Laptop for a student

[Basher]

Need your help guys!

Daughter is in need of a laptop for university (so HID tells me) I need one fast!
Any recommendations or advice as to which type to get please.
I'm no computer/techno boffin so am floundering. I know not to grace the doors of PC World but am open to any suggestions.

Cheers guys.

 

[CrapHacker]

Depends on your budget.

I'm a technocrapophile, and I base my lappy choice around :

1) Budget - WhatI can comfortably afford. The first computer I ever bought had everything I could squeeze into it. I never needed such a high spec video card etc, so it was a waste, and it was still miles out of date within a year. An absolute waste of money. My current lappy cost £399 and is plenty fast enough for me, and came straight off the shelf at Comet.

2) Processor - HID got a lappy with a Celeron doobreewhatsit, and it's inferior imo. I have an Intel Dual core which is much better. There are other newer Intel thingmees around. If the budget stretches, fine, if not the dual core is perfectly adequate.

3) Memory - My daughter used her computer for storing music and pictures and going on Facebook. The actual work stuff takes up no space at all, so get the best you can afford, but don't break the bank for an extra gig of RAM.

4) Hard Drive - 320 appears to be the norm at the moment. She can always get those stick things to plug in and store stuff on them.

5)Operating System - Does anyone do anything other than Windows 7 Home premium? I'd imaging that's going to be fine.

If I was going out now to buy one, I'd go to Comet and get the <u>HP G62-A14</u> . It's only got 2GB of Ram, but apart from that it looks quite well spec'd up. And it's only £399.99

For an extra few quid you could go for the <u>SAMSUNG SAMR530JA0J-RET</u> which has 3GB of Ram, is £439.99, and is a pretty red.

Of course, if your budget is more then you can get something from the Dell Studio 15 range. I had a Dell once. It was nice.

The choice is yours

 

[Ken_A]

As a 'mature' student I am replacing my laptop soon.
I am studying Civil Engineering and I need a portable easy to use laptop. Bought the wife a HP Netbook and it's a great job. More than capable of the tasks we need. So I will be getting a new one.
However, if she is studying art with design or something that requires gaming or much in the way of graphics this is not the laptop for her.

And BTW I believe it is as good as essental for a student to have their own laptop - it can be a real fighting session trying to get a terminal in any university. Plus it allows you to work while travelling or when out of hours.

PS don’t forget to buy the Microsoft Office Student package - should get them for around £70 for 2/3 user licences. Check this out

What is she 'studying' and we may be able to get you a better recommendation.

Ken

 

[Leftie]

Cue the Apple Mac brigade......

Good machines but probably twice the price for similar spec. OK if you want to spend that kind of money I suppose.

 

[sawtooth]

For a student I would go for a used Dell laptop from fleabay. Dell make sturdy and reliable machines and I would also recommend XP. That will be fine for surfing the net, running office, etc. Drivers are easily accessible as are the Dell OEM XP reinstallation disk should you ever want to wipe it and start over.

If you want to go new then I would still choose Dell. BTW I am not a Dell rep!! I just think that they make very good laptops (not so much desktops).

 

[RGDave]

Samsung R530.

That's my current choice.

Available in a variety of choices....so just be careful not to go too low on the spec.

 

[Losttheplot]

I'm an apple MacBook fan to be fair, haven't bought one but it will be when I get round to buying a laptop. They're easy to use, quick and don't get slower as you install more on the system.
They are more expensive but worth the extra money if you can afford it.
Also the few people I know who have an Apple computer say they'd never buy any other computer again..... Read into that what you will as I can't comment on experience apart from playing for hours in the apple store on the MacBooks.