Hey all! I'm an eighteen year old student soon to be attending college for computer engineering, and I was hoping to get some advice from those who have already been through the process and are more knowledgeable in purchasing a laptop for school.
My ideal requirements are:

A laptop that will last me approximately 3-5 years
Capable of running any engineering software I'm likely to run (CAD, etc)
Capable of running TF2 at 40 fps or better consistently

In addition, I want to purchase a keyboard, mouse and monitor to boot. I don't want anything fancy, just functional. I'm looking to spend between $1000 and $1500 on the whole setup, and have it last me.

Thanks for any help!

Excuse me while I go enable sprays!

http://media.moddb.com/images/members/1/436/435845/heavy_happy_2.jpg

This is very cool. As a player just getting into sixes despite being part of the community for a while, resources like this are fantastic

Alright, we need a series of experiments to prove if this works. I propose we form two teams of small mammals (squirrels, hamsters, bubkisses, etc...) and teach them to play sixes independent of each other. One team gets the headsets, one doesn't. Whichever takes a round of Hrg first wins.

Hey, be polite ckap. That's the sort of language you really shouldn't use with anyone. I happen to know Ploxo is a decent guy, don't base such a serious statement on one stupid thing he posted on a really crappy thread

Fightmaster is a pretty cool dude.

#13:
With further thought, that's a better idea. Having top level pros coaching as opposed to someone who just understand the game reasonably well is of no benefit, and only takes away from their time doing other stuff within the community. I'm not that good, but I could coach; would anyone else be willing to volunteer if this gets off the ground?

Also, coaching could help to improve gamesense. By teaching other players the same ideas, it reinforces them in your own head.

The problem is most of the players in newbie mixes are already into competitive, they already watch casts or play highlander. I want to try to start attracting some of the player base that isn't already an active part of the competitive community. Another issue with pulling in new players is their ideas of skill levels; if we have a bunch of competitive players pubstomping and absolutely destroying a Valve server, it will intimidate players and make them think they're not good enough for competitive. A lot of the exposure new players get is watching invite or prem games, and when they see really high level play it makes them think they could never participate. I would like to be able to create an environment where all the players are new to it, maybe even run it so a player that is new to tf2 would still be able to participate and have fun.

I was recently watching Numlocked's stream, discussing how to get more players into comp TF2, and more specifically sixes, and it got me thinking.Teamfortress has a gigantic player base; it's the most played game on Steam. How can we get more people to play that aren't already playing competitive? What if ever week or every other week, we had a pub competition of sixes. I would be willing to look around in various public servers and finding twelve players to play sixes for an hour. What I would need is two players who are well name, with big names, to coach them for it. If we had a Numlocked versus B4nny sixes pug, or a Platinum versus Harbleu or something like that, not only would the competition be hilarious, but it would also grow the community. Maybe after three months there's a buzz going around the Skial servers or Lotus Clan or Valve servers "Have you heard about that group of guys asking a bunch of players to play this weird game mode? It sounds fun". I think it would be a great idea, I just need a few people with the name to be able to coach.

The other good thing about this system is it could lead to underpowered items being buffed. The mantreads are long long overdue for a buff

I think one way to mitigate trolling is to say all vanilla items are automatically allowed.

The Beggars Bazooka and the Pomison must be banned, as well as the Bazaar bargain until the glitch is fixed. Other than that, the sky is the limit I'd say

Hey, lets not complain too much. Sure sixes is better, but Valve is finally giving us at least something; don't look a gift horse in the mouth. Highlander is still awesome, and it's a great opportunity for competitive.

We're a new steel team of a few guys looking to get into 6s, been having fun but we get rolled a lot. We would love to have someone help us out a little, maybe spectate some scrims or something and tell us how we could improve.

A friend and I were recently having a discussion, and we want to try getting into sixes on a casual level. Anything I should know before I start a steel sixes team for the summer season?