Looking for a laptop as a Computer Science Major

[krazyxazn]

Hi!

My name is Peter and I'm Computer Science major who is transferring in with an AA to a BS. I finished all the prerequisites, so now I'm left with all the main CS courses. My budget is roughly $400-600 for a laptop (not a desktop replacement; using a gaming pc at home) for on campus. Can go up to $800. Feel free to suggestion anything above the budget. Specifications would being able to run Win 7 (a big enough screen for side by side windows feature), the ability to write programs on, and maybe some hd playback.

I could drop the Win 7's side by side feature for a smaller netbook, but it could be awhile before I buy a netbook. As I'm waiting for netbooks with the new Tegra 2, Ion 2, and/or Atoms to come out. I may settle for a Tegra netbook, but won't see either of these until early next year.

My 24" LCD spoiled me with Win 7's side by side, but like I said before this won't be a desktop replacement. So I guess I could go without it.

[krazyxazn]

Sigh. My impulse buying. I was waiting for CES, cause I know something really cool is going to come out of there. But this was a pretty good deal too. In between a Netbook and a Notebook. More powerful than a netbook for the same price. Gonna use it for some programming and some video watching (plays HD content with 14-24% cpu usage) :D

Just ordered an Acer Aspire AS1410-2285 Notebook (http://www.frys.com/product/6059448?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG)

$350 ($357 shipped)

Intel Celeron SU2300 (Dual Core @ 1.2Ghz) *Can do 720p and 1080p smooth without Nvidia Ion; better than Atom N330*
11.6" screen @ 1366x768
2GB of Ram
160 GB HDD
Intel GMA 4500MHD
HDMI and VGA output
Media Card Reader
N Wireless and Gigabit Lan
Mediocre Webcam
Multi-touch trackpad (like Droid and iPhone)
6 Cell Battery (6 hours of usage)
Crap ton of bloatware (removable :D)
Win 7 Home Premium

[revision3fan]

Make sure it can run a Linux distribution.

[krazyxazn]

Make sure it can run a Linux distribution.

The initial reviewer said he couldn't get it working, but then again he only had the device for a few days.

One of the comments from his review by a user:

I had an earlier version of the 1410 briefly (single core su3500), and I had to disable AHCI mode on the hard drive for linux to be happy. After doing that, Ubuntu ran fine, apparently the kernel just has issues with that setting, I assume that was the issue on yours as well.

Some other users say it works without any configuration, so I'll see when I get it. I should be able to just log into one of the college's remote servers and use linux in that.