Laptop Purchase

DELL - www.dell.com/edubuy  any student, faculty or staff can use Luther Seminary's member ID US12919435

HP - http://www.hpshopping.com/education

CDW - www.cdw.com is another good online source to look for computer equipment.

A good place to do some online research for a laptop (or a desktop or other electronics as well) is http://reviews.cnet.com

Two things to watch for when buying a laptop:

• Memory - Laptops usually have two slots for two sticks of memory. Some times they will advertise 1 GB of RAM memory, but when you look at the specs it will be two 512 sticks. That means they have used up both slots and to do any upgrade to the RAM (and you may very well want to with Vista and 1 GB) you will have to discard one or even both of the sticks of memory you bought. It would be better to get a system with one 512 stick so you can buy one 1 GB stick and upgrade to 1.5 GB of RAM. The best would be to get 1 GB of RAM in one stick when you buy it so you could have the second slot open for adding memory. For a computer with VISTA as the operating system you really need 2 GB or more.
   

• Warrantee - Many laptops will only have a one year warrantee. It would be best to have a 3 year warrantee. You can expect to pay about $100 more for a three year warrantee for equipment failure. A warrantee for accidental damage can cost three times as much. Models change fast and after a year parts sometimes are not that easy to get. Also laptops are not as easy to work on as a desktop, so if you do have trouble you will really appreciate the longer warrantee.