College Laptop - Any recommendations?

Fresh Pots

Starting a computer science degree in September and am in need of a new laptop. My budget is €500-€600.

What I would like,

Decent sized screen. (15" min)
Good fast processor
Decent graphics card
Lightweight
3GB RAM min.
250GB HD min

Would you recommend any of these? or do I need to spend more?

Acer Aspire 5542 Windows 7 15.6" Laptop

Samsung R530-JA02 Laptop

Toshiba Satellite C650D-112

ED E

First has a ATI Radeon HD 4330 256
Second has ?????
Third has a ATI Radeon HD 4200

I'm not up on GPUs myself but somebody here will be able to advise you, but for that price you wont be playing MW2 or Bio2 I'd wager. If you aren't intent on gaming I dont know how much graphical strain there will be in the first year or two as it'll be all based on maths/learning to script/programming from what I can tell.


Where are you doing CS BTW? I'm down for UCD, Trinity then DIT:)

Fresh Pots

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

First has a ATI Radeon HD 4330 256
Second has ?????
Third has a ATI Radeon HD 4200

I'm not up on GPUs myself but somebody here will be able to advise you, but for that price you wont be playing MW2 or Bio2 I'd wager. If you aren't intent on gaming I dont know how much graphical strain there will be in the first year or two as it'll be all based on maths/learning to script/programming from what I can tell.


Where are you doing CS BTW? I'm down for UCD, Trinity then DIT:)

Not a gaming person at all to be honest. Just want a laptop that will be up for the job as I'm aware you do some gaming in the third year of CS. Will be doing it in tallaght! Made the mistake of buying cheap in the past so want to make sure I'm getting a decent laptop this time.

ED E

You may as well check out what you can get in terms of a Dell Vostro. Well, actually there is a problem there as the feckers only ship them business.

From the home line, the one on the far left here is something to consider, I've had great service from dell in the past, they arent always cheapest but they can be worth the premium, especially if you are depending on the laptop on a daily basis.
http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Laptops/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-1555&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&ref=lthp

RobTheLad

id recommend the toshiba l650d its 4 gb ram 500 gb hard drive AMD Athlon II DC 3200 ati hd 4250, webcam etc, seen it in Click for €599

Fresh Pots

Lethal_Bullet wrote: »

You may as well check out what you can get in terms of a Dell Vostro. Well, actually there is a problem there as the feckers only ship them business.

From the home line, the one on the far left here is something to consider, I've had great service from dell in the past, they arent always cheapest but they can be worth the premium, especially if you are depending on the laptop on a daily basis.
http://ireland.dell.com/ie/en/home/Laptops/laptop-studio-1555/pd.aspx?refid=laptop-studio-1555&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1&ref=lthp

Anyone can buy from the dell business site but I'm not too keen on that brand . Had too many problems with them in the past. Thanks for the suggestions anyway.

RobTheLad wrote: »

id recommend the toshiba l650d its 4 gb ram 500 gb hard drive AMD Athlon II DC 3200 ati hd 4250, webcam etc, seen it in Click for €599

Are AMD athlon processors any good?


Just been doing a bit more browsing and saw this.

Link

Is it worth the money?