college student looking for a laptop

hi
i'm having trouble to decide wich laptop to buy, my first choice was the thinkpad t42 for the build quality ofthis unit. But i found out that this unit is off budget (2000 $ can) for the kind of spec i want.
right now i'm considering a z71v but i'd like to have some input about the build quality of this unit, is it solid enough to last long (at least 3 years) under heavy usage?
What kind of price should i expect for a z71v with these specs considering that i might be buying this unit in late december ?

disired spec

pentium M 2 Ghz
HDD 60 Gb 5400 rpm
graphic card with 128 Ram
1GB RAM

 

I think you should be asking yourself when the time comes. The Z71V has been around for quite a while now. It may be "out of style" by late December. No offense, Z71 owners... but my Z70V came out only 6 months ago and it's almost out of style already. I would say try getting the Z70V refresh, hopefully it'll be out by then.

Although it's an older body, it's still a hell of a lot better looking than the Z71V in my opinion. There were words (on forums, of course) of a Z71V refresh or replacement, anybody heard of that too?

 

I really doubt there will be one for the z71v. It's pretty much already powerful, you can't really change much, but a 6800 will obviously be pretty sweet. If it comes, there are gonna be alot of happy people

As for the laptops, a decently spec's z71v(2.0 + 1gb ram + 7k60) will run a bit under $2k after taxes(here in Ontaroi anyways).

The price drops around $20~30 every few weeks from what I've seen.

 

Currently for this configuration:

System + Carrying Case + AC Adapter (Z71V ) Z71V(M7) PENTIUM M LAPTOP(160Z71V)
Optical Drive (X ) Z71 COMBO OPTICAL DRIVE(165Z71001)
Processor (760 ) INTEL PENTIUM M 2.00 GHz W/ 2MB CACHE/ 533fsb(16162000FJ)
Memory (Slot 1) REQUIRED (D5 ) 1GB DDR2 533MHz SO-DIMM(16231GBD5)
Memory (Slot 2) OPTIONAL None
Hard Drive - Standard (4200 rpm) Fast (5400 rpm) Ultra (7200 rpm) (61 ) MOBILE HARD DRIVE 60G (5400 RPM)(1640061)
Operating System None
INTERNAL CENTRINO WIRELESS (W ) INTEL 2915ABG WIRELESS MINI PCI NIC(168WM32915ABG)

You are looking at $1569.66 and save 3% for Student discount (47.09) so the total is $1522.57.

I can guesstimate that you would see another $100-200 decrease by December due to processor pricing changes.

 

thanks everybody,

startech where can i get it a this price?

and for the upcoming Z70v refresh, is there an official release date and can you guess what kind of price i should expect for the same conviguration

 

At Startech

 

That price is in USD though...

As for the z70va, or whatever it'll be called, it will come when its ready whenever that is.

ASUS has not said a thing and rumours are flying around like flies over a. Until any of the dealer's actually have them in stock, then I'll believe it.

 

Hey..StarTech speaks....

eheh haven't seen their name in awhile.

 

Yes, please visit our site www.stipc.com

 

Been really busy, lol.

 

The Z70va, z71, or the refresh w1 would be good options. The z71 definitely have the best bang for the buck. z70va and w1 would have more "appealing" design.