Getting a laptop - Minimum Specs

DimestoreSaint

Alrite,
Getting myself a laptop for college but my folks said to hold off until I hear if I need to get one with specific requirements/specifications. Seeing as there's a bit of technology involved in my course I guess it's possible there will be some.

Any ideas when I'd find that out? When I register? Or when we meet lecturers etc the first week?

Cheers.
DS.

TheChrisD

I highly doubt that there would be many high-end programs that you'd be forced to have, unless they would also provide the machinery for it.

I've stuck with my crummy 1.86Ghz dual core with a gig of RAM and it handled all of the miscellaneous stuff I had to put on it for second year of CA. You probably wouldn't need to get much more powerful than that, unless your course does a lot of graphics editing, or other CPU hogging stuff?

irish_boy90

DimestoreSaint wrote: »

Alrite,
Getting myself a laptop for college but my folks said to hold off until I hear if I need to get one with specific requirements/specifications. Seeing as there's a bit of technology involved in my course I guess it's possible there will be some.

Any ideas when I'd find that out? When I register? Or when we meet lecturers etc the first week?

Cheers.
DS.

the cheapest laptops you can get right now would be fine for anything your going to be using it for. by all means wait and see if you like but you wont need much.

Attol

Just out of curiosity, what course are you doing?

Pygmalion

If you're intending to use it for all your coursework I'd recommend staying away from "netbooks", that is, the super cheap laptops with terrible specs that can barely run a web browser (and that's pretty much all they're made for).
Though they can be good enough and super-portable and cheap if you have another computer to do the heavy lifting on.

Other than those pretty much any should be fine for any course that doesn't involve heavy graphics editing or something like that.

DemocAnarchis

My dell inspiron (1.6ghz, 512mb ram & x300 graphics) did me just fine through four years of AC, which included some heavy enough molecular modelling software and some 3D work, as well as a general use laptop. I'd echo what was said about netbooks, stick to a cheap 15.4" dell and you can't go wrong.

Bluetonic

You both do realise that many netbooks have far superior processing power than the lower end of the market laptops you both seem to be recommending?

The way you are both rubbishing netbooks is laughable.

phasers

I have a netbook, I love my netbook, but the processor is not great

Pygmalion

Bluetonic wrote: »

You both do realise that many netbooks have far superior processing power than the lower end of the market laptops you both seem to be recommending?

Could you provide a link to some of these netbooks?

Just went to Dells netbook page (this one), none reaching 2Ghz and all Atom processors (which are known to be far ****ter than other processors even at similar clock speeds).
They all seem to be single core (Looking it up, all the 'N' and 'Z' series are from what I can tell).
I can't really be bothered looking around netbooks to find the fast ones, since you clearly know better than I do where to look.

None come close to even the cheapest low end Dell laptop (looking at Mr. S's link for those).

Bluetonic

Pygmalion wrote: »

Could you provide a link to some of these netbooks?

I'm not likely to spoon fed you, sorry.

You saying that a netbook can barely run a web browser says a lot about your knowledge on the subject to be honest.

TerrorFirmer

Bluetonic wrote: »

You both do realise that many netbooks have far superior processing power than the lower end of the market laptops you both seem to be recommending?

The way you are both rubbishing netbooks is laughable.

Actually that's completely false, Intel Atom is not designed to be a powerhouse, and it is far slower then budget CPUs in full sized laptops. Any Celeron or Sempron in todays laptops would run rings around it.

Netbooks would still be fine for the web and typing in terms of CPU grunt, but the small size is rather annoying. I would stay away from one for college. Had mine for a year, loved it - but it drove me nuts at college. If you're running anything remotely intensive aside from typing and browsing/media playback, forget it.

Out of curiosity I ran tests on the Atom 1.6Ghz/GMA900 against Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo) 1.66Ghz/GMA900 running a 3d app requiring 1Ghz and 64MB T&L, and the difference was absolutely massive. The Netbook crapped out at 640x480 at about 20fps. Because the GMA doesn't support hardware T&L its emulated through CPU, and the 1.6Ghz Core Duo powered through it light years ahead of the Atom. Keep in mind, that a modern 2.2Ghz Celeron or Sempron with 1mb of L2 would even beat the Core Duo I used in said app, which wasn't multithreaded.

DemocAnarchis

Bluetonic wrote: »

You both do realise that many netbooks have far superior processing power than the lower end of the market laptops you both seem to be recommending?

The way you are both rubbishing netbooks is laughable.

An Intel Atom @1.6GHz =/= an Intel Pentium E series @ 1.6GHz

Benchmarks can be found here, the Pentium E wipes the floor with the atom.

Kristopherus

And you could have a look at the one in Lidl next Thursday.

Jonathan

Bluetonic wrote: »

You both do realise that many netbooks have far superior processing power than the lower end of the market laptops you both seem to be recommending?

Can you show me these low end processors that would be beaten by the Atom?

The way you are pimping netbooks is laughable.

Bluetonic

Jonathan wrote: »

Can you show me these low end processors that would be beaten by the Atom?

The way you are pimping netbooks is laughable.

I'm not pimping netbooks rest asured the average college student would not notice any difference in the processing capabilities between the average netbook and average laptop once they were set up correctly.

To proclaim that a netbook can barely run a web browers is laughable.

I don't know where to find netbooks online so if you want to come shopping with me feel free to PM me.

irish_boy90

Bluetonic wrote: »

I'm not pimping netbooks rest asured the average college student would not notice any difference in the processing capabilities between the average netbook and average laptop once they were set up correctly.

To proclaim that a netbook can barely run a web browers is laughable.

I don't know where to find netbooks online so if you want to come shopping with me feel free to PM me.

To say any modern computer can hardly run a web browser is laughable.