Buying a Laptop for Uni

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-07-26 20:29

As the title says, I am presently in the market for a new laptop that I will be taking with me to school. After spending the past hour or so weighing different items such as: weight, power and the consumption of such, battery life and most importantly what type of dedicated GPU I should get.

I'm quite turned off by the Intel HD internal graphics, I haven't heard anything good about it as so far-that being said, a dedicated GPU will eat up more power and then after a while batter life may or may not become an issue.

So far I've looked at: Lenovo Z40 Laptop | 14" Multimedia Notebook PC | Lenovo (US)

Acer | Aspire V | Aspire V3-572-78S3 | Overview

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6834152586

So, TL;DR I'm searching for a mid-range laptop (not touchscreen) that's not terribly expensive, but has enough juice to run, say, Skyrim on medium. I wrote all of this because I don't know what direction to go in so, input from college students would be greatly appreciated, maybe how much you lugged it around with you and if weight really is that big of a deal.

Post by **LITOralis.nMd** » 2014-07-26 21:54

What's specs are you locked in on already?
14" ?
Non touchscreen ?
1920x1080p or 1600x900p ?
i5 or i7 ?
new, refurbed, used? (You can always buy a SquareTrade warranty)

Are you a wimp?
Weight difference between a 14" and 15.6" is like 2 pounds.
I suggest you go without a laptop and hit the gym beanpole.

If you want to go with a discrete GPU, , I suggest looking at notebooks with the
AMD Radeon R9 M275 2GB
Nvidia GTX 660M
Nvidia GTX 755M
Nvidia GTX 670M (kinda excessive for college notebook)

The Core i7-4850HQ is the sweetspot right now for non-discrete GPU notebooks for college kids.

I suggest hunting for deals on slickdeals, fatwallet, bensbargains, Amazon Warehouse Deals, etc.

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-07-26 23:12

'preciate it.

Honestly I just don't know what i'll be using it for in the future *asides* from word processing: (Will I want to run games with buddies later on during a LAN party?) If that's the case, I'm sure the 660M will do the job. I don't need to be running things on ub3r ultra XXX high graphiczx

Also; just cos' I'm 5'9 @ 130 pounds doesn't mean I'm a beanpole. I prefer "twiggy" tyvm.

I'll take a look at that CPU

Post by **LITOralis.nMd** » 2014-07-27 01:02

i7-4850HQ
i7-4750HQ
i7-4860HQ
etc,
full list here:
ARK | Processor Feature Filter

Honestly I'd suggest a i5 that is as fast as economical and a discrete gaming level GPU, preferably an Nvidia. That should get you through at least 2 years of Uni. try this list:
http://ark.intel.com/search/advanced?s= ... hzMin=2660
The (Intel? Core™ i5-4308U Processor
(3M Cache, up to 3.30 GHz) will not be available until XMas, don't waste time looking.

Steeps · Post by **Steeps** » 2014-07-27 03:32

I'm in my senior year at FSU. Honestly, my recommendation is to have a desktop and a small, non-gaming laptop. My laptop is an ASUS Eee PC 1215b. I love the thing. It's 12.1" screen with a full size keyboard and Windows 7 on it. Runs great, does everything I need between taking notes, database design, and SQL programming. It's very easy to fit inside any backpack too, which is important because you don't want to be carrying around a massive chunk of metal (can you say 17" aluminum MacBooks?).

Another selling point: $320 and then just throw an SSD and some RAM, you're good to go.

Getting a non-gaming laptop will keep you from playing games in class (which I'm sure you want to do).

For brands of laptops, my votes are for ASUS, Dell, and Sony. These have always been the most reliable in my eyes. If you buy an HP, I will hunt you down and throw that thing off a roof top. Oh wait, it'll die in a year anyway.

PLODDITHANLEY · Post by **PLODDITHANLEY** » 2014-07-27 06:38

After having two Acer portables with screen death at 13 months I no longer consider them an option. However my MSI is still going after 6 years, make sure any portable computer is not too hard to-do the annual dust removal.

Post by **LITOralis.nMd** » 2014-07-27 16:10

I would avoid Acer and Sony, and... the smaller HPs that are not DV6 or DV7 or better models.

Asus is good , but the keys are a bit funky for me , I'm a touch typist, they keys don't have enough 'travel', hard to tell when you've pressed them.

Lenovo's T, W and X series are amazing, but not for gaming. I have had T series for the last 7 years, they are indestructible, easy to repair and find parts for, and last forever because of the metal chassis.
Lenovo's entry level gaming systems are pretty good too for your needs.

MSI's entry level gaming systems are great.

I second the idea of getting a non-gaming laptop, and building a mITX or Matx small volume gaming PC for your dorm room. The PC becomes your entertainment center, set up LogMeIn Hamachi, Citrix, or something similar to remotely grab files off your PC to your laptop when roaming about campus.

My freshman year of college, I had a 17" CRT TV, a Pentium Pro 166 MHz PC with a SVGA CRT monitor, a boombox that ran cassette tapes and CDs, and my roommate had a VHS VCR player and some killer speakers.

So don't worry about it, all you really need is a smartphone and headphones and bluetooth keyboard.

PLODDITHANLEY · Post by **PLODDITHANLEY** » 2014-07-27 20:21

I too think the mini portable and non portable in the dorm is a winner.

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-08-01 01:33

Okay

For now; not going to worry about a non-portable. If push comes to shove and I really feel necessary, I'll lug my desktop up to Jacksonville- that or if I get a job and can pay for a mini box that would be swell; I like the Hamachi/ file sharing idea. Never thought of that.

Update: Alrighty! Pulled the trigger on a Lenovo T440s Ultrabook;
specs:

CPU: i5-4200U @2.6Ghz
GPU: Intel HD 4400 Graphics (I wanted the 4600 but it wasn't offered on this particular model-weight v. graphics
OS: Windows 7 64 bit (Can't stand Win 8.1, piece of sh*t that it is)
RAM: 8 gigs of DDR3L
HDD: 500GB @ 7200 rpm
All of that plus the other standard **** that comes in it;et al,
Now a question about the wireless adaptor- I had a few different options. I went with the standard Thinkpad Wireless 2x2 BGN w/Bluetooth but I'm just curious as to what the difference is between the other options-

And thank ya'll so much for the input; I really do appreciate it-hopefully this sucker will last all four years and beyond.

Steeps · Post by **Steeps** » 2014-08-01 11:20

Well if you're still wanting to game on it, the Intel HD graphics won't get you very far.

Post by **LITOralis.nMd** » 2014-08-01 22:37

That's a good choice sharpie, I suggested the prior T430s to my uncle when his son was looking for a Uni notebook. But, you can't really game on it.

The T430s has survived 2 years of Uni so far, no problems.

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-08-01 22:51

Awesome awesome

It should be in by next Wednesday, I'll post a few pictures or something because I can.

KillJoy[Fr] · Post by **KillJoy[Fr]** » 2014-08-02 00:31

Of course it's good choice.

I have a non-gaming laptop a Lenovo Thinkpad T61 it's little bit old school but i have upgrade some parts adding an SSD + 2Gb of ram and a freshly Windows 8.1 os, it's just perfect for my studies. Cons this laptop is a bit heavy.

Post by **LITOralis.nMd** » 2014-08-02 01:43

I still have a Lenovo T61 here also, added a Crucial M4 128GB SSD and RAM , use it when I'm travelling rough... those Thinkpad T chassis designs are really really durable.

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-08-11 22:16

It's alive!

All the way from Hong Kong; and loaded with lots of Lenovo bloatware but it's lightweight and I'm taking a liking to the keyboard so far, which is nice. The touchpad will take a little getting used to though...

Again, thanks for the suggestions and input etc; it was greatly appreciated.

Steeps · Post by **Steeps** » 2014-08-12 04:08

Please, do a fresh install and save the hassle of your slowed down computer. It's free to download windows 7 or 8 ISO files. You just need to make sure you save your product key that you have.

ComradeHX · Post by **ComradeHX** » 2014-08-14 00:33

Z40? For same price I got a y410p(a little more for y510p) that can actually play games.

sharpie · Post by **sharpie** » 2014-09-24 17:20

Steeps wrote:Please, do a fresh install and save the hassle of your slowed down computer. It's free to download windows 7 or 8 ISO files. You just need to make sure you save your product key that you have.

Considered it; instead I just un-installed the majority of the Lenovo bloatware. It runs as fast as I need it to, Word opens in a few seconds, I can comfortably run AoE2 and run multiple processes at once.

However; I am finding that 43% of my RAM is being used up--by a program I was forced to download so I could connect to the school's wi-fi. This is a mild inconvenience, and I was wondering if anyone has a good free program somewhere that would free up some RAM. It's not really a huge issue, it's just annoying me.

All of that aside; after my first two months at Uni I have to say I am truly in love with this thing. It's lightweight, the keyboard is pretty damn good for a laptop and the touch pad is a dream to work with (even if I do use a wireless mouse most of the time, Logitech M305) and I prefer it even over the MacBook Air (can't stand the touchpad on that thing, let alone and MacOS)

edit: @Comrade, I purposely got the T440 because I didn't want to have the ability to play a ton of games. I'm making a conscious effort to limit the amount of time I spend gaming and focus on my school work. So far, that has worked out fabulously-in fact I just finished my fourth 500 word paper not to long ago. Now, time to study for my World History Mid-term on Friday, not to mention a Statistics test.

Love n' Hugs