Well after considering a Macbook, a short lived prospect, and because I need a notebook as I just can't go on using my Dad's notebook in a spot plus being regulated to using my desktop because of my lack of...I have been looking at notebooks.

Got the Stafford Subsidized loan coming my way plus add in small VA check kicker, gives me about $2,000 grand for a notebook.

Current top contenders (I am leaning towards the IBM):

Dell Latitude 830


IBM Thinkpad T61P


Thinkpad has 512mb Quadro (256mb dedicated / 256 shared) while Latitude has a 256mb Quadro (128 d / 128 s).

Both are outfitted with the Penryn T9300 chip because it is 2.5ghz with a 6mb Cache (6>4>3>2).

Just for an Apple comparison...it would cost $1,000 more for what is in these two, in the high end 15" Macbook Pro.

RAM is not important as I can easily grab a 4gb kit of compatible RAM for $100 and I am planning to do so...because I can. Maybe Black Mesa...haha FAT CHANCE!

Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions?

Hmm.

I recently got a Laptop from HP. ~100 cheaper, with another Gig of ram but I think a little less HDD space and 12 cell battery.

Out of those two I'd definitely say the thinkpad for the better video card and hard drive.

It what I was thinking too. I can drop it down by $30 on the IBM if I go with Vista Home Basic since I can get the software from school and will. Both Office Enterprise and Vista Ultimate. Supposedly somebody even managed to get Leopard up and running on it. Seems the Quadro 570 gets recognized as the Geforce 8700 under Leopard.

Of course, I will have to watch prices until the loan clears and I get cash in hand to get the computer but the IBM shouldn't change if at all because that price is when I went through their Education student purchase section.

It was the Lenovo Thinkpad T61p I went with and its very nice. Got a 4gb DDR2 667 RAM kit from Crucial and will combine it with the notebook since it only came with 1gb and the 1gb Turbo Cache. The Video card is a serious workhorse but it does cut battery time limit to 3 hours, it wasn't too hard to install Vista Ultimate x64 on it formatting the pre-installed Vista Basic. Lenovo (thanks to IBM) has a support update tool similar to Windows Update that installs the numerous drivers I would need and it recognizes and has drivers for the 64bit OS since MS laid down that law that for Vista they have to make drivers for both 32 and 64.

Notebook + School WiFi + Free time between classes = Great stuff