Need Help On Buying a Laptop

Art, Gaming, and everything else!

Angelo, with one in college already and one going I offer the following... If the course of study is art, graphic design or similar then the choice is Mac. Mac is not much for gaming! In fact lapyops in general do not do high end gaming very well at all. If this is to be a high end, high tech general purpose PC then you need a desktop. I just built one for an engineering student that ran $1.200 w/o monitor, keyboard, or mouse. The best advice for you is to check with the school for their requirements for the course of study... then go to the bookstore and price the correct PC there. For example, we got the proper laptop, printer, software, printer starter pack, and PC case for far less than the laptop cost at any discounter.
 
And to take delder0's point one step further, there are other advantages to purchasing the computer from the college or university.

In many cases, the computer comes with a school configured image which can easily be restored if there's a problem. Some schools offer Tech Support which includes on site parts for quick turnaround repairs. That can be a lifesaver for a student who can't afford significant downtime of their computer.
 
Depends how much money you want to spend. I will never buy anything other than Apple. They are very reliable and very easy to use. Also their customer service is some of the best I have ever dealt with
 
To touch on what GEWB said real quick, I would stay away from MOST AMD based laptops. The performance isn't near that of an Intel chip, they run hotter and battery life isn't as good. The only ones AMD laptops I like are the ones that run the Fusion chipset, but I'd still go with an Intel chip anyway. And since you said gaming, it's time to forget about Apple.
And if I'm not too late, I would like to suggest a laptop you probably have never heard of. The Sager NP5160 over at xoticpc(.)com 3 year labor, 1 year parts, lifetime 24/7 toll free phone support. Stock config is $725 with a 2nd i5 core, 4gb of ram, 320gb hard drive, a nice nVidia 540m video card and a Sound Blaster sound card. How many laptops come with a good sound card nowadays? $50 gets a nice 1920x1080 full 1080p screen and since you said art programming, wouldn't it be nice if your daughter had the best screen available? (good luck finding a 1080p screen in almost any laptop these days) and upgrading to the 500gb 7200rpm (for a faster read and write time) is $20 and $90 Windows 7. They let you decide what OS to run, since the hard drive comes with no OS on it.. If you need to upgrade the CPU that's up to you. If I didn't just score a slick deal on a Lenovo laptop, I would buy this Sager in a heartbeat.
I hope I helped.
 
Thank you everyone, well we got a Toshiba Laptop. It was loaded with everything she wanted and with many extras too.
 
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