Which Laptop? *HELP*

I'm helping a friend decide which laptop she should get for university. She cares about the overall computing experience, so don't just look at the video card and say ''Geforce 7700 Go'' ftw. The models she's considering are between a Sony Vaio CR series, Asus A8JS-4S050E and a Lenovo Thinkpad T61. By overall computing experience, I mean performance, reliability and quality. Reliability and quality should come first and she emphisized that she doesn't ''know'' computers and would like no/minimal problem with her laptop. So lend her a helping hand, say which one you think is the better choice and WHY.*She's also trying to get the best for her money.$1549 Lenovo Thinkpad T61Asus A8JS-4S050EGS won't let me link to the Sony Vaio CR series page without bleeping out a part of the link...so just go to Sonysty le.ca (without the space), click on VAIO Computers, then computers by series, and choose the CR series.The Thinkpad T61 uses the new Santa Rosa platform and is 200mhz faster (does it make a big difference?), but 40gb less hd space compared to the other two. It's also equipped with Vista Business and the cheapest out of the three.The Asus A8JS has 160gb hd, Geforce 7700 Go 512mb graphics card and Vista Business, but it's not Santa Rosa, only 0.3 megapixel webcam and is the most expensive out of the three. Sony Vaio CR series has 160gb hd as well, has Mobile Intel瓽raphics Media Accelerator X3100 for gpu, 1.3 megapixel webcam and has Vista Home Premium. Price is in the middle out of the three.Which Laptop? *HELP*
Technically, Santa Rosa is the motherboard chipset not the cpu. That means you can still get a slow CPU on a fast chipset, which isn't going to do your benchmarks any good. From what I've read, Santa Rosa doesn't make a huge difference in performance. Heck, if she doesn't care about high power computing (games/scientific/video processing) any computer will work.For her, I'd stay away from the ASUS. It sounds like she doesn't need the power. That leaves the other 2. I can't say that I like either of them, but 40GB extra would probably tip the scales in favor of the Sony for me. I couldn't check it since your link went nowhere. If you can you should hunt both machines down in a store and actually see how they feel. Check out the keyboard and how it weighs/feels. If she's going to carry it around a lot, she may want the lighter PC even if it is less powerful.Which Laptop? *HELP*
[QUOTE=''fynne'']Technically, Santa Rosa is the motherboard chipset not the cpu. That means you can still get a slow CPU on a fast chipset, which isn't going to do your benchmarks any good. From what I've read, Santa Rosa doesn't make a huge difference in performance. Heck, if she doesn't care about high power computing (games/scientific/video processing) any computer will work.For her, I'd stay away from the ASUS. It sounds like she doesn't need the power. That leaves the other 2. I can't say that I like either of them, but 40GB extra would probably tip the scales in favor of the Sony for me. I couldn't check it since your link went nowhere. If you can you should hunt both machines down in a store and actually see how they feel. Check out the keyboard and how it weighs/feels. If she's going to carry it around a lot, she may want the lighter PC even if it is less powerful.[/QUOTE]Well even if Santa Rosa doesn't make a big difference, how about the 200mhz difference? Is that negligible? She wants her laptop to be able to run things smoothly for the next 5 years (until she graduates from university). How are the build quality for Sony VAIO laptops and Lenovo Thinkpads? As for the Asus, she's okay with spending that much money, even if she doesn't need the power, wouldn't the Geforce 7700 Go be a bonus (assuming the Asus IS the one to get after considering all other aspects)?
bump
think pad has pretty good build quality, I have a think pad from 2004 and it still run like a charm with no problem. However since IBM doesn't own the think pad line anymore, i don't know if levono is up to the standard. Sony has a good design, one of my friend bought a vaio last year andanother one bought a vaio2 years agoand they didn't have any problem yet
the asus is the best there. you pay a premium for thinkpads and sonys and the asus will perform best also
Need more input.
[QUOTE=''Aznsilvrboy'']Need more input.[/QUOTE]Bump...
i would like to reiterate asus. go to notebookreview.com and sign up if you want real eperts opinions. its a great place for notebook info
I'd go with the Asus, you'd be a fool if you didn't.