I just joined the forum and read the sticky for newbies Which leads me to a very specific....What laptop should I buy, question

I'll be starting law school at the ripe old age of 41 next year and am looking for a new laptop. I'm not into gaming (no time) so graphics is not a big deal. I do enjoy video streaming, ....MLB.com to watch baseball and some potential classwork (Kaplan right now..).
All I need is something with a long battery life, good screen, small hard drive 20-30 gig, wireless networking and enough power for word processing, web browsing. I have an external cd burner so don't even need a cd drive. I even have a wireless printer router so multiple ports isn't even a big issue. Could all this be mine if the price is right? ----<$1000?

PS for those of you who also are into Home Theaters try AVSFORUM.com, like this it is an AWESOME place to learn/share info. They even have a subforum for PC's use in home theaters.

you can probably get that for under 1000 man.. your options are very limitied so u pretty much can get an ultra light 3pound laptop... probaly has a battery life of 4 hours...

im just guessing these specs i havnt looked at laptops in a couple months because i already bought mine...

thier are a lot of ultra lights that u can choose from, but sorry i cant give any names because i never looked at them...

Names, dammit, I need NAMES!.........just kidding, ...what I was wondering also: are there places that custom build laptops to my wishlist, or would would I spend just as much for the custom order as I would for an assembly line laptop with more features than I actually want? Lastly, I read somewhere about Chem USA laptops. Anybody ever heard of these? I believe they manufacture for other brands. And since I'm on that topic, what's in a name? MUCHO GRACIAS!

Less weight tends to add to the price too, funnily enough.

Yeah, my Asus is built from barebone by ChemUSA - the ChemBook 2060e. I have heard only great things about them and their customer/tech support have always been very helpful, and actually there, whenever I had to call them.
To tell you the truth, I can't think of a laptop for <1000 bucks with all the features you want. Ultraportables are great machines for taking notes in class - long bat life, light weight, etc. The problem is that they are very expensive and often even more expensive than "regular" laptops. In general, if you want long battery life - 4-5 hrs or so - the system has to be a Centrino laptop powered by Pentium M cpu and these are some of the most expensive laptops in the market.
For a NEW laptop for <1000, I can only think of walk-in stores such as BestBuy, CompUSA, etc. that sell prebuilt laptops. Most vendors who will actually give you the option to customize the machine will have prices much higher than those you can find at BestBuy and the likes.
A cheaper way of buying laptops in your desired configuration is buying barebones (the whole laptop case with screen and everything else except cpu, RAM, HD, and sometimes wireless card). But then you will have to buy the components by yourself and assemble everything alone. Still, the final price of a decently configured (nothing too powerful and flashy) laptop will go to at least $1300 or so.
Of course, there is always the possibility of trying eBay or some store like this.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/produ...34701230393814

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellsto...=i1000R1&s=dhs

both under $1000, but both have a spot for a CDRW. The dell might actually let you plug in an extra battery in the place of the CDRW, ask dell if your interested.

Any laptop that i've seen without a drive bay (i think i've seen a Sony like that) is an ultra portable and will be > 2000 easily.

Look here http://store.agearnotebooks.com/1213display.html well known brand name laptops. Asus, Compal & Sager

haha nice your a law student? I am a corporate lawyer in Japan, what law are you studying??


PS: For me I guess apples are good for laptop.

One day late and a dollar short, you missed the Dell $750 off laptop $1500 or more. Could have gotten a 700M but keep you eyes open and check some of the bargain sites (techbargains.com, etc). I'm sure it will happen again.

if you are interested at all in apples you could get an apple ibook for $999 with 1.2GHz PowerPC G4
512K L2 cache @1.2GHz
12-inch TFT Displays
1024x768 resolution
256MB DDR266 SDRAM
30GB Ultra ATA drive
Combo Drive
ATI Mobility Radeon 9200
32MB DDR video memory
AirPort Extreme built-in

Tom if it makes you feel any better, I'm 36 years young and have started college for the first time EVER.

I'm learning oodles too. BEWARE, in the day or two I've been on this forum, I've discovered I'm not willing to settle for less, like I thought I was. I keep finding more and more things that my prospective notebook just HAS to have now! It's addictive the knowledge! I've totally blown off my whole list of Best Buy and Circuit City prospects and am torn between Acer Ferrari, CL56 and the Battalion 101 E Series II at iBuyPower.com. Oh, and Sager keeps popping up - 3790. Well, at least I have a little time to choose before I have to have something! LOL Good thing, too. Okay. Sorry to get off subject. Good luck with your search.