Does anyone have any ideas on what makes a good laptop and what some better laptop brands are out there? I will probably need one early next year and am trying to budget for what I am going to need.

Does anyone have any ideas on what makes a good laptop and what some better laptop brands are out there? I will probably need one early next year and am trying to budget for what I am going to need.

I will await the oncoming lashing, but I love my macbook.

pay the man, buy the macbook.

no HPs

OK, so no HPs, buy Macbook.

I only really have experience with the two Mac laptops I've owned, but I've loved both of them, the current crop are excellent, the Macbook is just about perfect if you don't need it to do much gaming, and the price is very right, with the cheapest one at $1100 and still having a ton of features.

If you want a PC then DELL's are fairly reliable (I've used them for around 5 years with no hassle) - but Thinkpads are generally considered the 'best' if you have the budget.

If you're not fussed about windows then the Mac's are extremely sweet ....

*cough* Macbook *cough*

If you want a PC then DELL's are fairly reliable (I've used them for around 5 years with no hassle) - but Thinkpads are generally considered the 'best' if you have the budget.

If you're not fussed about windows then the Mac's are extremely sweet ....

It's not so much that I am for windows, but I am all for complete compatibility of files between myself and clients which will all be windows based systems. Plus, I am going to want to run some games on the system for fun while I am out of town.

If you want a PC then DELL's are fairly reliable (I've used them for around 5 years with no hassle) - but Thinkpads are generally considered the 'best' if you have the budget.

If you're not fussed about windows then the Mac's are extremely sweet ....

...Or you can just install Windows on your macbook.

IBM T series used to be the gold standard, but the switch to Lenovo kind of knocked them down a peg as they had a lot of issues at launch. I got a T60 for work a couple months back and liked it okay, but hardly used it... if you want a mid-size laptop and don't go Mac I think they're still easily the best (just that the margin has shrunk considerably). Last week I exchanged my T60 and am now awaiting a new X60s. For my uses I think an ultraportable will be much better and the Xs got great reviews.

If it was my own money though, the only laptop I would even consider is a MacBook Pro. I bought my wife a regular MacBook for Christmas and I love it. Apple used to be a bit of a joke for techies, but with the switch to a BSD-based OS and Intel processors their laptops are now the best across the board for both geeks and regular users IMO.

I'm currently in the same boat as Warhammer in looking at a new laptop. How much video graphics card memory is enough at this point? Is the 512 mb worth an additional $300 if I'm interested in playing something like Oblivion or Neverwinter Nights 2 on it?

When I get my student loan money in in January I plan on buying a laptop. I really want something that can play games and I can take with me to graduate school. Would a Macbook be what I want? The games I am playing are Medival Total War 2, Oblivion, and Sims 2. And I will be writing a lot of papers and doing research on it. Ill have 5k to spend, but I dont look to spend all of it on this one thing. Also GE will use it to play poker on.... What do you think

You wouldn't want a Macbook for playing heavy games, it has a pretty junky video card. You'd want the Macbook Pro which has a better video card option and is more powerful, but also more expensive.