Buying a new laptop and looking for advice.

I hope this is okay to post here - there are some similar ones but they'd be pretty outdated now.

My 2.5 year old Toshiba is starting to die and I'm looking to buy a new one. I was wondering if any of you could give me suggestions on things I need to include, or if there are any good ones that you know of out there. A couple of things about my requirements (I'm looking for a PC):

I am a medical student so a good screen/graphics is fairly important (not medical grade obviously but nothing sketchy). A lot of my schoolwork is done on a Blackboard Learning System, for which I had to upgrade to 2Gb of RAM when I started (I know that's not a lot but I thought I'd throw it out there). I play WoW but no other games (I understand in terms of games that WoW is big but not a HUGE killer?). I make music videos (right now I'm using WMM but I'm hoping to buy something a heck of a lot better than that soon). And the kicker, my price expectation is somewhere around $900-$1000 (is this unrealistic?).

Any advice you have would be awesome! Thanks.

 

$900-$1000 would get you a heck of a nice laptop. You can get very good ones in the $600-$900 range as well. In that range most have a dual-core processor, 4Gb of memory, 500Gb hard drive, 15" screen, DVD/RW drive and wireless networking. Look at BestBuy.com, etc.,. The $750 range gets you a nice laptop.

Sam

 

Here you go my Lady:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+-+Espresso+Black/9700732.p?id=1218152460131&skuId=9700732

 

If youre looking for raw power, this may be it. But the screen is rather small

But for a bit less, with almost as much bang, have a look at this. This has a good screen size, good resolution and should handle WoW.

 

The link for the laptop from Bigfurrykid would not be good for WoW, you should get a Laptop that has a video card.

The Acer link from Burrell is a nice Laptop that would run WoW great.

My suggestion would be to buy one from Bestbuy if and only if you purchase their Black tie protection program. I had a Sony Vaio that was 2 1/2 years old and the fan went out and burned it up. They couldn't fix it so they gave me purchased price credit for another Laptop. I had this Sony in many times before that from broken screen, keys missing, new dvd drive, etc. I am hard on equipment. The 2 hundred or so that I paid for this protection was well worth it. When I received my new one I bought another 3 year protection on it. Happy hunting



http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Samsung.../Red/9728443.p?id=1218161511080&skuId=9728443

______________
EZ

 

Thanks for the advice everyone!

 

Mind telling what you decided on?

Or are you still researching?

 

Just wanted a feel for how you all feel about Acer lappys? Good, crappy? Never really heard bad things about them personally.

 

Acer make some great laptops!

I've never heard of any consistently bad reviews.

Ive owned 2 acer desktops and they have served me well too.

 

I'm on my Acer 5516 now and I love it for what I use it for, which really isn't too much.
I mainly use it to surf, check emails, watch Dvds and take with me when I travel.

I got it brand new at Micro Center last June for $299 and it has not had any problems so far.

My youngest daughter got a Dell last year for Christmas and quite honestly, for 2X to 3X the money, I can't really see that it does anything that mine can't do.

She has even used mine on occasion and though she would normally turn her cute little nose up at what she calls a "no name", she does admit that it's pretty decent.

 

Check out Sam's Club or Costco. I like their 90 day return policy. At Fry's or BB they charge a 15% return to stock even if you open the box.
Staple's and Office Depot have a 15 day return policy and everyone wants you so sign up for the extended warranty.

 

You know, I absolutely love Fry's, but their restocking fee policy sucks major.

 

I ended up getting a Sony vaio from Best Buy (with the warranty ) It was basically this one:

http://www.sonystyle.ca/commerce/se...d=1007417&navigationPath=n32009n100299n100725

I don't know if it was suggested in particular by anyone but I knew more sort of what I was looking for because of the advice.