Which laptop for uni work and light gaming?

[sammy_b0i]

Have a conundrum... Looking at a few different Laptops for uni next year, and i know i shouldn't buy now if i could buy in 6 months and they'll all be cheaper.. but it's hard to resist. Just usual uni applications, office, internet stuff, typing essays at uni... At home though, will be docked to a normal keyboard/mouse/bigger screen. As for gaming, would only look to play older games, and the occasional WoW

#1 - MSI Wind
* Intel Atom 1.6Ghz
* Intel GMA 950
* 10" 1024 X 600 LED backlit
* 2.5" 80 GB
* 1.2kg
* Ethernet 10/100
* VGA
* MIC-in
* Line-out
* USB2.0 (x3)
* SD card slot
* 802.11b/g
* BT 2.0 (Optional)

Now the wind can be had for $599 with the 6-cell battery, giving it a 5.5hr rated battery life. Perfect for long uni days away from a charger. Never used a netbook before, but i guess it would be pretty cool. Would run XP on it (or even OSX ) and as for gaming, the GMA950 is.. well... the GMA950 :/

#2 Lenovo 3000 N200

*Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.46ghz
*1gb DDR2 667mhz RAM
*Intel GMA950
*120gb HDD
*Wireless
*Gigabit LAN
*Memory card reader
*14.1" screen
*Firewire
*PC Express slot
*Windows Vista Basic

The infamous $598 N200 Big-W special Looking at this due to increased screen real estate and better specs at the same price as the Wind. It's a different class of Laptop I know, but still. More grunt. Gaming is the same. Battery life with a 9-cell is 4-5 hrs of light use.

#3 - Dell Inspiron 1525

*Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T5750 (2.0 GHz/667MHz/2MB)
*1Gb DDR2-667
*160Gb Hdd
*15.4" Widescreen WXGA (1280x800)
*Intel X3100 VGA
*10/100 LAN
*802.11G WiFi
*Etc...

Was looking at this as a bit more grunt than the above, due to the better CPU, bigger HDD, Bigger screen size and better VGA. Now i know it might start to sacrifice portability here, but the price of $699 isnt that bad at all.
Gaming would be increased over the GMA950 and with the usual Dell quality.

#4 - Older second hand Laptop - I.E Dell 8600 (Centrino-era)

*2GHZ pentium M
*1GB DDR RAM
*60GB 7200rpm HDD
*Radeon 9600 Pro Turbo
*Intel 802.11B/G wireless
*15" screen
*8x DVD burner

This, or anything in the same Centrino-era. D400's, T4x's..etc. Cheaper is the key here. Whether i actually with need all the CPU power. HDD is upgradable, but will be using a massive external at home. Can upgrade ram too. 15" screen, so again with portability, but the res is great. ~3hrs battery life on the listed specs in the FS forums. Video will be good for light gaming.


Now... After writing all of the above, im tempted for the Centrino-era due to price. I know the C2D cpu's will spank it for benchmarks, but a cheaper version with a better video card could do as a minor desktop replacement..

Thoughts very much appreciated :/ SLATYE where are you? :P

[millsy_c]

I find my T40 is fine for school work and the occaisional game. Even though the video card is only a radeo 7500 32mb, it can still play cs source at 800x600 with a little detail and hold 60fps.
Battery life is good too, >3.5 hours depending on what you do.

[SLATYE]

I think you really need to decide whether you want a laptop or a netbook. Personally, I carry a 15.4" laptop around Uni every day and it's fine. However, I can certainly understand the attraction of a super-light netbook.

Obviously if you decide you want a netbook then the Wind and Aspire One will be the options to look at. You may also want to consider some of the old IBM/Lenovo ultra-portables. If you decide you want a 'proper' laptop, forget those and have a look at the 14.1" and 15.4" alternatives.

I probably wouldn't buy an old Pentium-M system now, for a few reasons:

• No warranty. Anything that dies, apart from the HDD, will cost a lot to replace.
• The battery is going to be nearing the end of its life.
• There's no 64-bit support (Pentium-M and Core Duo = 32-bit only). It'll be okay for now, but I think you'll be looking for an upgrade before too long.
• DDR RAM isn't all that cheap; it'll be relatively expensive to upgrade that.
• Dells from around that era didn't have a good reputation. The Core Duo versions were better.

If you can get an old Core 2 Duo system (from the first generation of C2Ds - T7200/T7400/T7600) for a decent price then I'd consider that. It'll have DDR2 RAM, probably a SATA HDD, and it might even have some of the original warranty remaining.

Personally, I think I'd plan to get the Lenovo, but keep an eye out in the For Sale forums and the Dell Factory Outlet over the next few months before buying. I haven't been checking the Australian Dell Outlet recently; but the US version has had some great deals (refurbished Latitude XT Tablet PCs for ~$700, including a 3-year warranty).