Looking to buy a laptop

JabbaTheHut

My brother asked me if I could suggest a laptop for his daughter who's starting computer science in college. I have a pretty good idea of desktops, but not on laptops. Or at least, I do know what things cost best, relative to performance, as any laptop I owned didn't need good performance.

So, she was told that she would need something with a lot of memory, and some power. It doesn't have to be bought in a bricks and mortar place, but would probably suit them better. But like I say, its not necessary. It would ideally last the 4 years, so maybe I'm just buying for now, rather than the near future. Simply because of the budget, which has some bit of flexibility.

I was thinking along the lines of one with either an i3 or better still i5 processor, 6 gigs of ram, and a decent graphics card as to opposed to integrated. The hard disk size really is not the most important thing. Of course build quality is.

As for the OS, I think maybe Win 7 since Win 8 is too new yet to know if it's a Vista or not. Or maybe ye could tell me better.

Finally, a budget €700 was what I was thinking of.

Any suggestions?

areyawell

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n0015s47&model_id=inspiron-15r-se-7520&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

Something like this. 770 euro and a good mid range graphics card. Dell have top customer service as well if anything goes wrong instead of other places where it could take three weeks to come back

2GB AMD Radeon HD 7730M - http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7550M.70625.0.html

JabbaTheHut

Thanks for the quick reply. They've used Dells before, and tbh, so have I. In fact I have turned my first one from 1999 into a server about 6 years ago, and it still runs perfect. Tell me, since they moved production from Ireland, how are they now?

areyawell

Scrap the first one

http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=n0015r48&model_id=inspiron-15r-5520&c=ie&l=en&s=dhs&cs=iedhs1

620 euro

Has i3 -2.4ghz 3mb cache

AMD Radeon HD 7670M - much better graphics card than the one above. Would run modern games even on medium settingshttp://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-7670M.69483.0.html

6GB Ram

1000GB Hard drive.

Never had a problem with them. If something went wrong theres someone out to the house the following day to fix it for you.

JabbaTheHut

Do you think the i3 would last the pace of 4 years?

areyawell

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Do you think the i3 would last the pace of 4 years?

Maybe not, depending on what the laptop is for. Better off going for this one which definitely would.


http://www.dell.com/ie/p/laptops?~ck...~0~3280672&p=1 720 euro with i5 processor with 3mb cache and 3.1 GHZ processor with same spec as above except the processor

JabbaTheHut

Ah yeah. Now that's the kind of machine I think would suit. When my brother asked me I told him he'd probably need to spend around the €700 mark, and he was pretty satisfied with that figure.You get nothing for nothing.

Do you know if Win 8 is as versatile as Win 7?

GarIT

You are completely wasting your money getting a decent graphics card in a laptop for Computer Science, it wont really be used at all. Its all about the Processor, then RAM, then hard drive then GPU.

The best solution value for money wise is to buy a €220 netbook in Argos and then build a desktop pc for when you need something more powerful. You could also look into a cheap small laptop or a decent tablet. Its a waste of money getting a good laptop for Computer Seicence. All Universities have farily powerful desktops for Computer Science students to use during the day so its not like you would need it in college.

JabbaTheHut

GarIT wrote: »

You are completely wasting your money getting a decent graphics card in a laptop for Computer Science, it wont really be used at all. Its all about the Processor, then RAM, then hard drive then GPU.

The best solution value for money wise is to buy a €220 netbook in Argos and then build a desktop pc for when you need something more powerful. You could also look into a cheap small laptop or a decent tablet. Its a waste of money getting a good laptop for Computer Seicence. All Universities have farily powerful desktops for Computer Science students to use during the day so its not like you would need it in college.

Really? I would have thought that a decent GPU would at least come before a hard drive. I'm only going by what she was told. And the option of a PC is a no go for them for various reasons. It also must last the 4 years, so that's why I was thinking of the i5

GarIT

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Really? I would have thought that a decent GPU would at least come before a hard drive. I'm only going by what she was told. And the option of a PC is a no go for them for various reasons. It also must last the 4 years, so that's why I was thinking of the i5

Yeah you don't make any games or anything the integrated graphics in any of the 3rd gen i series processors will be fine. Getting an SSD would bring more benifit than a dedicated GPU, but it is nice to have if it doesnt add to the cost.

I know people getting through the course on dual core pentiums with integrated graphics (to be fair they would probably use the college facilities because its more efficent), so a 3rd gen i5 would last the course.

JabbaTheHut

Excellent stuff. He'll be delighted to know that he may not have to spend as much as initially thought since a dedicated GPU is not a must

GarIT

I probably should phrase things better, the Hard Drive wont really matter things would just happen quicker, the GPU wont really matter it just might make things look better. Both the hard grive and the GPU arent nearly as important as the CPU and the RAM.

The computers the college provide just use the integrated graphics in the i5 and they are there for everyone to use so they have to be good enough.

So all im saying really is focus on getting the best processor for your money and dont hold the GPU too highly like what was happening earlier. The one there for €720 (the link isnt working for me) looks like a good option anyway.

GarIT

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Excellent stuff. He'll be delighted to know that he may not have to spend as much as initially thought since a dedicated GPU is not a must

I don't want to be giving bad advice so I'll just throw in that what I'm saying is based on computer science in NUI Maynooth, I don't know much about other colleges but I cant imagine that it would be too different. It would probably be best to check first with the head of the CS department in the college before buying anything. You can usually find their email address on the college website.

JabbaTheHut

No, I think you said it clearly alright. Maybe my post didn't reflect my understanding of yours. As for the link, it seems to be changed to what it was

Torqay

JabbaTheHut wrote: »

Finally, a budget €700 was what I was thinking of.

15.6" ASUS, Ivy Bridge quad Core i7, 6 GB RAM, dedicated graphics, €699 @ Komplett.

Processing power in abundance for years to come.

JabbaTheHut

Torqay wrote: »

15.6" ASUS, Ivy Bridge quad Core i7, 6 GB RAM, dedicated graphics, €699 @ Komplett.

Processing power in abundance for years to come.

That's a perfect machine for the money. Someone he knows has suggested Komplett to him so he is aware of them. Personally I wouldn't deal with Komplett ever. Of all the stuff I ordered off the net over the years, they were the only crowd that I had serious problems with. And that includes Chinese sellers on ebay. But I know a lot of people are satisfied with them, though.

Torqay

I have bought a few items from them, mostly SSDs and monitors. Never had any problems.

Friend got a HP from them, that needed to be replaced but that went without hassle.

Tar.Aldarion

Tbh I would get a good i3 laptop for under 400 and it would last her years. No need for a dedicated gpu at all. And i3 2350m or something. She can even replace it down the line as it wasn't too dear.

doopa

Personally I find 15" machines too big/heavy to be carting into work everyday. I'd find a 10" netbook a little on the small side for typing and stuff. So something around 13" is the sweet spot - hence the prevalence of 13" MacBooks amongst developers, which are a little on the pricey side.

I used thinkpads for a long time, they had terrific build quality. But the T series is just above the stated budget at 899 from lenovo online. And to get it to the spec others have suggested would take it to similar territory as the MacBooks. On the plus side, they are more likely to last 4 years. Have a look here anyway: http://goo.gl/W7Vfm The edge series starts at around 400.