I'm starting university in London this September and have been awarded a £1000 scholarship for a computer. I guess that'll be about $1800 USD but systems tend to be a little more expensive in the UK. I've been racking my brains over what computer to choose for over a month now and I've barely been able to choose between a laptop or a desktop, a PC or a Mac; so if anyone has any words of wisdom then I'll be indebted.
I figure that it comes down to a matter of preference and functionality but these are the options I'm playing around with at the moment:
The Acer Aspire 1804WSMi Notebook - Intel Pentium 4 has really stirred me, it seems to be capable of work and play and that's exactly what I need it for; something capable of taking four years of university input and something which can double up as a multimedia/gaming experience. Then there's the Sony Vaio VGN-FS215S which is a really stylish machine and seems pretty similar to the Acer and at a similar price as well, but the processor runs at 1.8 in opposition to the 1804 which runs at 3.2; quite a difference. If anyone can think of a laptop which has the incredible peformance of the Acer but with the sleekness and style of the Sony then that's the kind of direction I want to be heading in.
My needs as a student will suit either a laptop or a desktop and it doesn't matter hugely which one I get so I was also looking into the imac-G5 17" 2.00G (again the same price as the laptops). I've never used a mac before and am a little unsure as to it's compatability to my own life; it'll need to process four years of undergraduate study on top of research and play etc. Granted it's a very sexy machine and looks as if it'll perform well but I'm having difficulty making my mind up between a laptop and the i-mac. IF ANYONE CAN HELP THEN I'LL BE MASSIVELY GRATEFUL. I mean it's a free lunch at the end of the day, but I want a computer which'll be able to suit me for four years, something which can handle a lot of work, a machine which can handle a little gaming and fun, fast internet access, and stylish and sleek.

Cheers. Doug Pennal, London.

Look at Dell 9300 with nVidia Go in it. Well built machine with P-M, 17", keyboard will get little used to time, but overall with 4 years warranty (worry free study) you'll get VERY (if not the most) powerful machine for decent money with Dell coupon (I don't know if they offer it in UK, do some research)

PS: I would not go Mac direction for gaming and study, caz gaming is mostly PC based, study is mostly MS based. Mac is good for some composing/additing pro work, nothing else.

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Pentium 4 and Pentium-M are different processor. You can't just compare hertz. For a laptop, i will go with a p-m because they are disign to and have better battery life

They run much cooler too

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Yeah, that's right

Thanks for the advice fella - I guess that my choice would have to come down to these two laptops; if you could throw me a bone as to which is the best overall laptop for study/gaming/entertainment I'd be obliged - it's between HP and Sony (Dell is a no go because of the scholarship which I'm receiving and the suppliers involved) -

here are the pages:

http://vaio.sony-europe.com/PageVi [...] alFeatures


http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/uk/ [...] 20141.html

Cheers

ohh and by the way, warranties and customer service don't really matter because it's all covered by the independent supplier.

These two notebooks are excellent choice for study/entertainment. What type of game do you play? FPS, RTS, RPG?
Do you what to go to you course with your laptop? If yes, the HP is a huge one and this will not be practical.

Here's a list of pros and cons for each notebook IMO
HP:
Pro
great big 17" screen
good performance
good video card (ati x600 I think)

Cons
Weight, ouch 4.22kg!!! It's more a desktop replacement that a laptop
short batery life

Sony:
Pro
great performance (P-M 750)
better battery life
Weight, 2.9kg is better

Con
video card (Gforce 6200 tc), probable poor game perf
little short on RAM

I don't know if you can have those notebook from Acer, but they are in the same price range that the HP and the sony with very good performance, a better video card and a great look for the Ferrari
<A HREF="http://acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=10477&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=3156822727" target="_new"> Ferrari 4005WLMi </A>
<A HREF="http://acer.co.uk/acereuro/page4.do?dau22.oid=7953&UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&ctx1=UK&crc=3361327129" target="_new"> Aspire 1694WLMi </A>