Laptop for College

L360

Hi just wondering is there a certain type of laptop or anything i should look out for when buying a laptop for university. Any advice would help thanks !

FizzleSticks

This post has been deleted.

L360

FizzleSticks wrote: »

Best laptop I've ever had was an Asus (high spec), I've heard good things about Levono

I personally avoid Acer, Toshiba, Dell, HP.

But get a laptop with decent memory and ram, will be pricier but there is nothing worse than buying a cheap laptop and its a piece of rubbish.

Thanks for the reply. Just wondering what would be considered decent memory and ram?

Owryan

I would also hold off on buying office unless you're getting it free. Some colleges provide a free version while you're a student there.

granturismo

L360 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply. Just wondering what would be considered decent memory and ram?

You might get a more practical answer if you specified what type of courses you are applying for. Engineering may require more ram than a language course for example.

You might be better waiting until you start the course - the introductory lectures for some courses will recommend the specs you need.

pmrc

What would you suggest for a science course?

Charles Babbage

Also consider battery life, there isn't always a convenient plug around.

L360

granturismo wrote: »

You might get a more practical answer if you specified what type of courses you are applying for. Engineering may require more ram than a language course for example.

You might be better waiting until you start the course - the introductory lectures for some courses will recommend the specs you need.

I am hoping to do Commerce in college.

Tom Dunne

L360 wrote: »

I am hoping to do Commerce in college.

Any laptop will do you then. I assume you will doing the usual - Moodle, typing reports, Excel and the like? If you can, the stretch to 8Gb RAM is well worth it, with a 128Gb SSD drive (see below - you really don't need any more hard-drive space as OneDrive will do the job, plus it is all backed up so you won't lose anything).

I think all colleges/universities now provide Office 365 plus 1Gb of OneDrive storage, so you won't need to bother with either.

Consider a Chromebook - they are a lot cheaper, not for everyone, but have the keyboard and connectivity needed, plus you can use the online version of Office 365 with them.

granturismo

@tomdunne has some good advice.

I have a lenovo ideapad, 2.4GHz i3, 120GB, 4G ram and it works perfectly using a college account to access MS office. Extra ram would be good. The SS drive means its not too heavy to carry around.

Something similar will be ok for the few science course I'm familiar with, some courses require a mandetory text book with online access to assessments which replaced a cd, so a cd drive is probably not a necessity now.

TheValeyard

Would you also be playing games or purely work?

L360

Thanks for the replies really helpful.

L360

Tom Dunne wrote: »

Any laptop will do you then. I assume you will doing the usual - Moodle, typing reports, Excel and the like? If you can, the stretch to 8Gb RAM is well worth it, with a 128Gb SSD drive (see below - you really don't need any more hard-drive space as OneDrive will do the job, plus it is all backed up so you won't lose anything).

I think all colleges/universities now provide Office 365 plus 1Gb of OneDrive storage, so you won't need to bother with either.

Consider a Chromebook - they are a lot cheaper, not for everyone, but have the keyboard and connectivity needed, plus you can use the online version of Office 365 with them.

Just looking at the laptops there and most of the laptops in my price range seem to be 4gb Ram. Would that be sufficient for just general usage no gaming?

Tom Dunne

L360 wrote: »

Just looking at the laptops there and most of the laptops in my price range seem to be 4gb Ram. Would that be sufficient for just general usage no gaming?

Yes, they would.

And do check out Chromebooks - they may suit you.

5rtytry56

L360 wrote: »

Just looking at the laptops there and most of the laptops in my price range seem to be 4gb Ram. Would that be sufficient for just general usage no gaming?

Yes. 4GB should suffice.

Just don't watch YouTube in high definition , that's all.

magentis

You should have a look on adverts,lots of machines there would be more suited to your needs than something like a Chromebook.Something like a hp or dell 4th gen i5 with 8gb of ram and 256gb ssd could be got for in and around €250.