Laptop Recommendations

[Jazcash]

So I'm about to start uni in about 3 weeks and I need a laptop. I've been using my netbook for school atm and it's done pretty much everything I expected it to which was primarily just office work and a few not-too-demanding applications like Skype, Messenger etc.

Anyways, I'm doing Computer Science so I'm gonna need a pretty decent machine and would be nice if it ran games like Minecraft/Spring too.

My budget is around £600 - 700 which is $974 - $1136 for you 'merican folk according to Google.

I'm not looking to fit any specific requirements, just a good deal really. Wut cha got for me guise?

[AF]

If you have a student card and a little extra money, go grab a MacBook and put windows/boot camp on it ( MASSIVE student discount, no really, I saved around £300 by flashing a student card in a apple store and got a 3 year warranty for a 5th of the price which is stillvbeing honoured after it's expired )

[Jazcash]

Oh, I'll probably wait till I get my student card then, that sounds pretty neato. Although, I'm still on the edge whether buying a Macbook is a good decision... Even a saving of £300 is an Apple machine really still worth the cost?

[Das Bruce]

Do Apple laptops have right click when running bootcamp? Or are you stuck with one click?

[Jazcash]

Considering this deal atm

MESH Computers went into administration not long ago but this deal just looks too good to pass up ;_;

[dansan]

You should check with senior students what software they use(d). Maybe in your university they must use some obscure compiler that is only available for Solaris or MS Visio is a must etc. You never know... Oh well - using VMs on notebooks is not a problem nowadays...

Regarding performance: during my cs-studies I never needed (or had) more than a P3. Most of the time I had to write texts, formula, short source code or draw diagrams. I think diagram drawing was the most demanding... also a lot of LaTeX compiling :)

[HeavyLancer]

For comp sci all you really want is a decent display and keyboard, so look at a business machine like a HP Elitebook or a Lenovo Thinkpad.

You probably won't get much gaming out of those ones despite the recent advances that Intel has made with their integrated graphics, but they're built well and have good warranties to back them up.
To start off, look at the Thinkpad L420.

The 13" Macbook Pro is the perennial Uni student choice (About half of the laptops at my uni campus are Macbooks) of course, and they're decent if you don't know what to buy. It's not a gaming machine either - it's only got the Intel integrated graphics too, so it will barely handle Minecraft on low-ish settings.

[Teutooni]

The stuff you'll code won't require much more computing power than a pocket calculator. What you really need is a kickass gaming laptop to pass time on boring lectures.

[AF]

My MacBook is a 13", and it has a geforce 8400 inside, and it's more than capable of running spring, and it was bought in 2008, and it was the cheapest unibody model at the time, it's replacement has backlit keys etc

And yes, you CAN right click on a MacBook, just use two fingers instead of one when tapping on the trackpad, or hold the option key, or plug in a mouse. The whole thing about macs not having right click is a load of horse sh*t in this day and age.

[hoijui]

what Teutooni said is pretty much the case for 90% of students.
If you are not one of those guys that lives only for work, which.. obviously you are not, you are most likely one of these.
i see the one you linked too has an NV card, which is the most important of course. you should also consider starting to use Linux now, at least casually, if you did not yet.
I would not recommend getting a 17" notebook though, get at max 15", and if you need to, plug in a bigger screen when at home.
Some few notebook models also have problems with heat, so best is if you know someone that has the same model already, or find a lot of reviews. Too much heat or annoying noise is the killer.. think about 30 degrees, in a room with 30 other geeks, and you are supposed to concentrate, and your hands rest on a boiling plate.
get a sturdy one, and if your primary study time will be 3 years, get 3 years warranty. don't if it is worth to get 4 years, if the study takes this long.
if you had to get a macbook, get at least a pink one, to like...
make it clear to everybody that you don't care for "good looks" or "style" or anything.. as in... i guess you would be less laughed at with a pink one. it is like double negation.

[HeavyLancer]

My MacBook is a 13", and it has a geforce 8400 inside, and it's more than capable of running spring, and it was bought in 2008, and it was the cheapest unibody model at the time, it's replacement has backlit keys etc

The current 13" MacBook Pro has only integrated graphics.

As for laptop sizes, I would recommend 13"-15". Anything larger is going to be awful to lug around at Uni. My laptop is a large 15.6" that weighs 3 kg and it's on the verge of being more of a burden to carry around than any study benefits that it can confer.
For Comp Sci, I would say to look for either a 15" model with a decent sized screen for side-by-side windows, or a 13" for portability.

[KaiserJ]

http://www.razerzone.com/blade

skip uni altogether and use the money you saved to buy this XD

[Das Bruce]

And yes, you CAN right click on a MacBook, just use two fingers instead of one when tapping on the trackpad, or hold the option key, or plug in a mouse. The whole thing about macs not having right click is a load of horse sh*t in this day and age.

I know the UI can handle right clicking, I was just wondering if the inbuilt mice had the option, which they apparently don't. Why are Apple so stuborn about this one button mouse thing? Surely all those content producers using macs have two button(+) mice.

[tragic]

Yes the macbook trackpad and apple mice can have a right click in settings, along with multi touch gestures.

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3211

[MidKnight]

Lenovo x220 is godly

[Jazcash]

I state my budget and then half of you post laptops way over my budget ;_; /me claws at screen

Anyway, I found this Acer Aspire 5750G to be a pretty neat looking deal. Still searching though.

[AF]

All Apple Mice have right click. Just because they haven't carved the shape of the button into the mouse doesn't mean it isn't there.

Magic mouse:

Make a click on the right side of the mouse to right click ( works identical to other mice )

Track pad/Magic pad:

Either tap with two fingers, OR make a click in the bottom right corner

All of the above:

Hold option key and click ( same action as pressing the right click button on your keyboard )


Right click on a mac is present, and its not just 'supported' by the OS, it's used by it too. All of the 'OS X only does single click' or 'they insist on single click for their software' is a load of bull spread around by Anti Apple fanbois, as it hasnt been the case for years.

[1v0ry_k1ng]

never buy from acer, ever.. I have 4 friends who got acer laptops for uni and all of them underperformed their specs terribly, 2 broke in the first 3 months. I would recommend the best re-furbished dell laptop you can find, because dell laptops are cheap, reliable and well supported.

[Jazcash]

never buy from acer, ever.. I have 4 friends who got acer laptops for uni and all of them underperformed their specs terribly, 2 broke in the first 3 months. I would recommend the best re-furbished dell laptop you can find, because dell laptops are cheap, reliable and well supported.

I already have 2 Acer machines, a 2 year old netbook and a 6 year old laptop that isn't much good for anything anymore. Although, both still work and served their purpose without failing me. I've never really heard anything terrible about Acer before, and I always considered Dell machines to be fairly expensive for their cost.

Regardless, I'll take that into consideration. Still, this deal just looks too good to pass up and all the reviews I've read on it and similar machines put it in good stead.

This was pretty helpful.

[Forboding Angel]

http://www.amazon.com/HP-Envy-17-1190NR ... B004BSFSEK