Suggestions for a new Laptop for college?

[Haoming]

I have 1.5k to spend but I'd prefer if it was a little cheaper so I could have some money left on some other stuff, perhaps 1.2k?

What would you recommend for this budget? I'll either be getting it end of this summer or early next summer. Will the prices drop significantly if I decide to choose the latter?
The laptop would be used more for multi-tasking and such and not for hardcore gaming. I think most laptops these days can handle games like CS:S, BF2142, CoD2, etc. I hope that it would have enough power to spare for 1 or 2 new games in the sequel though.

Should I go with a custom built laptop from one of the online stores or go with a mainstream brand like Sony, HP, Dell, etc.

What kind of screen do most people go for these days? The usual 15.4" (or was it 14.5 >_>)?

[jay_bo]

personally i would choose sony, i dont hink dell are any good. I dont understand why you want 2 spend 1.2k on a laptop because you are using it for college so you wil be using office programs such as word n that mainly,its not like your goin to design stuff and have top of the range software. i would only spend abou 500 - 600 may less if youre not much of a gamer. IT all depends on your course really!

[Haoming]

I didn't think you could get a decent laptop with 500-600.

Would it be enough to run those games I mentioned at a nice FPS/res. & have a little extra punch? The most pc intensive app I'll probably be using is Photoshop or Flash or something. How would those fare on a 500-600 rig?

[turtile]

I would go with one of these:
Asus S96S Barebone 15.4" WXGA/GeForce 8600M GS 256MB/Webcam : GenTech PC Store

[SapperX]

Please, run far away from sony. Sony is overpriced and still crap. HP as of late has been decent, dell is always risky (bad manufacturing) but decent, and acer is currently the best option in my opinion. Get on newegg, find an acer that fits what you need, and it'll be the best for the money.

Of course, if it were me, I would definitely get an apple... but that would probably cost the whole 1.5k (you get what you pay for).

[jay_bo]

Sony VAIO VGN-N31M/W Laptop Core 2 Duo T5300 1.73GHz 1GB 120GB 15.4" TFT DVD/RW Windows Vista Home Premium thats the one im think of getting for college

[SapperX]

Why sony jay_bo? I will do what I can to talk you out of that...

[Brinson]

Sony is outrageously overpriced usually. I'd go with either dell or IBM.

[fastrandstrongr]

i would wait until early next summer if thats still an option like you said.

[Snake91839]

for college, and if you don't really want to do heavy gaming, which you won't really want to do on a laptop anyway. I would go with a Macbook, if you don't like dealing with Mac, then I would check out IBM/Lenovo. The thinkpads are AMAZING and the customer service is OUTSTANDING. You would not be disappointed with either of those companies.