wants to do video editing she'll need a really big hard drive or externals.

Look at the games she wants to play. What are the minimum specs?

Brand donesnt matter in my opinion. They all offer lots of the same internal components. I've had great machines and lemons from everyone. Offered specs change rapidly so you can't really say "buy X machine."

 

[RUDisney]

Buy the laptop with the best specs you can afford. IMO Ram would be most important. I wouldn't consider less than 4GB and if she wants to do video editing she'll need a really big hard drive or externals.

Look at the games she wants to play. What are the minimum specs?

Brand donesnt matter in my opinion. They all offer lots of the same internal components. I've had great machines and lemons from everyone. Offered specs change rapidly so you can't really say "buy X machine."

While vague, this is the best advice anyone can give you, IMHO.

Go with the best laptop you can afford with tons of RAM. I also agree with the PP who suggested getting an external HD for Christmas, birthday, etc.
Thumb drives are also good stocking stuffers.

 

[creativeamanda]

I would recommend this one:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9398396&type=product&id=1218099255649

Reasons:
4GB RAM
2.3 GHz AMD Turion Processor (You want at least 2.1--anything higher is better)
500 GB hard drive
Wireless and Bluetooth enabled
Also, the biggest thing is buy the extened warranty!

My other recommendation would be this one:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9370129&type=product&id=1218093002019
because of the higher battery life, but then you would need to go ahead and purchase an external hard drive. It only has a 250 GB hard drive. And it's not going to be as fast--only a 2.1 GHz processor.

ETA: As I hit submit, I saw she would be using it for video editing and gaming. In that case I would not recommend that second one. I'd actually recommend you having one built. You will need at LEAST 6GB RAM, 500GB hard drive, and 2.4 Ghz Processor, along with a 512 MB video card. HTH

 

[jsmith]

What operating system does she prefer and how serious is she about gaming? how much are you willing to spend? If high end graphics are the goal and money is no object have an Alienware built to spec-8g of RAM tera hard drive, the beastiest graphics card they offer-and a duo core processor (my prefernence for Intel celeron but everyone does not share that).
Now-realistically for doing college homework-she doesnt need that-what she does need to do is look at what the requirement for operating system and base memory are for the network at the univeristy she planes to attend. You said PC laptop-there for im assuming she prefers windows to one of the unix bases OSes-in that case she needs a minumum of 4 g of ram-99 percent of the issues people complain about with vista are inadequate memory issue-350 gig hard drive, 2.3 duo core processor-amd or intel-its really minor differences that only geeks care about.
Toshiba builds nice off the shelf laptops for a reasonable price-and they usually hold up pretty well altho NO brand of computer is with out issues its the nature of the beast. She willl need a good antivirus software -i see thousands of recommendations for free ware on here-all well and good but it pays to remember that companies pay developers to write the stuff-and the revenue generating products get updated first. The university she will attend my specify what one she needs to have. Most of all -find something she will be comfortable with.

 

[OceanAnnie]

Check out Kim Komando's website: www.komando.com and go to her buying guide tab. I heard some great advice on her radio talk show.

HTH!

 

[Martha7]

We've become avid MAC users, but if it has to be a pc, please don't get a Dell! Our son got an Alienware laptop, (big gamer), and now that company has been acquired by Dell. We've never had such horrible customer service in our lives! Every call goes overseas, they lie about shipping parts, there is zero attention to customer satisfaction, and no way to contact anyone at the company headquarters in Houston. They just seem to have no concern with their customers. My son's laptop fan broke, and it has taken them ten weeks to mail a new one out to us! (After much calling and badgering on our parts.)
Good luck with your purchase, and I hope your daughter will be happy with her new laptop!