need help picking laptop for school

snomaker321 · May 1, 2010

So i'll be going to college in the fall so that means i'll be needing a laptop. What do you guys recommend. I'll probably end up getting a Dell inspiron 15 with an intel i5 process unless you guys have any better suggestions. thanks

02RangerXLT · May 1, 2010

I recommend HP's... alot of people hate them, but I love mine. Has Windows 7, which is like comparing a Cadillac to a Smart Car (Windows Vista).

JMHO

AllanD · May 2, 2010

Dell has better customer service and support for their laptops.... or their computers in general

If you can fix things yourself on a desktop an HP is usually good too, but IMO not quite as good as dell.

Dell computers in generally are usually easier to restore to operation after a HDD crashes
I would not even consider depending entirely on a laptop for anything important.

My personal motto about computers is that a computer with only one Hard drive is a
device designed to LOSE all your data.
Write this down: There are two kinds of Computer hard drives those that have
crashed and those that WILL crash. when they go they take everything stored
on them to whatever afterlife machines get...

Laptops get lost or stolen too...

Frankly rather than buying ONE $1500 laptop I'd get two $750 laptops and whatever drive they came with I'd replace the HDD with something larger made by Western Digital rather than the typical lowest bidder crap most laptops come with
(Typically Hitachi, Fujitsu or Samsung)

"portable drives" like USB drives are fine... if you NEVER carry them anywhere
because they only need to be dropped ONCE to become nothing more than a
paperweight.

Unless you can afford the newer solid state drives
I think an SSD inside a USB enclosure would be the perfect thing for data preservation, but at a minimum cost of ~$1.50/Gb of storage space... (compared to conventional Hard disc drives at ~$0.10-$0.20/gb)

You need a laptop AND a desktop, the desktop needs atleast three hard drives
one of which will be purely dedicated to "synchronizing" everything you have
on the laptop to it. and the other two set up more or less as duplicates to preserve the setup of the computer, your actual schoolwork data and your applications.

If you want entertainment you'll need even more space, but if you lose all your
mp3's or a seasons worth of your favorite TV show it isn't a big deal, annoying, but
not a disaster.

AD

You only need to lose ONE term paper to forever be willing to justify the cost of planning backups BEFORE you lose everything.

john112deere · May 2, 2010

One thing that may be worth looking into is whether the college you're going to has a "computer repair" section of their IT department, and, if so, if they do warranty work on any of the brands you're looking at.

If memory serves, where I went to school they were factory certified on Dell, IBM, and Apple.

snomaker321 · May 2, 2010

AllanD said:
Dell has better customer service and support for their laptops.... or their computers in general

If you can fix things yourself on a desktop an HP is usually good too, but IMO not quite as good as dell.

Dell computers in generally are usually easier to restore to operation after a HDD crashes
I would not even consider depending entirely on a laptop for anything important.

My personal motto about computers is that a computer with only one Hard drive is a
device designed to LOSE all your data.
Write this down: There are two kinds of Computer hard drives those that have
crashed and those that WILL crash. when they go they take everything stored
on them to whatever afterlife machines get...

Laptops get lost or stolen too...

Frankly rather than buying ONE $1500 laptop I'd get two $750 laptops and whatever drive they came with I'd replace the HDD with something larger made by Western Digital rather than the typical lowest bidder crap most laptops come with
(Typically Hitachi, Fujitsu or Samsung)

"portable drives" like USB drives are fine... if you NEVER carry them anywhere
because they only need to be dropped ONCE to become nothing more than a
paperweight.

Unless you can afford the newer solid state drives
I think an SSD inside a USB enclosure would be the perfect thing for data preservation, but at a minimum cost of ~$1.50/Gb of storage space... (compared to conventional Hard disc drives at ~$0.10-$0.20/gb)

You need a laptop AND a desktop, the desktop needs atleast three hard drives
one of which will be purely dedicated to "synchronizing" everything you have
on the laptop to it. and the other two set up more or less as duplicates to preserve the setup of the computer, your actual schoolwork data and your applications.

If you want entertainment you'll need even more space, but if you lose all your
mp3's or a seasons worth of your favorite TV show it isn't a big deal, annoying, but
not a disaster.

AD

You only need to lose ONE term paper to forever be willing to justify the cost of planning backups BEFORE you lose everything.

Why can't I just email any papers i need to an internet based email account(yahoo, gmail, etc) Thats what I do now. Or just keep it on a flashdrive. I should be able to get rid of the backup after i turn it it, right?

downzero · May 2, 2010

I love my MSI wind. Super portable and cheap! I use a desktop at the apartment and take the laptop to class, if I need it.

Relying on only a laptop is a bad idea.

Will · May 2, 2010

I like my Aspire One netbook. I paid $250 for it and it's great. I have a 19" moniter I use when assembling things in Acrobat or doing drafting, but the little screen was easy to get used to and it's a compete computer. And it's really light.

I e-mail documents to myself and also use several redundant memory sticks. And occasionally I burn a pair of redundant data CDs. I did have a harddrive crash on my Toshiba once, but I was able to recover everything with a simple program. I have not had a mechanical problem with a hard drive that kept it from being able to be read through another computer.

koda6966 · May 2, 2010

I think I'll piggyback on this thread.

I'm looking around at laptops and so far I'm settling on a Dell Inspiron 17. Completely base, with the exception of windows 7 and an integrated camera.

What I'm planning on using it for is running AutoCAD 2009, and mild gaming/netflix. The gaming wont be extreme, just the usual web based flash games and a few N64 ROMs. Almost any computer can run those. I've heard that CAD is a HUGE program and most computers will bog down when it's installed, so I'm a little worried if I have enough memory on there for that. Whatcha think guys?

AllanD · May 2, 2010

I'm not a college student, I'm 48years old, but my MP3 collection takes up enough space to store the encyclopedia britannica, more than once... many times infact.

a decade of accumulated e-mails (in and out) fits easily (with room to spare)
0n a 2gb thumb drive.

TEXT documents don't take up much space at all, even detailed pics in high resolution only take up a couple of megs, most are 40kb or so.

Frankly you should be able to fit every paper you do in college on a medium sized flash drive and leave room for those of your roommate.

But the thing is that no matter how much space you have you wind up filling it and needing more.

it's that ugly thing called reality.

add to that no matter how state of the art it is when you buy it it'll be obsolete by the end of your sophmore year... but vast surplus hard drive space will keep it useable far beyond it's planned lifespan.

Hey, a friend of mine has the first four seasons of House saved on his
computer... DVD quality 2.35Gb/hr it doesn't even make a dent in his
640gb HDD

my own ancient laptop only has 120gb, but I also have a 320gb USB drive

if you have it you will use it, and the more capability it has....

AD

koda6966 · May 3, 2010

I'm not worried about my music collection. It's already stored on a 16gb flash drive that regularly goes from my computer to my car, so there's room for more and whatever else I decide to put on it. If you ever have the need for extra "storage" memory flash drives and external hard drives come in handy. You can get a 1TB external hard drive for 80-160 dollars. That's more memory than most desktops, and I mean most when I say it.

97RangerXLT · May 4, 2010

x2 on the jump drive. I had my entire Eastern Illinois University curriculum on a one gig jump drive. the one thing that I do recommend is that you back it up to your desktop regularly, and keep a continuously updated copy of it on another jumpdrive somewhere easy to get to. nothing would suck worse than losing your jump drive or data on it if it gets nuked. I lucked out and did not have any of those issues, but after forgetting it in the computer lab once, (got it back, someone was good enough to turn it in) I made damn sure it was backed up at home and I had a spare with the info on it.

AS for laptops, when I graduated EIU, they were looking at having mandatory laptops for all students in the future. so with that in mind, you want to get one that will survive four years of hauling to all of your classes every day. probably will mean a more expensive one. Stay away from HP, they are the worst reliable makes. A study on laptops was done and HP was dead last, with 25 percent of their machines dead within 2 years. Asus was the best, with only 11 or 12 percent dead. Dell was middle of the road. I will see if I can find the link for you.

Dell is better than HP for the reasons Allan D mentioned: easier restores, better customer service.

Just some thoughts.

AJ

koda6966 · May 5, 2010

I wouldn't ever bring a $1000+ laptop to college with me. That's why I'm going cheap. Besides, I'll need it for one year tops. Then I'll probably keep it as a spare or wipe it of me and sell it.

A friend of mine has a $3500+ laptop and he's had around 500 dollars worth of work done to it in the past few months. I think he'd probably buy another before bringing that one in.

Boggin · May 5, 2010

i can only say ill never ever own a dell again. computer kept crashing like every month. so i got a HP Pavillion DV9000 and its the shits. next laptop i have will probably be the same. the screen on it is HUGE. i got a ton of music and pics and vids on it and it only just got some viruses the other day. it got hand touch volume control, pause/play, and all the other junk that lights up in blue just above the keyboard in this pic

koda6966 · May 5, 2010

Stop watching porn and it will almost solve your virus problems.

Myspace too. The ads on myspace give mine viruses. You can get a mod for firefox that will strip all websites of ads and you can set it to allow certain websites if you want.

99RangerKrazy · May 5, 2010

I'm looking into getting a new laptop too...my Gateway won't charge anymore (the cord is fine, where it connects to the laptop is jacked up). But anyways, I'd never own an HP. My parents and sister have had one and it was a real POS. The screen/hinge broke within a year and they both just shut down and stopped working. My parents have a Dell now (what I'm using right now) and it seems like a great laptop.

need help picking laptop for school

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