• Hi Guest!
    You can help ensure that British Car Forum (BCF) continues to provide a great place to engage in the British car hobby! If you find BCF a beneficial community, please consider supporting our efforts with a subscription.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Laptop Purchase Help

Share this page

Try Lenovo, my daughter got one for university,80 gig HD,wireless,cd burner and lots more for just under $600 cdn
 
Does it have to be new? Not sure what you think about Macs, but Apple has a good student discount program. I'm starting grad school and may take advantage of it.
 
All my computers here and at work are Dell (low bid) but if you want inexpensive. I just bought a Dell Inspiron B130 for less than $500.00 free shipping with wireless card for the 13 year old. Add on from compusa Teacher/Student version of office 2003 $130.00 approx. and you are ready for college.
 
I'm a Mac guy, so my bias would be the small MacBook - 1049.00 for students - Apple has a great tech help - No other computer company has a store you can bring it into. I would recommend Apple Care if you get a laptop.
 
We use Macs and PCs (Dells) at the school district I work for. I love my Macbook, it's a great deal. We've also had really good support and luck with the Dells. Don't think you can go wrong either way. I'm biased towards Macs personally, but both machines are quite funcional.
 
As technology coordinator for my school this is a question I get a lot. Here's my suggestions....(for what its worth)

You need to know what her college uses...if they are equipped and using MAC go mac..If they are using PC go PC. I have had classes where I actually brought up my laptop and installed the programs we needed or used during the course, but this can only be done if you are using the same format. (Also it makees it easier to e-mail stuff to the the professor if they are on the same system) Brand is not necessarily important, I have had HP's, gateways, dells, and macs. What you want is a computer that will run the programs you need.

Also, What is the main use? typing? research? If this is the case, you want to be able to surf fast and have several things open at once, but storage is not a big deal. Go for more RAM, less hard drive space. (I have one of the new dual core processors on my home computer and I love it) If her classes are going to require new and specific programs (like engineering or accounting) She needs to know minimum requirements to make these work well and not be slow and frustrating.

A wireless, internal network card is a must! Bluetooth is nice, but you can actually buy USB bloothtooth devices later if she needs it.

Don't worry about typing programs, preloaded programs etc. You can buy MS Office on E-bay later and pick just the programs you need.

Be sure it is capable of being upgraded to the new OS that is coming out soon (I can't remember what is right now)

Also...Pentium is not a requirement. The celeron processors are just as good for the general user. If she's not editing music or videos....the general user rarely notices the differences between a celeron and a pentium. The higher the processor speed the better.

Don't worry about an A drive, they're obsolete. A cd burner is fine and a DVD burner is just more money and rarely used. I would include a DVD player if you like to watch movies on the laptop, but I haven't found any other use for it. As a teacher, I often show movies through the LCD projector and run them on my laptop. but again, its all about how you are planning to use it.

I always recommend that you sit down and list how and what the computer will be used for and then buy what you need but always get the most RAM you can!

Don't be sucked in by all the glitzy peripherals they "throw in" these are not necessarly deals.

Sorry this is so long, I know ther is something else and if I remember I'll post it. If I can help let me know.
 
I buy one or two laptops a year. (I don't look after them and they get a lot of use). I've taken to buying $500 Dells when they are on sale. I get as long a life as from the $2k machines I used to buy, and the performance difference is negligible for what I'm using them for. The $1500 is wasted on car parts, so I'm no better off though...

I'm typing this on a core solo machine with a 15" widescreen, a 60gb hd and a gig of ram - $500 plus shipping, bought about 4 months ago. Cheap and cheerful.
 
terriphill gives excellent advise above. I second the recommendation to install as much RAM as possible. The difference between 256mb and 512 is staggering. Even 512mb is barely enough to get by on these days. 1gb (1024mb) is the least I would personally have regardless of how I use my laptop. Laptops usually benefit from additional RAM far more than desktop systems.
 
Thanks for the input, I've read all your comments so far and would like give you some more info as to the use. The wife is going for Interior Design, the college is PC based, typing and research will be required, and the following programs have to be used:

Microsoft Office Professional
AutoCad - full version
Adobe Photoshop/Illustrator - full version
Adobe Acrobat - full version

Thanks
 
Something to look into for interior design study is a Gateway Convertible Notebook. The screen pivots around and you can use it as a tablet for notes, sketches, etc. I've played around with one and was impressed (although it doesn't have the resolution like a Cintiq or Wacom graphics tablet). Another thing to consider is getting an Mac that will run Boot Camp. That way you can boot in Mac or PC mode. I have a friend with a dual processor dual core Mac desktop and it is screaming fast on 3D programs running in Boot Camp. You will pay a bit (or a lot) more for a Mac machine but they are uber-nice.

Cheers,
John
 
Although Macs are easy and great I would recommend PC since its the system the college uses. You are going to need lots of RAM.
Most of the programs are pretty basic but the AutoCad is a program that can be frustrating on a computer that is not powerful enough.
AutoCad requires the following:
* Intel® Pentium® IV recommended
* Microsoft® Windows® XP Home & Professional SP1 or SP2, Windows XP for Tablet PC SP2, or Windows® 2000 SP3 or SP4
* 512 MB RAM
* 750 MB free disk space for installation
* 1024x768 VGA with True Color
* Microsoft® Internet Explorer 6.0 SP1 or higher

Again, brand is not really important. Shop around and look at all the types...Dell, gateway, HP, Sager, Fujitsu. Go to a couple of computer stores and talk with the sales people. They can really help you with the differences between brands. Don't buy until you go on-line and check out the webites. Dell has some great deals for students that you can't get anywhere but on-line. I got a Dell dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, 180GB hard drive, 19" flat panel, and Windows Media Edition for less than $1000.00 AND 18 months no interest.
 
Based on your usage, I would recommend some horsepower and a minimum of a gig of memory. You don't HAVE to, but it will make everything run much smoother and faster. Autocad, Photoshop and Illustrator are all resource-intensive applications and will reward you for a little extra money spent.
 
We're technology heavy at work, but usually just behind the big money curve, we use lot's of stuff and buy lot's of stuff.

I completely concur with "terriphill" and "steve s", they make especially poignant points about the machine’s use and RAM.

Unfortunately, AutoCad is the backbone of our production (we're an architectural firm) Processor and RAM are critical. We use Dell desktops and laptops, you should be able to get a fairly quick machine for between $1,100 and $1,500. You want quick, because as "terriphill" says, on a slow machine, you will be frustrated!

We don't store any drawings on the harddrives of the laptops, or desktops, those go to a server, but even an 80gig hard drive should hold all your programs and a few big projects. We manage to store a year's worth of projects in about 25gigs, that includes drawings, specs, and all the associated documents.
 
terriphill said:
I got a Dell dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, 180GB hard drive, 19" flat panel, and Windows Media Edition for less than $1000.00 AND 18 months no interest./quote]

Bob's your uncle! IMHO, that's your machine, any of my employees would be happy and satisfied with that machine.
Click to expand...
 
Another bit of info as "a wrench in the works": ACER has become aggressive in the mix and are attempting to give Dell a run for their money. Worth a look.
 
dar100 said:
terriphill said:
I got a Dell dual core processor with 2GB of RAM, 180GB hard drive, 19" flat panel, and Windows Media Edition for less than $1000.00 AND 18 months no interest./quote]

Bob's your uncle! IMHO, that's your machine, any of my employees would be happy and satisfied with that machine.
Click to expand...

Doesn't sound like a laptop machine to me! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/grin.gif
Click to expand...
 
Ive bought 3 acers over the last 2 years and have had no trouble with any of them. wish I could say the same about the B.
 
Back
Top