Buying a new laptop

[vordrax]

After a reasonable hiatus, I'm returning to college and need a new computer, as my current PC is... old.

Now, this was a simple affair originally- I was researching some choice components, and intended on raiding Newegg for the bits at a good price. Then I was made aware of Microsoft's current gimmick- buy a new Windows box from a limited selection of vendors, and get a free Xbox 360 4gb. I do not own an Xbox 360, so naturally I am moderately intrigued by this deal. So I have altered my plan- buy a computer from one of those vendors this semester, build a high performance desktop next semester.

I've decided that if I were going to purchase a pre-constructed computer, I would get a laptop for the convenience. I'm commuting to school, but my Wednesdays are going to be dreadful (a particularly evil oversight of scheduling has left me with a 12!! hour school day on Wednesday, while granting me Tuesdays and Thursdays off) so i'd at least like to be able to game a bit on it. I'd be happy if it were superior to my old desktop, which shouldn't be difficult (Core 2 Duo 1.8ghz, nVidia 8600 GTS, 4gigs RAM) but honestly I'm concerned mainly with three things: I need to be able to code on it, it needs to come with a free Xbox 360 (which means it has to run at least $690), and I'd REALLY like to have an accidental damage plan on it as well.

The most comprehensive list I've seen of the PCs I can select from is on Amazon (though there may be more that aren't on this list), and Amazon has the SquareTrade 3-year + Accident warranty, which is fairly expensive, but I've heard it's pretty good. The Microsoft Store is woefully inadequate, so I didn't bother with it. I toyed with buying a custom Dell or HP, and while I did get a pretty good laptop out of HP for a good price, I'm not familiar enough with laptop hardware to know if I'm getting a good deal. To be honest, I don't know if it's POSSIBLE to get a good deal and still get a free Xbox 360.

Thoughts? Advice? Chastisements?

EDIT: Forgot to add, my price limit is about $1100-1200.

[Cyborg]

Should do the research on the "prize" also...

Here is an Amazon review for that product:
 By S. Hammack   "Don't make the same mistake I did -- the 4 GB version may seem like a good deal if you don't think you'll need a lot of space, but what they don't tell you is that some features REQUIRE an actual hard drive.  You might think that a gig is a gig and it shouldn't make any difference whether it's on a disk or flash memory, but to the Xbox, they are not equivalent.
 
This means that unless you buy a hard drive (and it has to be one of the new 250 GB hard drives because the old ones are not compatible), you get no backwards compatibility with Xbox games, and some 360 games will arbitrarily block you from some features such as playing online or even installing updates or DLC, regardless of how much free space you have available.  Basically, you can only use the internal storage (or a flash drive) to store full games, saves, or other media, but it's not the same as having a 4 GB hard drive.  I wish someone had told me this before I bought mine; I foolishly assumed that the features would be identical and the only difference would be the amount of space, but now I have to buy a hard drive separately, adding up to more than it would have cost if I'd just bought the 250 GB model in the first place. Caveat emptor, indeed. "

[vordrax]

IIRC the Xbox 360 is upgradeable with other SATA hard drives, though from what I hear it's a bit annoying. I think a friend of mine did it.

[Cyborg]

IIRC the Xbox 360 is upgradeable with other SATA hard drives, though from what I hear it's a bit annoying. I think a friend of mine did it.

That may also void the warranty.

[vordrax]

Thank you for the word of caution. I did know about the pitfalls of that particular device but I'm glad you brought it up, because it forced me to reconsider. And I realized that there is no "all win" scenario here. Either way, they get their money, and I don't really care that much about console gaming, certainly not enough to buy an overpriced laptop just so that I can have a poor man's Xbox. I was too concerned with getting "the most stuff," but I'd be much better served going ahead and building my desktop and not worry about a laptop that I don't really need, and I'm not terribly sure I even want it.

[Echo35]

You can buy 360 Hard Drives on Amazon for about $40 or $50.

As far as a new PC goes, with that budget, you can't go wrong with a desktop. My laptop is certainly a beast, but it also cost a lot more than that

[KingIsaacLinksr]

If you don't need the laptop portability, get a desktop.  I personally use a desktop and an iPad/iPhone to get around with my college and that has worked out well so far.  Except for one class with that CD thing...anyway. 

I currently only suggest Dell, HP and Apple laptops.  The rest have some hefty risks behind them. 

King

[Echo35]

If you don't need the laptop portability, get a desktop.  I personally use a desktop and an iPad/iPhone to get around with my college and that has worked out well so far.  Except for one class with that CD thing...anyway. 

I currently only suggest Dell, HP and Apple laptops.  The rest have some hefty risks behind them. 

King

I'd replace Dell with Lenovo myself, but HP and Apple are decent, though with the price of an Apple, you'd be better ff buying 10 desktops

My particular laptop is a System76, which are more for the computer literate and tinkerers, but I'm in love with mine.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

The MacBook Airs are a good bang for the buck these days, though I dunno if they are good enough for gaming.  And they are under the $1100 limit the OP mentioned .

Never tried Lenovo myself and don't know anyone elsewho has. 

King

[Orelius]

Well, it wouldn't work well in that the OP won't get a free Xbox360, so I don't really think that's an option.

[Cyborg]

The MacBook Airs are a good bang for the buck these days, though I dunno if they are good enough for gaming.  And they are under the $1100 limit the OP mentioned .

Never tried Lenovo myself and don't know anyone elsewho has. 

King

You are paying for "cool" factor when you purchase an Apple computer. Honestly, the only reasons to purchase an Apple computer is if you need to develop for it or for the generic "I just like it." It's operating system is an imitation of Linux. You cannot play most games on it(without loading up emulators and various Windows tools). Some people say, "oh I bought it for design." It's a pointless argument now because the architecture on the inside is the exact same as a PC. It's still x86.

There are those that purchase it to boycott Microsoft in some kind of "rebellion," as if Apple wasn't a huge corporation or anything. It's silly.

[KingIsaacLinksr]

Let's not get this into another Apple VS PC debate, as that is Not what the OP was wanting, I merely threw it out there as a suggestion.  Love it or hate it.

King

[Cyborg]

Let's not get this into another Apple VS PC debate, as that is Not what the OP was wanting, I merely threw it out there as a suggestion.  Love it or hate it.

King

Yes. And I suggested that it was not a very good idea. The original request included budget constraints. Technically, he could get a laptop and a decent desktop (if he built it) for that price.

Or get an Apple computer that has absolutely no benefit in this scenario.

[Echo35]

Or get an Apple computer that has absolutely no benefit in this scenario.

The only scenario here is that he wanted one with an XBox 360, which are of course not Apple machines. I hate Macs just as much as the next guy, but if that works for him, it works for him.

[Nalgas]

I'd replace Dell with Lenovo myself

As would I.  I don't particularly trust Dell's consumer line and never really have.  The higher end professional stuff is ok, though, and the support for them is much better, too.  Not really thrilled with HP, either, for that matter, other than maybe some of their higher end stuff, for similar reasons.

My base model MacBook I'm using now was actually pretty reasonable for what I got at the time, largely because Micro Center had a semi-permenent $200 off deal on them for some reason.  The other ones I was looking at at the time (mostly mid-range Asus and Lenovo models) were fairly comparable for something of similar quality and only slightly higher specs.  Of course, now that Apple's discontinued the cheap model, no such thing is available anymore.  Between that and the scary things going on in OS X 10.7 (if I wanted my computer to use the iOS interface (which I don't) I'd get an iPad), I'll probably just end up with a nice ThinkPad next time around at this rate, because they've largely retained their level of quality over the years.