I bought a $2000 dollar HP last year at the beginning of the school year. I've been very happy with it so far, but the sound on the speakers is kinda crappy. I usually have to watch movies with headphones on.

I'm a CS major too, and it has been perfect for running Visual Studio.

$2000 dollars may be a bit much for you though. I just went all out with my purchase, this is the first -good- computer I've ever owned. I can play any game, etc.

But when I was shopping, it seemed like HP had the cheapest computers with the most stuff in them.

I find both HPs and Dells to be wonderfully good computers that are easy to use/maintain and are cheap. My cousin got a really nice HP for a graduation present this past year, and it runs beautifully, and it's also Vista compatible. I'd try to get one that will be able to run Vista because in the following year, I'd say, Vista'll probably have all of it's bugs worked out and stuff, making it the new "Must Have" OS. Dells are also good because they customize them for your personal needs, and I've never really seen a Dell laptop that's too much money, though I may be looking at the cheaper models... Oh well.



And for this, I'm just curious about something. When I graduate from High School in '09, I plan on majoring in Software Engineering as well. I'm already taking some Engineering courses that offer a sweet deal on buying 4 college credits for only $100 (and I'm not joking, either), and I've been buying them every year, so I'll have 16 to play around with. My real question, however, is where should I look at for schools? The local Tech school, I've heard, offers decent Engineering courses, but I plan on going there to get them annoying core classes out of the way, then transferring my credits to some other school. Any suggestions as to where I should look? At my school, the guidance department helps the Junior class search out colleges for what they wish to major in, but I'm kinda curious now. Thank you in advance for the help!

/hijack

Hmm, I think the more important things for your computer search would not involve word processing and coding, because you can really do that on just about anything.

And for Talnar, there's only a handful of schools with software engineering majors (http://www.usnews.com/usnews/edu/college/majors/brief/major_14-0903_brief.php). I don't know if you're specifically looking just for software engineering, but you can also just go the route of Computer Science or Engineering which opens up many more schools for you as options.

I now officially love you forever!

@Talnar: I currently make an unrealistically good salary as a web/software developer and I have never taken a computer science course outside of high school and no software engineering courses at all. Granted, the job market is considerably different now than it was when I started, and I wish I had formal comp sci training to make my life easier, but if you're motivated, you can learn many things in the process of doing your job and doing your own research.

I still think you should pick a computer-related field, because having the formal training helps in a number of ways, not to mention the doors it can open, but I just wanted to second what Veonira said, but coming from a different angle. Don't worry too much about having a software engineering degree per se. If you want it, go for it, but also know that you can find very decent development jobs without having a major that specific, and you can still be great if you're willing to do a lot of learning on your own.

Computer wise - Sony's Vaio line has been wonderful throughout my use of them. They're nice machines, and with my graphics work on this one (renderings mostly, and CAD(D) things), it's done amazingly well. They've very good customer service too, though I've only had to call in once because my battery died (not by default though, my god daughter spilled water on the table. Though, surprisingly, Sony didn't put up a fuss with that when sending me a new battery). The one I'm using now is a nice lightweight 4.4 or so lb system, decent size, nice running. I've been very happy with Sony.

I just graduated as a Comp Sci major, and I got an HP DV9000 series for my final year. It was around 1000 bucks, but has been completely worth it. I went this route because I have to have a numpad and they only come on the 17 inch screens. However, really the 17 inch screen I ended up finding infinitely useful for coding as well, more room to work is always good. Only downside would be the battery life which under realistic use hovers around an hourish due to the big screen. Also you stand a better chance of getting a dedicated video card on a 17 inch laptop and you mentioned you liked graphics as well.

If you're buying from a big box store and getting locked into windows vista and intend to keep it on there I would definitely get something with 2gb of ram. 1gb will get you by, but 512 is unbearable. 2gbs runs pretty smooth, though.

Just my 2 cents.

Yup, my near worthless $450 emachine desktop can do those just fine. Its sounds like you need to decide just how bad you want good graphics and sound. Doubt you're going to find great sound on many laptops though, I haven't heard any good ones, but then again, I haven't heard many laptops play music.

And hooray for computer science majors (and computer science career pay )

To clarify - I don't care about the speakers. Actually, in all honesty, the sound thing isn't that important. I just want to be able to be able to mess around with Acid Studios and that sorta thing (which I can probably do on any sort of computer).

Yeah, I know you can code/word process on just about any machine, however, those are the two things I absolutely have to be able to do, so I figured I'd mention it.

has anyone had any bad experiences with HP? They seem like the brand to go with, at the moment.

I'm reading this on an HP.

I loathe people who buy premade PCs (dell, gateway, hp, etc). I just don't understand it. I can make a top of the line gaming PC that will play ANY game atm for under 1k. Make your own pc, it's fun!

You loathe it...but you don't understand it?

I loathe because I do not understand....yes...good save... >_>...

Because most people don't know how to build computers? If people knew how... Dell wouldn't exist.

Sorry, I've got too much stuff to do to build my own laptop. Besides, I couldn't build a laptop half as good as this for double the price. I'd eff it up.

Anyways, I've got a Dell E1505. 15.4" WSXGA+ widescreen w/ 2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, 2 GB ram, ATI Mobility Radeon X1400. Also has the Intel Wireless-N card. It's an amazing latptop, but does experience a tiny bit of slow down due to Vista sucking. Unfortunately, all new PCs come pre-packaged with Vista.

If you want a graphics powerhouse, check out one of Dell's 17" models. Their integrated graphics cards can be replaced with a GeForce.

(Also, the sound quality is excellent for the two speakers, because I had a good sound card put in.)

My family's had an HP pavilion f70 for about... 4-5 years, and it's just amazing. It's pretty old in computer years, but I can still play games on it, surf the net, and all that other stuff quickly and easily. However, it's a Desktop, not a Laptop, if that makes any difference. Not sure about all of the specs because... well, no one in my family cares too much to know, and I don't know where to find out!

And thank you to everyone that helped me out with the College question!

Learning to build a computer is no harder than learning to play lusternia. In fact, it's like three times easier. Here, have a generic guide. http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/ Please I beg you, do not support companies like Dell or Hp. Newegg is your friend!

Uhh... it's not three times easier.

Aside from the fact that I was talking about laptops.

If I had the time and needed a desktop, I'd build one. Besides, Dell is a good company.

The place where I work just had about 50 Dells die at the same time (within about a week of each other). Motherboard failures.

An eerily consistent failure...