View Full Version : Student laptop recommendations
rictus01
20-08-08, 11:31 AM
The Mrs and I are treating my youngest to a new laptop for Uni, I'm more the practical type so don't really do the new stuff, looked up my work provided one and it was £1,300 :smt103
So what will he need?
he doesn't want a giant one so no 17" screen things and it'll be for general use (as in he doesn't know what he'll use it for), 80gb HD is more than enough as he has a 250gb usb thing currently.
Budget £350 - £500
Options and recommendations please.
Cheers Mark.
the dell ebay shop has some bargains
Luckypants
20-08-08, 11:42 AM
Tesco have a back to school package with a Fujitsu lappy @£280 (or was it £260?) and my lad has just bought one. It is quite fast enough and has 2GB RAM and 160GB HDD so should be big enough. Only downside is no wordprocessing / spreadsheeting software on it, but that can be sorted on a student licence quite cheaply. (or via other means :))
tigersaw
20-08-08, 11:44 AM
No idea how powerful a machine he needs, but for pure portability the advent 4211 from ****yworld at £279 is a nice machine. The performance is about the same as a top notebook of 2 or 3 years ago, but it makes up for it in sheer ease of use, has all the wireless business, webcam, bluetongue etc. Great for slipping in a rucksack, small desktop footprint for lectures etc.
I bought a tiny eeepc a few months ago, similar thing but nowhere near as good, but it gets used constantly, more than anything else.
rictus01
20-08-08, 11:48 AM
Thanks Sarah , had a brief look will show him later.
Mike did you mean this stuff ?
http://www.tesco.com/backtoschool/laptops.asp
Cheers Mark.
AndyBrad
20-08-08, 11:54 AM
what are they doing at uni? media or engineering and they will want something fairly high spec.
rictus01
20-08-08, 12:05 PM
what are they doing at uni? media or engineering and they will want something fairly high spec.
forensic computing:smt102
Cheers Mark.
Luckypants
20-08-08, 12:33 PM
Mike did you mean this stuff ?
http://www.tesco.com/backtoschool/laptops.asp
Cheers Mark.
No he got it in-store at one of them mega-Tesco places. Fujitsu Amilo. Seems a good spec for the money, but only has a celeron processor.
Novatech do them rather cheap to...
Went mad before Christmas and bought a couple for the kids and one for the current Mrs Woz (well, for myself really but needed an excuse) for around £300 each from Currys.
Nowt whatsoever wrong with any of 'em.
The Acer Aspire 5715Z on the Tesco site looks good VFM with that spec.
My dad just gave me a new Fujitsu Siemens Esprimo Mobile with 1.8Mhz, 2Gb RAM, 120Gb HDD, I think they sell for about 275 quid new. My only niggle is battery life isn't great but it does everythng I need it to and has taken over from my desktop machine.
Tesco have a back to school package with a Fujitsu lappy @£280 (or was it £260?) and my lad has just bought one. It is quite fast enough and has 2GB RAM and 160GB HDD so should be big enough. Only downside is no wordprocessing / spreadsheeting software on it, but that can be sorted on a student licence quite cheaply. (or via other means :))
Yes and for the 'word processing/spreadsheeting' software you can download Open Office which is an Opensource product - basically Freeware software that is very similar to Microsoft Office.
Here is the link:
http://www.openoffice.org/
If hes doing comp forensics and is intrested in computers, ask him to find one himself within the price range from ebuyer/dabs, etc with any accessories.
Sure, he'll max out the memory, hard disk, etc but its going to last him a while it might be easier than in 6months time him going DAD....I need more memory for my "Video editing" research.
Dan
SoulKiss
20-08-08, 02:06 PM
If hes doing comp forensics and is intrested in computers, ask him to find one himself within the price range from ebuyer/dabs, etc with any accessories.
Sure, he'll max out the memory, hard disk, etc but its going to last him a while it might be easier than in 6months time him going DAD....I need more memory for my "Video editing" research.
Dan
Dan may have a point - might be best to refer to the Uni and ask if there is a recommended spec for a laptop.
AndyBrad
20-08-08, 02:24 PM
make sure you get the best processor (wants to be 2 gig core 2 duo, the 2 is important) and vidio card (most nvidia chips are good) Look at the dell website. Donmt buy memory from them but get it off ebay and save yourself a packet.
Ceri JC
20-08-08, 02:38 PM
forensic computing:smt102
Cheers Mark.
Hi Mark,
For Forensic computing the limiting factor is usually RAM. The more RAM, the faster it can scan and index images of disk drives (which I imagine a fair whack of his coursework will be based around). Best to make sure it has 2GB of RAM and that it has an adequate number of USB 2.0 slots to accomodate both the external USB drive (this may take 2 ports, depending on how it's powered) and a mouse. Storage space on the drive is unlikely to be too important as at most I imagine they'll be given DVD sized drive images to analyze. Might be worth checking with the uni what software their course is based around to get an idea of the spec. A lot of the serious forensics software like Encase is v. pricey (so much so that you won't be expected to buy a copy yourself), so the practical stuff will probably be mainly taught in the uni's own labs, rather than done on his laptop, so I'd not go overboard on the spec of it.
As others have said, I'd be loathe to pay much for software licences as they can be had so cheaply via the uni at educational rates.
If he has any questions about it or the course in general, PM me, I'd be happy to help (I work in this field and have a masters that encompasses computer forensics).
Edit: He does not need a fancy video card. So long as it can play back video clip in media player, it will be fine for forensic work. Better cards are only really for gaming and he won't be doing advanced computer graphics requiring one as part of the course.
If you scanning data and you have lots of reads from the hard disk then you will also be wanting to think about disk speed and the on-board disc cache, as this will help with the access time. Most new stuff comes with SATA, but if I remember right the laptop SATA drives have different rpm speeds depending on the model and are not always to the same higher spec as the desktop models.
For £300 you can get a good spec PC tower.....just the box though - no screen/keyboard etc.
I would say for £400 you could get those as well. I wouldn't buy a laptop for his course though! The software can be had from uni for free or from other sources ;) You (he) needs something that can be upgraded easily and cheaply and that is a PC defo not a laptop.
SoulKiss
20-08-08, 03:04 PM
make sure you get the best processor (wants to be 2 gig core 2 duo, the 2 is important) and vidio card (most nvidia chips are good) Look at the dell website. Donmt buy memory from them but get it off ebay and save yourself a packet.
Rubbish, and read the original post - this is just really an email/browsing/write up homework kind of machine.
Also it seems that many of the latest nVidia gfx chips for laptops and maybe their desktop cards may suffer from a manufacturing defect that causes them to die.
The CPU you suggest will EAT the battery, making it useless for taking to lectures to make notes on.
Yeah, if it was an Uber Gaming box that never is expected to run on it battery (and I have laptops of that spec) then you might be right.
However to the spec asked for , any £300 from Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Advent or whoever will do.
I would avoid the SCC ones, like the Acer EEE PC as they are a bit gimmicky and only a small step up from a PDA.
Stick a USB hub, mouse and keyboard into the budget as having these will make the thing more useable when its on his desk in his room.
Yep the on-board Intel chipset video will cope with most things and save on battery life too.
Iansv II
20-08-08, 04:58 PM
Pretty much anything from £300 up is going to "do the job" but i would max out the ram if possible
Personally i'd avoid fujitsu like the plague, they're badly built and the aftersales support is absolutely useless and engineers incompetent, A fuji engineer we got at work asked us to download the tech manual for him.....
Can't go wrong with dell to be honest
gettin2dizzy
20-08-08, 06:14 PM
Get a desktop. Laptops are easily stolen, are much lower spec, and get nailed by students in no time. You'd be looking at replacing it within 18 months whereas the desktop will rock on
Nostrils
20-08-08, 07:12 PM
Many companies offer Student Discounts with confirmation of placement associated with a wide variety of University.
You could try Apple!
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/education_routing?mco=MTE2NTI
phil24_7
20-08-08, 07:44 PM
Dell Inspiron 1525 with a decent chip, 2 gig of ram, a web cam for video chat and what ever colour they want. Kate's got one and she loves it!!
chakraist
20-08-08, 08:35 PM
An older powerbook G4 maybe?
larigos
20-08-08, 09:17 PM
buy apple - not cheap (education discount available) but can...stress can run all your windows programs and wont suffer from viruses. Have used one as a teacher for the last 7 years, wouldn't go back to a xp/vista machine.
ethariel
20-08-08, 10:25 PM
However to the spec asked for , any £300 from Dell, Toshiba, Acer, Asus, Advent or whoever will do.
I would avoid the SCC ones, like the Acer EEE PC as they are a bit gimmicky and only a small step up from a PDA.
Stick a USB hub, mouse and keyboard into the budget as having these will make the thing more useable when its on his desk in his room.
Yep that just about sums it up for Surfing/Word Processing, though if you are looking at Video Editing then it would be desktop territory.
All IMHO tho!
Colin
rictus01
22-08-08, 05:52 PM
Well ended up getting one from the Dell outlet store, Vostro 1510 £271 + delivery
I also paid for a wireless mouse & keyboard (http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/6752840/c_1/1%7Ccategory_root%7COffice%2C+PCs+and+phones%7C101 98997/c_2/2%7Ccat_10198997%7CKeyboards+and+mice%7C10199149/c_3/3%7Ccat_10199149%7CPC+keyboards+and+tablets%7C1019 9152.htm) ( and was impressed so much I bought myself one as well).
So he's happy as it gives him £100 or so to spend on other stuff.
Intel® Core™2 Duo Processor T5670 (1.8 GHz, 2 MB L2 Cache, 800 MHz FSB)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business with Service Pack 1 - English
LCD 15.4" Widescreen WXGA (1280 x 800) Display with Anti-Glare Coating
INTEGRATED WEBCAM Glossy Black without Camera
MEMORY 2048MB (2x1024) 667MHz DDR2 Dual Channel
HARD DRIVE 250GB (5400rpm) SATA Hard Drive
GRAPHICS CARD IntelJ Integrated Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
OPTICAL DRIVE Fixed Internal 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
PRIMARY BATTERY Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
thanks for the help guys.
Cheers Mark.
timwilky
22-08-08, 06:22 PM
Mark
Has your lad got his accommodation in Preston sorted. Halls or private landlord etc. If he need advice on areas etc. Give us a shout.
rictus01
23-08-08, 12:09 AM
Mark
Has your lad got his accommodation in Preston sorted. Halls or private landlord etc. If he need advice on areas etc. Give us a shout.
Yeah thanks, he's sorted, on campus accomadation, I'm delivering him and his stuff up there on the 12th.
Cheers Mark.
Went mad before Christmas and bought a couple for the kids and one for the current Mrs Woz (well, for myself really but needed an excuse) for around £300 each from Currys.
Nowt whatsoever wrong with any of 'em.Keeping her on her toes? :lol:
yorkie_chris
23-08-08, 03:00 PM
Whatever you get make sure you chuck all the standard software and OS off it right handy, I've yet to see a new computer that I could use for more than 3 minutes without deleting about 40 useless bloatware programs.
rictus01
23-08-08, 05:04 PM
Whatever you get make sure you chuck all the standard software and OS off it right handy, I've yet to see a new computer that I could use for more than 3 minutes without deleting about 40 useless bloatware programs.
Not a problem Chris, probably go back to XP and trim that down as well, he'll need all the office stuff and several of the programs he currently has on his desktop, so a day or two's work to sort it out I suppose.
Cheers Mark.
rictus01
03-09-08, 02:15 PM
Arrived today (due on the 8th), actually very impressed, bit of a faff sorting the wireless out, but that's more Vista than the laptop, got a few nice touches like the card reader and web cam, anyway one well chuffed teenager.
Cheers Mark.
Nicky S
03-09-08, 02:38 PM
The Mrs and I are treating my youngest to a new laptop for Uni, I'm more the practical type so don't really do the new stuff, looked up my work provided one and it was £1,300 :smt103
So what will he need?
he doesn't want a giant one so no 17" screen things and it'll be for general use (as in he doesn't know what he'll use it for), 80gb HD is more than enough as he has a 250gb usb thing currently.
Budget £350 - £500
Options and recommendations please.
Cheers Mark.
first off dnt buy **** just because its cheap. u buy somthing from dell if it brakes u send it back to dell and dnt see it for ages or never see it again and get a new one. dnt buy from pc world coz there monkeys. ur best bet is a acer or a toshiba they are the worlds best makes and the best reliable. if you look throught there sites :
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/
http://www.acer.co.uk/public/page74.do?UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=2553782219
and find what you want and for the price you can then shop around but if u dnt wnt to wasit money on a **** laptop that will die get a acer or a toshiba.
you myt think im talknig **** but its up to u ant it its ur money. need any help giv me a yell :P
Nicky S
03-09-08, 02:40 PM
Arrived today (due on the 8th), actually very impressed, bit of a faff sorting the wireless out, but that's more Vista than the laptop, got a few nice touches like the card reader and web cam, anyway one well chuffed teenager.
Cheers Mark.
and u got vista :( bad move
SoulKiss
03-09-08, 02:46 PM
first off dnt buy **** just because its cheap. u buy somthing from dell if it brakes u send it back to dell and dnt see it for ages or never see it again and get a new one. dnt buy from pc world coz there monkeys. ur best bet is a acer or a toshiba they are the worlds best makes and the best reliable. if you look throught there sites :
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/
http://www.acer.co.uk/public/page74.do?UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=2553782219
and find what you want and for the price you can then shop around but if u dnt wnt to wasit money on a **** laptop that will die get a acer or a toshiba.
you myt think im talknig **** but its up to u ant it its ur money. need any help giv me a yell :P
Why would ANYONE take advice from someone who cant even get a keyboard where every key works reliably????
Also, Rictus is not a numpty when it comes to IT I think he was just really looking for ideas on suppliers in the 1st place.
And as for the "Oh No VISTA" people - you try and source a decent laptop where they dont add a surcharge of about £50 for upgrading to XP.
Nicky S
03-09-08, 02:48 PM
Why would ANYONE take advice from someone who cant even get a keyboard where every key works reliably????
Also, Rictus is not a numpty when it comes to IT I think he was just really looking for ideas on suppliers in the 1st place.
And as for the "Oh No VISTA" people - you try and source a decent laptop where they dont add a surcharge of about £50 for upgrading to XP.
it dnt cost to downgrade u can only do it whith serton vista . and lol upgrade it downgrade :P
and u got vista :( bad move
Having actually used Vista at work I really do fail to see it as a "step back". XP got all the same flak when it came out "Oh don't do that, stick with Windows 2000" like it or not over the time that Mark's son is at Uni, more and more programs are going to go to Vista only. Flattening it to put on an OS that you're more familiar with is fine and if that's what he chooses to do, great. But to stick with the supplied Vista Business is by no means a bad shout. As he's doing a computing degree it may end up with some mad setup with virtual machines, and a custom install of Linux anyway... But that'll be his son's doing, and thus, up to him to fix when it doesn't work:mrgreen:
Jambo
Nicky S
03-09-08, 02:54 PM
Having actually used Vista at work I really do fail to see it as a "step back". XP got all the same flak when it came out "Oh don't do that, stick with Windows 2000" like it or not over the time that Mark's son is at Uni, more and more programs are going to go to Vista only. Flattening it to put on an OS that you're more familiar with is fine and if that's what he chooses to do, great. But to stick with the supplied Vista Business is by no means a bad shout. As he's doing a computing degree it may end up with some mad setup with virtual machines, and a custom install of Linux anyway... But that'll be his son's doing, and thus, up to him to fix when it doesn't work:mrgreen:
Jambo
makes senc but no one told me that any of u lot sort of new what you were talking about so i said it as u didnt know anything and easyest way. but vista will take a long time to fix i mean it has 3 millon more lines of code then xp that a lot of code:(
first off dnt buy **** just because its cheap. u buy somthing from dell if it brakes u send it back to dell and dnt see it for ages or never see it again and get a new one. dnt buy from pc world coz there monkeys. ur best bet is a acer or a toshiba they are the worlds best makes and the best reliable. if you look throught there sites :
http://www.toshiba.co.uk/
http://www.acer.co.uk/public/page74.do?UserCtxParam=0&GroupCtxParam=0&dctx1=17&CountryISOCtxParam=UK&LanguageISOCtxParam=en&crc=2553782219
and find what you want and for the price you can then shop around but if u dnt wnt to wasit money on a **** laptop that will die get a acer or a toshiba.
you myt think im talknig **** but its up to u ant it its ur money. need any help giv me a yell :P
Acer......you sure? My sister bought one a year ago and the build quality was a tad suspect.
Good move getting Vista Business too as that's the only version AFAIK that qualifies for the free downgrade to XP.
My friend has asked me for advice on what laptop to get.....cheers Mark, you've saved me some time on that one so beer's on me :thumbsup: ......looks great for the money!
Nicky S
03-09-08, 04:54 PM
Acer......you sure? My sister bought one a year ago and the build quality was a tad suspect.
Good move getting Vista Business too as that's the only version AFAIK that qualifies for the free downgrade to XP.
My friend has asked me for advice on what laptop to get.....cheers Mark, you've saved me some time on that one so beer's on me :thumbsup: ......looks great for the money!
acer are one of the worlds best
rictus01
03-09-08, 05:25 PM
Had a look at the Acer one in tescos, my son wasn't impressed at all with the quality and even with a staff discount he wasn't interested.
As to the OS, well he'll have whatever he wants on it, it came with Vista and we used that to test everything, whether it stays or goes to XP is totally up to him, there is only one opinion that matters here, and he's more than happy :cool:.
Cheers Mark.
Nicky S
03-09-08, 05:35 PM
Had a look at the Acer one in tescos, my son wasn't impressed at all with the quality and even with a staff discount he wasn't interested.
As to the OS, well he'll have whatever he wants on it, it came with Vista and we used that to test everything, whether it stays or goes to XP is totally up to him, there is only one opinion that matters here, and he's more than happy :cool:.
Cheers Mark.
thats gd then as long as his happy and has no problems :P
rictus01
25-09-08, 10:21 AM
Well I must say another great deal from Dell, got another laptop, arrived from them from their outlet on Ebay, £255.
For a "scratched or dented" I can't find a mark on it, not as fancy as the other one, just in plain satin black and no web cam or multimedia buttons, but it has the 85w 9 cell battery and dual layer DVD burner,AMD Athlon 64x2 T57, 2Gb ram and 160Gb HD,which is what I was after, came with Vista home basic, so will be blowing that away tonight for a nice clean XP Pro version.
A lot of laptop for not a lot of money :D
Cheers Mark.
missyburd
25-09-08, 10:25 AM
I bought my Dell laptop for about £300 a couple of years ago for uni and it's been ace, really hoping it will survive for the rest of this year! Not had problems with it, best thing I've bought for a while :)
i realise this is a bit late. we got bex an HP laptop with built in web cam from currys. the comma key was missing but still worked, we got £80 discount. Didnt have instruction booklet so got another £20 off. It was in sale too. Got it for £280 - I was happy. It had vista on it and it caused machine to crash. Call to Falc and few days later machine returned all working - happy bunny again.
saying that I did not rate currys at all. salesman was really grumpy and not helpful. but machine was last one and such a good deal that I just swallowed my personal feelings about the grumpy little scroat and bought it. He was not impressed further when I turned down their insurance.
rictus01
25-09-08, 10:34 AM
Well this one's to replace my work one which will go back soon, we originally looked at HD and their outlet "seconds" as well, but Dell have been fantastic to be honest, I've delt with the same guy on the phone and been given his direct number, their tracking system is very good and even got a call the day before delivery to makesure I was home, add to that the valve for money and I'm well happy:D
Cheers Mark.
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