# Help me build a laptop! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [August 26, 2008, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291 "2008-08-26T07:08:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/1 "2008-08-26T07:08:03Z")
Er, excuse me, “mobile workstation” :rolleyes:. Anyway, the school is making me a pretty nice laptop for around 2.5k (or that’s what they’re billing me), however I can get 2k and make one myself instead. A lot of people say they can do better with 2k. Unfortunately, I never was good at laptops, never really liked them. So I need some help at seeing if I could do better from the experts here. Here are the specs as they told them to me: XP (x86), no clue on the version, probably pro. Intel Core 2 Duo Processor @ 2.2Ghz 2GB DDR2 RAM @ 667 (667 what you ask? Some form of Hz I presume, but I forgot to write down mega/giga/whatever, just fill in whatever sounds standard to you) 17" screen Highest supported resolution:1440 x 900 (would’ve been higher, but we’re game design, not game art so they upped the processor for us insteadof giving us tons of pixels) Speaking of art… NVidio Centrino Quadra FX 1600N GFX Card –VRAM DDR3 512 MB Integrated Sound(yay!) DVD Burner (Yay! Didn’t tell me the speed though) 80GB hard drive @ 720 RPM And a Dell Business Complete Care Gold warranty (they made a point of this… for some reason) So any ideas off-hand? ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/2 "2008-08-26T13:09:28Z")
That seems absurdly expensive for that laptop. I think you can configure the same laptop on [dell.com](http://dell.com) for 800 or 900 dollars, minus the Gold warranty. ---
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/3 "2008-08-26T21:35:27Z")
I have to agree with **treis**. I am thinking of buying a laptop and so for a few weeks now I’ve been building and pricing laptops on Dell, Lenovo, and HP and also comparing those with ready-to-go models at places like BB, CC, OD, etc. and I’ve put together maxed out systems for less than $1500. I’m not an expert by any means, but I think 2 gb RAM sounds fairly bare-bones now days, though maybe that’s all you need for XP. Everything else sounds great, but just way too expensive. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2008, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/4 "2008-08-26T21:54:20Z")
[QUOTE=SmellMyWort] I have to agree with **treis**. I am thinking of buying a laptop and so for a few weeks now I’ve been building and pricing laptops on Dell, Lenovo, and HP and also comparing those with ready-to-go models at places like BB, CC, OD, etc. and I’ve put together maxed out systems for less than $1500. I’m not an expert by any means, but I think 2 gb RAM sounds fairly bare-bones now days, though maybe that’s all you need for XP. Everything else sounds great, but just way too expensive. [/QUOTE] Well, those were the specs for what they’re selling us for 2.5k, I knew it wasn’t too good for that price. I was looking for a little more help on companies and such and what laptop components were good (I understand that most stuff in a laptop isn’t the same compnent as a desktop but a “mobile” version), because they’ll give me a 2k check to build my own if I don’t like theirs (which I don’t). ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 2:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/5 "2008-08-27T02:51:40Z")
What are you looking for here? Something small and light, or something more powerful but bigger? What are the typical tasks you are going to use the laptop for? ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/6 "2008-08-27T09:17:27Z")
Does that $2.5K include specialist software? ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 10:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/7 "2008-08-27T10:46:12Z")
My rule of thumb is to check out the Dell Small Business Vostro line. Always go for the small business line, they have less crapware on them. ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2008, 7:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/8 "2008-08-27T19:43:22Z")
[QUOTE=Quartz] Does that $2.5K include specialist software? [/QUOTE] No, the specialist software (Photoshop, etc) is billed to our student account when we get it. [QUOTE=treis] What are you looking for here? Something small and light, or something more powerful but bigger? What are the typical tasks you are going to use the laptop for? [/QUOTE] Sorry about the lack of detail, I’m visiting home and my mom’s old laptop has a spcebar that only works about 50% of the time, leading me to a “just get the post done” attitude. I’ll be using it for 3D rendering (Maya, blender etc), programming, and testing games. I’ll probably use it a bit for gaming as well, but that’s mainly my desktop’s job. I have to be able to at least realistically run Unreal 3, since we’re getting the U3 Black Box (the one with the editors and such) for one of our classes. Big and powerful works fine, I’m used to hauling around tons of stuff (a backpack with 6 textbooks, a trombone, a flute, and a piccolo last year for example). ---
**Author:** ![E-Sabbath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e19adc/32.png) [@E-Sabbath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-Sabbath)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/9 "2008-08-28T03:49:48Z")
Numberpad or no numberpad? ---
**Author:** ![Jragon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e19b73/32.png) [@Jragon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jragon)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/10 "2008-08-28T04:14:21Z")
[QUOTE=E-Sabbath] Numberpad or no numberpad? [/QUOTE] Don’t really care, preference is slightly on “with.” ---
**Author:** ![treis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bc79bd/32.png) [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2008, 5:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/help-me-build-a-laptop/461291/11 "2008-08-28T05:33:25Z")
[QUOTE=Jragon] No, the specialist software (Photoshop, etc) is billed to our student account when we get it. Sorry about the lack of detail, I’m visiting home and my mom’s old laptop has a spcebar that only works about 50% of the time, leading me to a “just get the post done” attitude. I’ll be using it for 3D rendering (Maya, blender etc), programming, and testing games. I’ll probably use it a bit for gaming as well, but that’s mainly my desktop’s job. I have to be able to at least realistically run Unreal 3, since we’re getting the U3 Black Box (the one with the editors and such) for one of our classes. Big and powerful works fine, I’m used to hauling around tons of stuff (a backpack with 6 textbooks, a trombone, a flute, and a piccolo last year for example).[/quote[ Well, you’re doing some pretty heavy stuff with the laptop. You probably should go towards something with a larger screen and better specs. I’d recommend going with the Dell Studio 17 line, or if you want to go crazy, go with the HP 20" line. You aren’t looking at a lot of mobility, but it’s going to be sweet with the specs.