Good idea to order college laptop now?

My original plan was to wait until the last minute so that I could get the best thing available, but I've decided on the W3J which is in stock at a few places and supposedly theres no definite restock time scheduled.

Should I wait until the end of July or just get the W3J now?

SO far my pros/cons list is like this:

Cons-
Price could go down
Newer model with better GPU could come out (that would suck)
Nice Turion X2 notebooks might be coming

Pros-
Have the rest of the summer to buy accesories for it. (bag, HD, ext. monitor, etc.)
Be able to get used to it during the summer.
In stock now.

Also, one last question that I know has been asked before, but will the W3J be able to be upgraded to a Merom CPU in the future?

Thanks for all the help.

 

Well, for some people, the best time to get a notebook is when needed and thats when you get it. If you keep waiting for the notebook, then you would not be able to get the notebook in the first place.

Also since its a Yonah processor, then it is capable of being upgraded to Merom and would also need a BIOS refresh I think?

 

Here are a couple of suggestions I've come to trust.....

1. purchase a system when you're **** good and ready.... when you *need* it or *want*.... can't go wrong.... however a lot of people push things off too far.

2. you're looking at a notebook that for all intents and purposes is brand new.... you're not going to be looking at much change in the system or the price between now and say when your semester starts.

3. you need time to get used to the system, load it up and get comfortable with it because school starts...... I usually say the first week of August is the cut off for buying a system for college, especially for first year students who are going to have even more going on..... you don't want to wait any longer than that.

4. what you can get today and what you can get in two months isn't going to mean much in 3-4 years when you want to buy a new system...

 

Well, I just got the ok from the man with the money (my dad) and it looks like I'll be ordering tonight. Thank you for your help, you guys made some great points.

I especially liked your last point, Justin. In 3-4 years is when I will probably get a new pc, and I don't think that waiting a month now is going to make much of a difference, as I'm sure I'll upgrade it during the time that I have it anyway.

Thanks again, hopefully I'll be posting from the W3J within a week or so.

 

i have had the same exact question for about 2 weeks now, and justin just answered it beautifully.

as an aside: any computer science majors using their laptops in school? is it pretty useful in the actual comp.sci classes?

 

I also just realized that it would probably be good to get a major expense such as this out of the way before the last few weeks before leaving, where tons of stuff will need to be purchased.

 

yeah i am in that same situation. i've also just been trying to convince myself that i really NEED one, instead of just wanting a new toy . i've done a pretty good job of it actually...

 

I know what you mean.

The college I'm going to actually gives all students a Lenovo but I had tonconvince my parents that I needed something more powerful/customizable.

 

It comes in pretty handy to try out code in class, especially the big lecture hall type classes. That is, if you are not already provided a computer in class.

 

that would be nice, unfortunatly mine doesnt. i think it might be a tad expensive to provide 50,000 students with a laptop. curse ASU and its biggest student base in the nation.

 

Yeah that would be pretty crazy.

My school is somewhere around 20k so its still pretty impressive, I guess.

 

The need for a notebook in college has gone up in recent years. I myself need one as my parents dont want me to take the desktop to college. Some classes need the notebook for labs and taking notes. Also even though many colleges have computers available, many students get one for personal computing and typing up notes and papers too.

 

iam definitly in the same boat as u, i dont know i think ill wait a little longer and see, i mean how long does it really take to get used to a laptop right?