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L4L - Looking 4 Laptop

KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
edited July 2009 in Help / Advice Forum
I'm gonna be (maybe) going to uni in September and as such I am in the market for a laptop. I have a proper PC but it's crap and takes up tons of room, so the laptop is pretty much essential.

I'm still not decided if I'm going to be living at home or in a student house or whatever yet, but either way I need the laptop I get to be light and easily portable. Because I'll either have to cart it back and forth from lessons/lectures to my place, or lug it on and off a couple of trains and around town.

It should preferably be actually, ya know, good. So it can work without developing a lot of problems. For this issue my brother, a big PC nerd, suggested I get a Mac because apparently in terms of not getting viruses and errors and shit a Mac is better than a Windows.

If possible this laptop should be able to play moderately good-range games, but won't need to be super-gaming powerful because I've got a 360 for that.

And as the final cherry on the top of the impossible cake, it should be relatively cheap to get.

KeyScourge on

Posts

  • Shazkar ShadowstormShazkar Shadowstorm Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Eh, no harm listening to your brother. Macs are dandy. 'specially if you've got a 360 to play your games on.

    Shazkar Shadowstorm on
    poo
  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    Shazkar Shadowstorm wrote: »
    Eh, no harm listening to your brother. Macs are dandy. 'specially if you've got a 360 to play your games on.
    Normally there is harm in listening to him, but on this occasion I guess he's right. So I can narrow down my searching to only Mac laptops

    KeyScourge on
  • BEAST!BEAST! Adventurer Adventure!!!!!Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Or if you want extremely cheap laptop that is unable to play games, go with a netbook. Great for web surfing and writing papers on if you can stick to the 360 for games, and will save you a ton of money.

    I recently purchased an ASUS 1000HE and couldn't be happier with it.

    http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-1000HE-10-1-Inch-Black-Netbook/dp/B001QTXL82/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1248811192&sr=8-1

    Light, portable, small, perfect for the college student.

    BEAST! on
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  • MushroomStickMushroomStick Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Asus just came out with the 1005HA. Which, as far as I can tell, is a 1000HE with slightly better battery life and the keyboard is supposed to be nicer.

    amazon link

    MushroomStick on
  • Evil_ReaverEvil_Reaver Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I've been using a 15" Macbook Pro for a little over 3 years and the only problem I had with it was the screen power inverter blowing up. This is the revision A 2006 model with the 256MB ATI GPU and I can still do some moderate gaming on it (notably Company of Heroes). Office 2008 for Mac runs fine and is fully compatible with Office 2003/2007 for Windows. I carry it to work every day and I'll be carrying it to class starting this fall (starting law school).

    I'll say that I haven't fully "switched" or anything, but I use my MBP for most of my daily computer stuff. It's been a good experience for me but I'm not going to tell you that it's the best computer I have ever owned.

    Evil_Reaver on
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  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    One more thing to mention: I'm a UK resident, so I'll need any suggested laptops to be available here in England.

    KeyScourge on
  • ComahawkComahawk Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Mac is your best bet, at least from the research I did before buying mine. The OS is more stable (not indestructible) and they have a much longer battery life than most PCs. That is what is really going to matter because you will be using it for working mainly, I wouldn't worry about gaming, in fact, seperating the two might do you some good work wise (you won't get side tracked by the idea of powering it up to play before doing your homework).

    As an added bonus the Mac lap tops are a bit lighter than most PC ones, which makes a world of difference when carting the around campus all day.

    Comahawk on
  • Shazkar ShadowstormShazkar Shadowstorm Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    If you do get a Macbook, go 13" and go with the Pro, as that was recently updated. The non-pro is outdated, and the 13" is the ideal size for carrying around and everything. 15" is not needed now that there are 13" pros and are much cheaper.

    Shazkar Shadowstorm on
    poo
  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    Shazkar Shadowstorm wrote: »
    If you do get a Macbook, go 13" and go with the Pro, as that was recently updated. The non-pro is outdated, and the 13" is the ideal size for carrying around and everything. 15" is not needed now that there are 13" pros and are much cheaper.
    My only concern with Macbooks is that they cost a fuckload

    KeyScourge on
  • mugginnsmugginns Jawsome Fresh CoastRegistered User regular
    edited July 2009
    KeyScourge wrote: »
    And as the final cherry on the top of the impossible cake, it should be relatively cheap to get.
    Dude wants a cheap laptop, stop recommending Macs.

    mugginns on
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  • GiraGira Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Depends on your definition of "cheap" of course, but my Thinkpad is oh so nummy.

    Gira on
  • Count FunkulaCount Funkula Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I love my MacBook. It is an awesome laptop. It was about $1000 though, so probably doesn't qualify as "cheap". Used macbooks are always a possibility, but then you roll the reliability dice. I agree with the people who are suggesting netbooks. There are a variety of them available from many manufacturers, even Dell. All of them are between $200-$400. I'd say any of them would work well for what you want to do.

    Count Funkula on
  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    Count Funkula wrote: »
    I agree with the people who are suggesting netbooks.

    "A netbook is a laptop computer designed for wireless communication and access to the Internet.

    Primarily designed for web browsing and e-mailing, netbooks are used on the Internet for remote access to web-based applications."

    ^^ For some reason that throws up a red flag for me. I know as a laptop it'll be able to do anything I'm gonna need it for but I feel myself backing away from netbooks.

    KeyScourge on
  • BushiBushi Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    I'm running with both a netbook and a 15" dual core Toshiba Satellite, and after a few months I pretty much stopped using the Toshiba. The netbook's great for school work and internet usage, and I have a cheap desktop to do any heavy lifting. If you're going to school for any computer science or programming related courses, I'd go with a full sized notebook. Otherwise, the netbook's definitely a winner.

    Bushi on
  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    Bushi wrote: »
    I'm running with both a netbook and a 15" dual core Toshiba Satellite, and after a few months I pretty much stopped using the Toshiba. The netbook's great for school work and internet usage, and I have a cheap desktop to do any heavy lifting. If you're going to school for any computer science or programming related courses, I'd go with a full sized notebook. Otherwise, the netbook's definitely a winner.
    I'm doing a course called Digital Film + Screen Arts, so editing software might be required, as well as animation programs like Flash and £3D Studio Max. But then again if I can remember back to my tour when scoping out the uni the department DFSA is held in has a massive computer suite with all that sorta stuff on the computers there.

    KeyScourge on
  • BushiBushi Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    Ah, then my advice would be to hold off and see how comfortable you are working in the labs. I absolutely hated working in the labs here, but I was also just doing low level programming that didn't really require any additional software.

    Bushi on
  • ImprovoloneImprovolone Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    If you need to run powerful software out of the lab, I'd find a way to bring that desktop up with you. We've all lived in small dorms, but seriously... I've never seen a room that couldn't fit a standard sized desktop.
    You buy the power that a laptop has, sure, but that power can't change and grow with you. You're stuck.

    Improvolone on
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  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    Improvolone wrote: »
    If you need to run powerful software out of the lab, I'd find a way to bring that desktop up with you. We've all lived in small dorms, but seriously... I've never seen a room that couldn't fit a standard sized desktop.
    You buy the power that a laptop has, sure, but that power can't change and grow with you. You're stuck.
    If you knew just how bad my desktop currently is you'd be suggesting burning it to death in the back garden in some tribal exorcism

    KeyScourge on
  • TychoCelchuuuTychoCelchuuu PIGEON Registered User regular
    edited July 2009
    KeyScourge wrote: »
    Improvolone wrote: »
    If you need to run powerful software out of the lab, I'd find a way to bring that desktop up with you. We've all lived in small dorms, but seriously... I've never seen a room that couldn't fit a standard sized desktop.
    You buy the power that a laptop has, sure, but that power can't change and grow with you. You're stuck.
    If you knew just how bad my desktop currently is you'd be suggesting burning it to death in the back garden in some tribal exorcism

    Look, you have three options: buy a reasonable laptop (aka netbook) and use the lab, buy a laptop powerful enough to run media programs and spend more money than the US administration is spending on the stimulus package, or buy a desktop to run the programs. Media creation is the most taxing thing you can do with a computer short of automate programs that tell you what happens when black holes have sex. If your program has a computer lab (which I bet it does, considering the alternative is forcing you to spend thousands of dollars on those expensive programs in addition to buying a sweet computer), a netbook is all you need for everything else.

    Buy. A. Netbook.

    TychoCelchuuu on
  • KeyScourgeKeyScourge __BANNED USERS regular
    edited July 2009
    TychoCelchuuu wrote: »
    Buy. A. Netbook.
    Will do.

    For some reason I always, and I mean always used to think that Netbooks were only for internet surfing and couldn't do anything else like Word processing and shit. Dunno why I ever though that, but apparently they're crackjack little machines.

    KeyScourge on
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