what are the choices for best portable notebook? plz help thx.

You could pick up just about any notebook with any non-Celeron processor and it would be more than enough for you. Basically, just find one that looks good to you and fits well with your budget, and its yours.

Get an Asus 70v refresh or a Dell.

few words of wisdom:

1) stay away from dell. although they are improving in quality, their cheaper systems (read, not XPS2) are still of sh*tty build quality. Although their tech support is a hit or miss (if you need return/exchange/fix they will do it, but over the phone its a lost cause).

2) stay away from HP/Compaq. they have possibly the worst tech support i ever had to deal with, they straight out DENIED they ever made a product with my part number

3) stay away from Alienware. the rigs are nice, but prices are crazy and tech support is sub-par from what i hear

4) toshiba is hell. again, from what i heard and experiences of friends, their hardware has a tendency to fail right about the time the warranty is up.

5) stay away from apple, at least until the intel switch. plenty of logic behind this one, think about it.

6) ASUS is probably a good choice, they build solid stuff, and resellers like discountlaptops not only give you a good deal, but also top notch tech support.


now for the hardware.
just about anything will do for you, really.

CPU wise I would suggest Turion or P-M. Both powerful enough and give you great battery life.

GPU, anything, even integrated will do. In fact, i'll suggest integrated because it sucks less juice and that means more battery life.

RAM. grab 512mb for starters, if you feel a lag, upgrade to a gig

HDD. Go 5400rpm, if possible jump for 7200rpm. Don't settle for 4200, it will lag you like no other. Size wise, depends what you need, I say go 20gig bigger than you think you need. So if you are thinking you can manage 40gb, go 60.

Screen. I don't know how much is mobility key. Do you want really mobile 12" or can you haul around a 15.4" ? At any rate, pick a screen you can enjoy looking at.


good luck on your finds

I'll take some time to reply, especially to the Pancake Man's post because he seems to have provided the most insight so far.

"1) stay away from dell. although they are improving in quality, their cheaper systems (read, not XPS2) are still of sh*tty build quality. Although their tech support is a hit or miss (if you need return/exchange/fix they will do it, but over the phone its a lost cause)."
1) While the lower-end systems are not as solid as the better ones, that's the lower end systems. As long as you look at one of those silver/white ones, you will be fine. By that, I mean the 700m, the 6000, and the 9300. The 600m is not bad, either. The worst ones are the black ones, the 1200 and the 2200. The tech support is great if you are patient and polite, but sometimes it's a hassle. However, if you get fed up with one tech, feel free to hang up. I do it all the time.

"2) stay away from HP/Compaq. they have possibly the worst tech support i ever had to deal with, they straight out DENIED they ever made a product with my part number"
I agree, but not so much because of the support. Compaq computers just suck, and HP is not that good compared to the other major manufacturers such as Sony, IBM, and Dell.

"3) stay away from Alienware. the rigs are nice, but prices are crazy and tech support is sub-par from what i hear"
Forget the support. Unless you like throwing away money, you won't have to deal with them because you won't buy an Alienware.

"4) toshiba is hell. again, from what i heard and experiences of friends, their hardware has a tendency to fail right about the time the warranty is up."
I agree. Nothing else needs to be said.

"5) stay away from apple, at least until the intel switch. plenty of logic behind this one, think about it."
Unless you're used to working on Apples, it's probably better to stick to Windows. Of course, the price helps me stay away, too.

"6) ASUS is probably a good choice, they build solid stuff, and resellers like discountlaptops not only give you a good deal, but also top notch tech support."
I don't know much about Asus, so I won't say anything good, or anything bad.

"CPU wise I would suggest Turion or P-M. Both powerful enough and give you great battery life."
I'd suggest a Pentium M. The battery life is longer, and it performs really well. Personally, from what I've seen, it performs better than the Turion. I know some benchmarks say the same, but some say different. I'm just talking from personal standpoint.

"GPU, anything, even integrated will do. In fact, i'll suggest integrated because it sucks less juice and that means more battery life."
I completely agree, unless you want to play games. For movies and general work, integrated will be fine. Of course, if you find a cheap computer with a dedicated card, that doesn't hurt.

"RAM. grab 512mb for starters, if you feel a lag, upgrade to a gig"
I completely agree.

"HDD. Go 5400rpm, if possible jump for 7200rpm. Don't settle for 4200, it will lag you like no other. Size wise, depends what you need, I say go 20gig bigger than you think you need. So if you are thinking you can manage 40gb, go 60."
Again, I agree.

"Screen. I don't know how much is mobility key. Do you want really mobile 12" or can you haul around a 15.4" ? At any rate, pick a screen you can enjoy looking at."
I would suggest a 12" or a 14".

Now, after having said all that, I'll do what's expected of me and recommend a Dell. Specifically, I recommend that you take a look at the 700m and the 600m. Both are nice systems for someone who isn't looking for something with a powerful GPU. The 700m has a 12" screen with integrated graphics, while the 600m has a 14" screen with your choice of either a 32MB video card, or a 64MB video card.

[Added later]
Oh yeah, I forgot to defend Dell. Basically, what Freak4Dell has said about that is true. Dell's pretty good, especially with the newer line of notebooks (which basically makes up just over HALF of all the notebooks they sell right now). And especially for Dell Canada, the customer service can be quite good.

I fail to see the logic in this one. Consideration #1: If you are a university student in either the US or Canada, then if you get an iBook or Powerbook by Sept 24th (not sure for the US), you can get a free iPod mini 4GB or apply the mail-in-rebate to a higher priced iPod. Consideration #2: Why wait until at least next year just to have an Intel processor in your Apple computer? The current G4's plus Mac OS X Tiger are doing a good job for the user right now, aren't they? There's no need to wait, unless you anticipate some HUGE performance boost that results from running Mac OS X on a Pentium M (in which case, you STILL have to see whether or not it's worth waiting, or whether you CAN wait).

Apparently, for you, not a G4! Ha ha, ha ha.... *ahem*

Turion.... I've got to read some more reviews about Turion based systems.

GPU, anything, even integrated will do. In fact, i'll suggest integrated because it sucks less juice and that means more battery life.
[/quote]
Yeah, although it does slow down the whole system's performance a bit.

So, you're saying that like a 30% reduction in response times and RPM is going to make or break your HD performance? All the iBooks are running @ 4200RPM, you know? I think it's been manageable for them... (mostly guessing based on the absence of complaints, though).

From what I've heard, ppl enjoy switching over from Windows to Mac OS X. And the 12" iBook is SUPER CHEAP. Standard US price of $999 for a 12" iBook @ 5lbs w/ 1.33GHz G4, 512MB RAM, 40GB HD @ 4200RPM, built-in wireless 802.11b/g and bluetooth, and sudden motion sensing HD shutdown... ($1249 CDN standard price for Canadians). Knock of $50 US/CDN for university students and add in a $225 CDN (something else for USD) mail-in-rebate for a free iPod mini 4GB or the same amount off a higher priced iPod, and you've got something I thought I'd never see: A MORE AFFORDABLE Apple DEAL! (depending on what you're looking for)