Good school laptop

Hey everyone me and my fiance will be going back to school on the 28th of next month. I know we will need a laptop, but I am not very good at knowing what computer is good and all that jazz. I don't really want to spend over $1000 because we really dont have much money and it is all depending on how much financial aid we will get.


So can someone recommend a good college type laptop?


Thanks,
Kevin

I got a Samsung 17 inch one that I really like, I got it for 500 new it's not most high end but i don't play games it's fast for what I need as far as school and downloading movies and CDs is fast. I like it alot big screen is nice too

I bought a dell for $400 at best buy like 2years ago. It has a 15" screen.

Thats about all i know about it haha. Im not a tech guy at all. It does everything i need it to do like Nick said lol.

Yeah I'm not tech guy at all the way I fix broken electronics is slapping them cussing at them hitting them harder then bringing it to my neighbor to fix. Go to best buy they helped me tons saved me money too I was gonna buy one that was made for gaming and they found a better one for me since I just want school and downloading

I get 10% off dell stuff through my work so I am looking at those now Mike!

Spend the extra money and go Mac. My MacBook Pro has out lasted all of my friends lab tops. I love my Mac it is by far the best investment I have made toward my college experience. Still in school and still have my Mac and she runs perfect even at 4 years old( and yes it is a she lol), runs just like it was just opened and turned on for the first time.

I would love to get a macbook, but I don't think I will have $1,500 or more to get one.

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Originally Posted by 1nstinct

Spend the extra money and go Mac. My MacBook Pro has out lasted all of my friends lab tops. I love my Mac it is by far the best investment I have made toward my college experience. Still in school and still have my Mac and she runs perfect even at 4 years old( and yes it is a she lol), runs just like it was just opened and turned on for the first time.

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x2. i know they're kinda pricey but i've had HPs and dells crap out after 2 or 3 years. got sick of it and bit the bullet and got a macbook pro a couple years ago and it's still running just as good as the first day i turned it on. now i don't think i'll ever buy another PC again.

You have to be careful with macs though bc they arent compatible with some things. My friend couldnt do any of the work for our stats class on his macbook bc he couldnt download the add ons or something to excel.

I heard of that too, one of the colleges I was looking at told all students don't buy macs something with their system didn't work with macs

Apple likes to be super exclusive.

Always always always go PC if you're spending you're own money. You will lose so much, you might as well hand your cash out to random people if you buy a mac.

I personally will not buy dells, but that's because all the dell hardware I've used crapped out really quick. I recommend Acer, HP, and ASUS. Those three have served me well, and definitely get a good service plan with it. Since it'll be used a lot for college, it will need servicing before too long.

I've had my Acer laptop for two years now, spent $500 total including service plan and it still runs great. The only times I've sent it in were for things someone did to my laptop.

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My daughter picked up an ASUS at Best Buy for college last year. It has an i.5 core processor and a ton of ram and memory for around $600. She loves it and has been able to do all she needs to do for school and all she wants including watching TV shows she likes without any problems. When we looked at them, it had more storage and a bigger screen then the Macs. The other thing is for the price, so what if it dies in 3 years. Vs the Mac at over $1500, she could buy 2 and a half of these for the same price. Its a no brainer if you ask me, which I think you did. Best of luck in school.

Im really stupid... I have an HP laptop not Dell lol. My brother has an HP too and loves it. I recommend HP, cant speak for dell lol. Sorry for the blond moment...

Yeah I think I'll go to best buy and see what they can help me out with.

Before you purchase... tell us the specs of the laptop. Sometimes they sell laptops with lots of RAM and lots of storage... but the processor is a piece of poop.

If it is cheap and has an Intel Core i7 Processor... you've got a great deal. Next step down is the i5 Processor. I'm not as familiar with AMD processors. I just know that the AMD Phenom II X6 had good reviews.

Thanks!

Yeah, the problem with not building your own is that they try to save money by putting bare parts in there. But, with modern technology, you can get a good 4G ram, 500+G storage, and a quad core for under 500 anymore. You won't be able to play WoW or Skyrim on ULTRA settings, but for word processing and simple applications it gets the job done.

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I went through six Dells within three years... got a Macbook Pro, never looked back.

I x3 the MacBook Pro comment but given that is out of your budget you need quality components that don't crap out on you before you finish school next year. This being said I WILL NOT ever recommend an HP laptop again, I personally owned one 3-4 years ago that had something new wrong every time I turned around luckily I had a service plan. I have been working on and building my own personal pcs since I was 13 and repair them in my free time for friends family and personal contacts. Samsung, Acer, make reputable products leaning towards Samsung. But if you are willing to to go a lil over 500$ and be closer to 800$ you should be able to find an Asus with an i5 or possibly even an i7 with 4+ gigs of ram and a 500+ hd space...don't stress on hd space though you can always add more later. Look mainly at processor battery life and weight. If you are taking it to school everyday trust me the difference between a 17" and 15 or 13 weights may seem minor but when you start carrying it everyday it becomes a nuisance lol. Don't buy anything extra aside from a service plan...there are great free Antivirus out there no need to pay more for same protection. But I have had my asus 15inch for 2 years now and never a single hiccup aside from when my ex threw it and I re soldered the power jack. That's an amazing record compared to how many hps dells and etc I have seen and repaired for MULTIPLE reasons. Just do your research and ultimately pick one that you like staring at too! But if it stays at home all the time bigger screen wouldn't be terrible.

Just some history my degree is comp sci IT security analyst, and that's my main day job. Hence why fixing them is a hobby on the side ;)

No offense, but anyone recommending a mac book is just insane. PCs are the way to go, because you don't need to replace the entire machine because it got dropped. Ram goes out on a PC replace it. Processor went bad (as if!) replace it. Want to upgrade? Do it. Mac books are so incompatible and have no room to upgrade or do anything fun with. Besides, grab a pair of horn rimmed glasses and you'll achieve the hipster feel that a mac book would give you. You can also get a super computer pc for the price of a mac book, that in itself is more than adequate reason.

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I actually do quite a bit of non-hipster stuff with my MacBook. There's a reason why they're popular.

How come I went through so many PCs within three years when I've had the same MacBook since my senior year of college?

Macs are so overpriced that it's absurd; all you're buying is a brand name, just like Alienware.

My step-sister got her laptop at the same time I did back in 2009. Both of us purchased ours from best buy and both laptops had roughly the same specs (I think mine is a bit better). Mine was $1100, her's was about $3000. Mine is an ASUS, and runs just as fine as the day I bought it.

With the newer macs, if you have any form of issue, you're not going to be able to work on it. You either buy a new one, or send it to apple for repairs. The only way you're going to be able to work on it, is if you have knowledge of how to use a soldering gun. However, that's a great way to void your warranty if it'ss still under such. Not to mention, a number of programs won't work on macs, and if you're using it for college, you want something that's going to be compatable as much as possible.

If you're wanting a good laptop, I recommend either toshiba or asus. Tosiba laptops are tough enough to survive being peed on by a goat (said laptop is currently six years old now and runs fine, if a bit slow), and asus allows you to buy extra parts from them (harddrive caddies, fans, etc).

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Originally Posted by schrammalot

I actually do quite a bit of non-hipster stuff with my MacBook. There's a reason why they're popular.

How come I went through so many PCs within three years when I've had the same MacBook since my senior year of college?

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Probably because you're not taking care of it. I've had my current laptop since July of 2009, no reformatting, runs great. I had my desktop before that for 6 years; it had to be reformatted once due to the harddrive being screwed up thanks to a power surge, it had an issue with the second ram slot dying on the motherboard, but there's no way of knowing if that was a defect or because of the power surge. My mom has a toshiba that's six years old that runs fine. My step-dad has one of a similar age that runs fine. My grandma had a dell that has ran great for the past decade, and a toshiba that's still running great that's four years old.

For all the people saying you went through so many PC's in X amount of time; what the hell were you doing with them lol?! Now that i think back, i actually got my HP closer to 3 years ago, not 2. I have not had a single problem with it. My brother even dropped it like 3 feet onto the hardwood floor once. What sorta problems were you guys having that made you go through multiple laptops? Where did you buy it from?

EDIT: I also have a Dell Desktop PC that ive had for probably 7 or 8 years now without any problems really.

I've had my HP tower for almost 7 years now, no hardware REPLACEMENT. The only upgrading I've done is a 512mb graphics upgrade. It runs better than my wife's handmedown $800 Asus.

The Acer laptop, like I mentioned, is 2 and we've only had to send it in for a "hard drive failure" which turned out to be a software issue.

PCs are so flexible its almost mind blowing what you can do.

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That laptop didn't leave my desk in my dorm. Seriously. It had papers and some graphic design work done on it, but that was it. I had a desktop that I did hardcore photo editing on (company is out of business.... it was one of those TV ad computers that came with 198320974032974 pieces of software).

Bought that laptop from my school. They made us all buy the same one to get on the network until they found out how to let everyone else on the market. As soon as they did that, I moved over to a Mac (plus my warranty expired).

I knew damn well what was the problem with my laptop, but Dell wouldn't replace it. Motherboards melted, harddrives melted, cases melted....

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Originally Posted by schrammalot

Bought that laptop from my school. They made us all buy the same one to get on the network until they found out how to let everyone else on the market. .

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My guess is they gave your school a good deal on low quality laptops. My dad thought itd be a brilliant idea to buy a desktop off of home shopping network. It crapped out after a week and he's been having problems with it ever since.

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Originally Posted by schrammalot

That laptop didn't leave my desk in my dorm. Seriously. It had papers and some graphic design work done on it, but that was it. I had a desktop that I did hardcore photo editing on (company is out of business.... it was one of those TV ad computers that came with 198320974032974 pieces of software).

Bought that laptop from my school. They made us all buy the same one to get on the network until they found out how to let everyone else on the market. As soon as they did that, I moved over to a Mac (plus my warranty expired).

I knew damn well what was the problem with my laptop, but Dell wouldn't replace it. Motherboards melted, harddrives melted, cases melted....

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..Did you ever open it up to clean it, or did you just let it sit there with all sorts of crap in it?

I use a can of air and a microfiber cloth, cleaning out my heatsink, fans, and then cleaning off my mobo and graphics cards. Some times my power supply too, but it stays clean longer.

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Originally Posted by schrammalot

I actually do quite a bit of non-hipster stuff with my MacBook. There's a reason why they're popular.

How come I went through so many PCs within three years when I've had the same MacBook since my senior year of college?

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Macbook is a specific laptop (or a very few laptops), PC in normal lingo just means something not running OSX, you're referring to thousands of computers. As for being popular, apple wasn't even 10% of the market share in the US last year and wasn't even a speckle on the global market share last year. HP however is the most popular manufacturer in the US if you were curious. Glad you're having a good experience with you mac tho. :)

What exactly do you want to do with your computer, you say it for school, but what does that involve? That will determine what specs you want to be looking at.

My advise, try some laptops out at the store, one thing many people don't talk about is comfort. If you plan on using the thing for a few years, you don't want it to be a pain to use all the time. My big complaint on some laptops is having to push the keys on the keyboard too far to get them to work. I'm a light typer so that is a big thing for me. I miss keys all the time on my mom laptop, I just can't use the stupid thing. Some laptops are just shaped goofy where your wrists are in a bad position to type, or some put the mouse in a bad spot so your wrists move it when you type. Some are heavy as heck, some can be used as frisbees (not recommended). Try em out. Maybe you'll find your own pet peeves. It is amazing what a few degree slant or moving a few cm can do.

Then I would go home and look at reviews of the one I'm think about buying. There are problems you can't see in a few minutes, such as overheating problems. Also don't let a few bad reviews discourage you, but if it appears to be a common problem, you most likely saved yourself some headache. Then I would shop online and see I could get it cheaper than what the stores offer www.newegg.com is where I do most of my online computer buying. Sometimes its cheapest to buy directly from the manufactures website. Shop around and see whats best for you.

With that said I got the HP Folio 13. Comfortable to use, all solid state, battery life is awesome, and stays cool with normal use, weighs like 3 lbs. Everything I could ask for and zero issues. I bought it directly from HP online.

IT cleaned it every month it was in for repairs.
The cooling systems were terrible... and I wasn't the only one with a problem. Half of the school had theirs replaced at least once.

Oh, and as nice as a 17" screen may be... it's really flippin' heavy. My parents have the big Toshiba and it weighs as much as a small child.

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Originally Posted by schrammalot

IT cleaned it every month it was in for repairs.
The cooling systems were terrible... and I wasn't the only one with a problem. Half of the school had theirs replaced at least once.

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Which is a flaw in the design of that brand. Not all brands have that issue. Though, I find this immensely hilarious since my step-sister's fiance (A sworn mac lover), was showing off his mac and pointing out the single, thin strip along the back of the laptop that acts as a exhaust port. Then mentioned that it still heats up fairly badly.

I've been using mine for about three hours now and the only thing that's hot is my charger (which my dog has taken for a heat source....).

The desktop before that was also terrible... but it was a Dell as well.

Dell chooses to bulk buy bad parts to save tons of money cheap, bad parts. They always have, and the brand is just trash for me personally. I could spend half the money of a dell on an HP or save up a bit and invest in and ASUS.

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Well just so there is no more fighting I WILL not be getting a Mac. For 2 reasons. #1 I just do not have that kind of cash and #2 I called the school yesterday evening and to my surprise someone was there and I asked if students have issues with macs and their classes and she said they recommend pcs because like said before some things just don't work on the Mac system.

I always thought asus were crap? But if you guys say they are good then I won't skip over them next time I go to look.

Thanks for the help everyone

Also it will be being used for papers and notes, projects, power points, and whatever surfing I want to do.

Well I'm not sure at this point if I want to enter this lynch mob again but here it goes.

I x2 what was said about newegg.com , great source and constantly have good deals weekly with a plethora of reviews. My HP had its hd drive fail 3 times, the power inverter for the hd screen failed 2 times , stopped charging 4 times which was probably just a loose dc jack but I sent it back to them since it was a recurring problem. Maybe HP has changed in years but I still see them as a cheaply put together pc with a LARGE advertising budget. They are everywhere and readily available thus they sell the most cause they are cheap and everyone knows about them. But I am not trying to argue any of these facts...Asus has carried me a LONG way now and I support them whole heartedly, toshiba a close second.

If that is TRULY all you will be using the laptop for , you won't need an i7, or more than 6 gigs of ram. Get something with great battery life in an i5 with no less than 500 hd space. And you should be golden for a few years if that is all you'll ever want it for, and there will be TONS of options for you under 1000$ in that format. May factor in what software it comes with in the price too ;)

Dang iPhone lol

I actually found an HP I really like. It's the HP Envy, 14" screen, light, 8gb memory, 1TB HD, and the i7 processor. It's $799.99 through Best Buy. Plus it's got great reviews.

I have heard a lot of people saying good things about the envy. I am still a skeptic but hopefully that is me assuming to much. If you like it, check it on newegg and go for it

Oh I just checked it on Best Buy... the processor is the Intel® 3rd Generation Core™ i7. That's pretty good... Intel's Ivy Bridge processors came out earlier this year. They're supposedly smaller and require lower power requirements. Which means less heat being generated less cooling!

That's a pretty good find. If you're a casual gamer, the graphics card isn't that bad either. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-H...d.73567.0.html Although, I'd rather have an NVIDIA :3 But that's just me!

I don't really see anywhere how the battery life is though. That's a big thing to consider. My HP Elitebook dies really fast so I'm constantly plugged in. For a laptop it's not very portable haha. Which is probably why I use my MacBook Pro to carry around instead.

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Originally Posted by Orenshi

Oh I just checked it on Best Buy... the processor is the Intel® 3rd Generation Core™ i7. That's pretty good... Intel's Ivy Bridge processors came out earlier this year. They're supposedly smaller and require lower power requirements. Which means less heat being generated less cooling!

That's a pretty good find. If you're a casual gamer, the graphics card isn't that bad either. http://www.notebookcheck.net/Intel-H...d.73567.0.html Although, I'd rather have an NVIDIA :3 But that's just me!

I don't really see anywhere how the battery life is though. That's a big thing to consider. My HP Elitebook dies really fast so I'm constantly plugged in. For a laptop it's not very portable haha. Which is probably why I use my MacBook Pro to carry around instead.

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The only gaming I do is on the 360 lol. Thanks for the critique! I couldn't find battery life either.

I just googled it and it says the battery life is about 5 hours

I love my HP, had it for well over 4 years! Runs like a charm.

I would stay away from a 1TB drive if you can


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Originally Posted by SquamishSerpents

I love my HP, had it for well over 4 years! Runs like a charm.

I would stay away from a 1TB drive if you can


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Why you say that?

They fail often and when they do, data recovery is hard if not impossible.

My boyfriend has had a handful of TBs fail on him, and I've had my WD 750gig for 4 years and never even had one problem. No bad sectors, nothing! Perfect.

If you're working on things for school you're probably better off with a smaller harddrive anyways so you remember/get in the habit of backing everything up.


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Originally Posted by SquamishSerpents

They fail often and when they do, data recovery is hard if not impossible.

My boyfriend has had a handful of TBs fail on him, and I've had my WD 750gig for 4 years and never even had one problem. No bad sectors, nothing! Perfect.

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This is another case of having a few bad specific experiences and having it speak for something extremely general

I'm still curious what exactly do you plan on doing with this machine? It no doubt has some nice specs, but do you even need them? I ask because you might be able to sacrifice some specs to save yourself some money, or get a better user experience for the same price, something with an SSD for example. Just no reason to pay for it and not use it, thats all. Good luck!

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Originally Posted by SquamishSerpents

They fail often and when they do, data recovery is hard if not impossible.

My boyfriend has had a handful of TBs fail on him, and I've had my WD 750gig for 4 years and never even had one problem. No bad sectors, nothing! Perfect.

If you're working on things for school you're probably better off with a smaller harddrive anyways so you remember/get in the habit of backing everything up.


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What OWAL said .You shouldn't rule out all 1 TB HDs. It really depends on the manufacturer of said 1TB HDs.

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Originally Posted by OhhWatALoser

I'm still curious what exactly do you plan on doing with this machine? It no doubt has some nice specs, but do you even need them? I ask because you might be able to sacrifice some specs to save yourself some money, or get a better user experience for the same price, something with an SSD for example. Just no reason to pay for it and not use it, thats all. Good luck!

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Agreed. You can save some money since you said all your gaming is done on 360. However, what is your major? If you think you will be partitioning your laptop for another OS or even if you are running virtual machines... then those laptop specs can be utilized and really be put to use.

Keep searching and let us know :-)

^^ Well worded.

Not all TB hard drives are created equal, all that it means is that they hold at least 1 TB of space; Manufacturer has a huge influence on quality. I highly recommend dual booting Ubuntu (Linux) along with Win 7, if it comes with it, because you can recover a forgotten or lost admin password with it. I've had to do it once or twice. I have no clue if you can still due this with Windows 8 (Which I despise, but that's just my opinion).