Laptop for Uni?!

Pineapple123

Howdy!

I know it's probably a bit premature of me to be thinking of this, but does a first year student require a laptop/netbook?! Hopefully, I'll be doing medicine in September, but I could end up doing radiography, physio, or science...it all depends on the points I get! I'd just like to know so I can keep a look out during the summer for something cheap and cheerful! All thoughts appreciated!

EuropeanSon

Can't say for sure for everybody, but my sister did commerce in UCD and she needed one.

Shortsighted

I would say so, my sister did Pre-Med this year, and even though she didn't seem to do a lot that didn't involve copious amounts of alcohol, I think she found it really handy for like catching up on lectures that she missed and stuff. :rolleyes:

starry nights

Shortsighted wrote: »

I would say so, my sister did Pre-Med this year, and even though she didn't seem to do a lot that didn't involve copious amounts of alcohol, I think she found it really handy for like catching up on lectures that she missed and stuff. :rolleyes:

sorry but what's pre med??
is it a plc course?

im looking to do medicine too, and i think i might buy a lil notebook cos most of trinity's notes are online not on handouts (my boyfriend does radiation therapy there, so im not just guessing lol)

wayhey

starry nights wrote: »

sorry but what's pre med??
is it a plc course?

im looking to do medicine too, and i think i might buy a lil notebook cos most of trinity's notes are online not on handouts (my boyfriend does radiation therapy there, so im not just guessing lol)

Pre-Med's a year in college studying subjects like Biology, Chemistry, Physics and some basic skills. It's to get everyone up to the same level because not everyone will have done Biology up to Leaving Cert. level say.

Ha do any courses give out handouts??

sillymoo

If you have RCSI on your CAO you will get a laptop when you start your course, be it med, physio or pharmacy. The money for the laptop will be included in your IT fees over the years.

Eire-Dearg

Most courses need a laptop, but you may end up buying the wrong one with the wrong software needed.

Pineapple123

Thanking you...I think I'll hold off and wait til September!

fairyprincessx

I know for the UCD School of Business you have to get one, don't know where else it's compulsary, but it'd be very handy to have one!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Eire-Dearg wrote: »

Most courses need a laptop, but you may end up buying the wrong one with the wrong software needed.

Err... Sorry?
There's no such thing as "the wrong one" when it comes to computers/laptops.
Well, unless it's a mac... :P

Software can be bought separately so you don't need to worry about that. You needn't even buy it, it can be "obtained" online for free :pac:

I'm going to wait till late july/early august to buy a laptop. Computer companies (I'll name no names) realise that students will be buying in late august/early september and raise the prices of products aimed at students.
Buying too early (now) means you might miss out on a more powerful model for the same price a little later down the line, as I'm sure everyone is aware that technology is constantly advancing and becoming cheaper to produce. (Example: my 14 year old brother bought himself a laptop about 6 months ago for 500 odd euros, I could easily buy a much better, faster one from the same company for LESS than that now).
Buying too late means you will be paying more than you should, unless you get lucky and there's a sale on.

The key to buying computers is waiting.

Pineapple123

Aviana Quaint Ink wrote: »

Well, unless it's a mac... :P

Awwww....I'd love a nice white macbook...all shiny and stuff...pity they're so expensive

ldxo15wus6fpgm

Pineapple123 wrote: »

pity they're so useless

Fixed

gant0

sillymoo wrote: »

If you have RCSI on your CAO you will get a laptop when you start your course, be it med, physio or pharmacy. The money for the laptop will be included in your IT fees over the years.

Please tell me that stand for computer science at IT courses in all colleges

johnmcdnl

If your looking for one for college wait off til september - just in case they have a certain type of one needed or something..

maybe just send an email and ask is their any special requirements for the laptop.. if not just head out now and get one... very handy little things to have so they are...

UpTheSlashers

There's somthing about if your going to ucc that you get a free iPod when you buy a mac. Have a look on the apple website cos I'm not sure of the exact details

Danger781

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

There's somthing about if your going to ucc that you get a free iPod when you buy a mac. Have a look on the apple website cos I'm not sure of the exact details

Oooh I'm going to UCC next year.. That could be very handy :eek:

johnmcdnl

Danger781 wrote: »

Oooh I'm going to UCC next year.. That could be very handy :eek:

noooo it won't... you'll just fail your exams because you spent too long listening to the ipod rather than studyin :pac::pac:

muffinz

My parents said that I could take the family laptop with me to Uni, Im rather happy, It'll be great for catching up! But if you plan on buying one, dont splash out on a really fancy one, as long as it has the basics

phasers

Aviana Quaint Ink wrote: »

Fixed

You can tell you've never used a Mac.

Overpriced yes, useless no.

Op, definitely wait until September. although personally speaking I'd be lost in lectures without my little netbook

ldxo15wus6fpgm

phasers wrote: »

You can tell you've never used a Mac.

Overpriced yes, useless no.

Op, definitely wait until September. although personally speaking I'd be lost in lectures without my little netbook

I owned one for 2 years.

NEVER AGAIN

*giggles*

I'm thinking of buying a Mac Book with a student discount (about €935 I think). It would work out better value because of the lack of need for virus protection etc. And they're unbelievably good looking

ldxo15wus6fpgm

There ARE ways of attacking a mac As well as that, there are plenty of anti virus programs that aren't horrendously overpriced like the ones you'd buy in a PC shop, and they're usually better too.
On top of that, when is the last time you paid 400 quid for your anti-virus?

Also, what are you going to do if the software for your course isn't mac compatible? When the OS turns out to be utter crap?

If you were buying a car, would you buy one that looks nice but goes really slowly and can only go on certain roads, or a less pretty, absolute powerhouse of a yoke that you can take anywhere?

EuropeanSon

Aviana Quaint Ink wrote: »

There ARE ways of attacking a mac As well as that, there are plenty of anti virus programs that aren't horrendously overpriced like the ones you'd buy in a PC shop, and they're usually better too.
On top of that, when is the last time you paid 400 quid for your anti-virus?

Also, what are you going to do if the software for your course isn't mac compatible? When the OS turns out to be utter crap?

If you were buying a car, would you buy one that looks nice but goes really slowly and can only go on certain roads, or a less pretty, absolute powerhouse of a yoke that you can take anywhere?

Do you work for Microsoft?

Cormac2791

UpTheSlashers wrote: »

There's somthing about if your going to ucc that you get a free iPod when you buy a mac. Have a look on the apple website cos I'm not sure of the exact details

What? That's just anyone in general! I could be the local binman but could buy a mac and get an iPod free!! =]

randylonghorn

Aviana Quaint Ink wrote: »

When the OS turns out to be utter crap?

If you were buying a car, would you buy one that looks nice but goes really slowly and can only go on certain roads, or a less pretty, absolute powerhouse of a yoke that you can take anywhere?

0_o

This Mac you had, did you buy it from a van on the side of the road? Did it have an apple sticker covering up another logo?

Overpriced I'll give you; the odd bit of incompatible software, yes, though not very much these days; but a crap OS or "really slowly" doesn't describe any Mac I've ever encountered!

chaoticmess

randylonghorn wrote: »

Overpriced I'll give you; the odd bit of incompatible software, yes, though not very much these days; but a crap OS or "really slowly" doesn't describe any Mac I've ever encountered!

"really slowly" = my friends mac. haha. He's getting rid of it for an alienware.
And then I'm going to steal it from him. :rolleyes:

**Timbuk2**

I've always wondered about this too. I once read a study that college students retain information better if they take notes in handwriting rather than typing on a computer. How true this is - I haven't a clue. Plus I can type much faster than I can handwrite. My dad had me typing 'properly' (with the right keys and all) since a very young age (Mavis Beacon :P) and that has greatly improved my speed - I can type anywhere between 80-95 words per minute (wpm) now. No way could I handwrite with any legibility near that speed!

ldxo15wus6fpgm

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Do you work for Microsoft?

Nope, I don't think I've ever met anyone who does either.

randylonghorn wrote: »

0_o

This Mac you had, did you buy it from a van on the side of the road? Did it have an apple sticker covering up another logo?

Overpriced I'll give you; the odd bit of incompatible software, yes, though not very much these days; but a crap OS or "really slowly" doesn't describe any Mac I've ever encountered!

Hahaha very funny :P

Very overpriced, when I said "really slowly" I meant that for the same money you'd spend on a powerful PC you would probably either get a low-spec mac or the guy in the apple store telling you you need more money altogether.

A google search for "applications not compatible with mac" returns 150,000,000 results, removing the 'not' reduces it to just 21,000,000 :P Granted this isn't exactly a clear cut representation of compatibility but it kind of paints the picture. I'll acknowledge that yes, more applications are becoming mac compatible, but not very quickly.

The OS is crap because it's completely un-customisable, as in you can't really do much with it when compared to a PC. Macs, in my experience, are slow when running applications that need a lot of memory and especially so when multitasking, and get slower with time, much more so than PCs. Why just a few months ago I was at my now ex-girlfriend's place and her dad was going mental over the state their macs (note: plural) had gotten into and how long they were taking to do the simplest of things like open up safari.

IMO the only thing good about macs is some of the programs for OS X are pretty good, for example garageband.


The price alone of a mac should completely put students off though; if you spend an extra 4/500 quid so you have a laptop which "looks nice" you'll probably sorely regret it later down the line in college. That's around 100 pints of beer/cider, for example :pac:

Making It Bad

*giggles* wrote: »

I'm thinking of buying a Mac Book with a student discount (about €935 I think). It would work out better value because of the lack of need for virus protection etc. And they're unbelievably good looking

+1 on mac boycott, paying anything over €500 for a laptop is a complete waste of money! I'm thinking of buying one for around €250 with a decent processor and just upgrading the RAM on it myself, more than enough for what I'll be using it for (I plan on doing computer science by the way).

There are LOADS of free anti virus online, some of which are better than the ones which cost money. Avira and AVG are both free and both very good. Norton and the likes aren't any better and just eat up the system's memory. I didn't know people still paid for anti-virus programs these days...

johnmcdnl

EuropeanSon wrote: »

Do you work for Microsoft?

he's right though...

_Exasperated_

Laptops would make life easier for you when you're in university. Trust me. All my mates in university have laptops.