Expert: Bobbert - 1/17/2010

Question
QUESTION: My daughter is finishing college in May and would like to purchase a new laptop. She has a Dell Inspiron 1300/B130 that she has used during college which has given her good service. However,she has no idea which computer to choose. She needs something no more than $1000. Can you help us?

ANSWER: It depends on the usage scenario of the machine, what is it going to be used for, what does it need to do? What sorts of features are important to her, does it need to play Blu-ray discs? Videogames? etc

-bob


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: She is finishing in nursing so something for general information would be good. She plays video games,uses Facebook, chats online,ets. I don't think Blu-ray discs are necessary,but she loves to download music. Any suggestions?

Answer
The video gaming is the primary thing that I'm interested in, it really depends what games the system needs to run (This dictates whether or not you need a system with a dedicated graphics processor or not), everything else will be more or less a trivial matter for a ~$1000 computer based on modern technology. If the video gaming is nothing more than a few flash based games here and there, or perhaps a few dated 3D titles, you could probably get away with spending about half of your original budget, otherwise you'll be looking at least $700.

-bob