Thoughts anybody?

Hello all...I'm new to this forum but everyone seems to be quite knowledgable. I'm a senior in high school now and will be attending Clemson University in the fall. Clemson has a partnership (whatever you want to call it) with Lenovo, and this is probably where I'm going to get my laptop. I'm going to be majoring in Engineering so I think a decent amount of performance will be required. Right now I'm eyeing the T60- 15", Dual core 2 ghz, 1gb ram, 100 gb HD, ATI x1400 128mb graphics, etc. Through Clemson I can get it for $1900 which I think is a pretty legit deal. Other offerings are the 14" T60, Z61t, and the x41, but they don't really interest me...any thoughts? also...i read on another site that core duos will be dropping in price pretty soon, but I don't know if I could wait to order. any advice would be great thanks.

 

well here is my advice if you want to get a laptop never be stuck on one brand
but if you can get a leveno for 1900 like that you are getting a steeal of a deal. leveno's are the probable ther best built compuers on earth. i know in an acer you can get one wiht just a little bit better hd, ram, graphics for 1900 as well (Acer TravelMate 8200)

i would never rule out that leveno that is a very good deal
Leveno = more expensive by far the best build
Acer = are built to favor more power rather than a rock solid desing( you can't throw it off a building like the Leveno) but other than that they are good builds as well

personal i would go acer but that is because i have had good luck with them.

if the university is "sponsered" by leveno then go with that leeenos are good oomputers.

 

Something like the Dell D820 will offer good build quality. The Quardo cards offered in them are better suited to doing CAD if you are than the x1400. The screen on the Dell won't be as good as the FlexView on the ThinkPad.

 

Dell laptops suck. You are on the right page when you look at the T60. Pick any T60 laptop.

 

You can get a similarly equiped Dell much cheaper and the Latitudes offer good build quality. I guess you'll have to decide if the ThinkPad is worth the extra cash.

 

Have you actually looked at the D*20 set of laptops? They're actually really quite nice. The D610 and 810 (though not the 510) were lightyears ahead of previous latitudes, and the D620 and 820 are pretty solid machines. They're not quite thinkpad quality, but not really far off, either.

 

find out if the on-campus computer repair is lenovo-certified. at RPI they were, and it was very convenient to be able to just walk in with the laptop instead of calling and/or having to send it in for service.

 

I would get Txx just for the screen and the keyboard. The screen is waaay softer on the eyes than any Dell out there and if you are looking at staring at that thing for a long time, go for the eye safety... Acers are very good laptops as well, screen are not as good in mate but their glossy ones are really nice, although I don't like the glossy screens they are more than just good. Maybe I am just spoiled by the IBMs I've had.

 

I just config'ed a D620 and comparable T60 and the T60 was cheaper ($1275 vs. $1100 after $250 rebate). The Dell had a better video card and more more memory, but I can buy the 512 memory cheap.