Infoseek: Laptops

[cherry]

As I know a great many of you are more knowledgeable on the subject than I am: I am quite possibly getting a laptop for grad, and I was wondering if there were any words of wisdom -- or suggestions, or recommendations, or just plain anything I need to know.

It's going to have to last me four or five years. University, of course. I'd like to be able to use it to take notes in class, as I type so much less slowly than I write. A burner would be nice, but I can always get an external and hook it up -- With my music addiction, I'm going to be saving money in the long run. I don't know what I'm going to need for power, for RAM or anything. As far as I know, all laptops are fully compatible with printers, so that shouldn't be much of a concern.

I'm comfortable working with both Mac and IBM compatibles, and I really don't have a preference for either one.

Any thoughts/suggestions/pointers/warnings/funny stories involving laptops hurtling through fifth story windows?

Comments

[pixelarious.livejournal.com]

I have mixed feelings about my Vaio, but that's only cuz it's 4 yrs old. They're good computers, but not quite built to last more than maybe 2-3 years. (For example: the dvd/cd-rom drive is busted and freaked my puter out whenever I'd try to play something.) However, they are smart little machines and often come nicely loaded, esp in the middle range.
A kid in my Poli Sci class has one of those little Macs, the lil lil ones, and he uses it to take notes. Bad part about that is if the professor writes a graph or something on the board (as it's a research methods course, he does a lot of scatterplots and whatever), you can't do the same on your laptop. I think if you do want to use one in class, you should also have a pad of paper that you use for all classes, just to be on the safe side.
What my dad made me do before I bought mine, and altho it was annoying it was also extremely helpful, was make a spreadsheet of all the laptops I was looking at. I'm a bit of a technogeek (a mild one, to be sure, but I know more than most), so I was rather particular about what I'd be spending my hard-earned babysitting money on. I recommend doing that, with categories like price, memory, speed, whatever you find important.
Good luck- hope this helped : )