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Laptop for university

T

The-UselessNoob

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 15, 2009
Messages
280
Going to university soon, and need to pick up a laptop, I'll post the details of the deals that my school offers on laptops below. I apologize for the fact that I couldn't find the pre-built checklist so I used to general hardware one. not the most experienced person with computers, so please bear with my rather shoddy answer, again, I apologize for inflicting this upon you.

1) What will you be doing with this PC? Gaming? Photoshop? Web browsing? etc
-Typing up assignments, Gaming, and web-browsing.
2) What's your budget? Are tax and shipping included?
-$1500, but willing to go higher if someone finds a rather nice deal.
3) Where do you live?
-Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada.
4) What exact parts do you need for that budget? CPU, RAM, case, etc. "Everything" is not a valid answer. Please list out all the parts you'll need.
-pre-built laptop, sorry about this.
5) If reusing any parts, what parts will you be reusing? Please be especially specific about the power supply. List make and model.
-none.
6) Will you be overclocking?
-I will not.
7) What size monitor do you have and/or plan to have?
-Screen size around 40cm, which is around 15.6 inches.
8) When do you plan on building/buying the PC?
-As soon as some information is gathered, hopefully in time for first day of uni
9) What features do you need in a motherboard? RAID? Firewire? Crossfire or SLI support? etc.
-I am really not qualified to answer this.
10) Do you already have a legit and reusable/transferable OS key/license? If yes, what OS? 32bit or 64bit?
-No.


Here is the info on the deals that my school offers on dell's

deal #1:
Latitude E6410
Latitude E6410, Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 32-bit

Unit Price: $1,321.50

COMPONENTS

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-520M (2.4GHz, 3M cache) with Turbo Boost
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional, 32-bit
LCD: 14.1" WXGA(1280x800) Anti-Glare LED
Systems Management: No Intel vPro™ Technology’s advanced management features
Memory: 4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Primary Storage: 250GB 7200rpm Hard Drive
Primary Optical Device: 8X DVD+/-RW w/Roxio and Cyberlink Power DVD™
Graphics and Expansion Slot: 512MB NVIDIA NVS 3100M discrete graphics with ExpressCard
Primary Battery: 9-cell (90Wh) Lithium Ion Battery
Internal Keyboard: Internal English Keyboard
Wireless LAN (802.11): Dell Wireless™ 1520 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card
System Documentation: Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers

deal #2:
XPS 16
Studio XPS 16 Notebook, Genuine Windows® 7 Professional

Unit Price: $1,718.50

COMPONENTS

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-620M (2.66GHz, 4Threads, turbo boost up to 3.33Ghz, 4M cache)
Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Professional
LCD Panel:15.6 HD+ WLED Display in Obsidian Black with Leather and 2.0 MP Webcam
Memory: 6GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz
Hard Drive: 250GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Video Card: 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 565v
CD ROM/DVD ROM: Slot Load DVD+/-RW (DVD/CD read/write)
Battery: 9-cell Battery
Wireless: Intel© Centrino© Advanced-N 6200
Sound: High Definition Audio 2.0 with SRS Premium Sound
Network Card: Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card

If you have any input on how these deals compare with other deals, which you would suggest, or other deals you would suggest, please post, all advice is good.
 
Both of those video cards are awful. If you want light gaming, like bejewled, half life 1 and plants vs zombies, go with the higher resolution XPS 16.

For this amount of cash, you're looking at one of two extremes:
1. Go portable. You're carrying this to class every day. You will NOT do this with a 17" laptop.
2. Go desktop replacement. You want to move your computer from one location to another, but you'll never be away from power.

If 1: Go to http://dell.com/jccc1 to preview your school's EPP prices (10% off) for laptops.
Build an m11x with i7, 4GB of RAM, get the 4 year advanced warranty and add Bluetooth.

The four year warranty will last you through college and it covers liquid spills, drops, and other accidents. You're going to want this for a laptop that'll last you for so many active years. The only other protection you'll need is renters insurance to protect you in the event it's stolen. :)

The hard drive is a very easy update, in the future. Buy a Momentus XT, which is a 500GB hybrid HDD and SSD. It's the same price as the 500GB HDD on Dell's site ($135), but it offer much better performance.

That comes to a total of roughly $1,500. You get a kick butt laptop that can play any game but BFBC2, right now.

If you want a desktop replacment, go with ASUS G73Jh:
http://usa.asus.com/product.aspx?P_ID=8je5Ot4HBnKOdT81

It looks... different. It's a freakin' beast. MSRP is $1,599 and look at what you get:
17.3-inch 1080p (1920x1080) display with LED backlighting
Intel Core i7-720QM processor
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5
8GB DDR3-1066 RAM
Two 500GB 7200RPM hard drives

It's well reviewed, too: http://computershopper.com/laptops/reviews/asus-republic-of-gamers-g73jh

Throw in a Razer Orochi Bluetooth mouse, whichever one you settle on.

Either of these options will defecate on Latitude E6410 and XPS 16.
 
thanks for the advice, portability isn't really a problem given that I am going to be living on campus, and it is a tiny university, like really small, as in half a click across, at most. The whole campus is based upon everyone having a laptop so there are plugs everywhere, although it might be a bit awkward with a huge laptop. thanks for the help, also thanks to the mod for moving this to the right section.
 
Best Buy sells that Asus G73JH laptop for $1,199.99. If your local Best Buy store is charging more in-store, tell them to price match the online pirce.

Damn, the price just went up to $1,299.99 after I just posted this.
 
HardwareGuru said:
Best Buy sells that Asus G73JH laptop for $1,199.99. If your local Best Buy store is charging more in-store, tell them to price match the online pirce.

Damn, the price just went up to $1,299.99 after I just posted this.
Click to expand...

Warning:

In typical Best Buy fashion, this is a special Best Buy edition. This way they can look like they're selling the same laptop for a lower price, when infact they are selling you a dumbed down laptop.

That generous 1920x1080p display? Gone, and replaced with a crappy 1600x900 display.
Two 500GB hard drives have been reduced to one 500gb hard drive.
Who knows what other crap has been cut. Even worse, Best Buy will add a bunch of bloatware and CHARGE YOU to remove it with their "premium" services.

Best Buy is a good place to buy many things. With the exception of Apple products, a high end laptop is not one of those things. Apple didn't let Best Buy dumb their laptop down. (I'm NOT suggesting you get a Mac)
 
This MSI GX640 is perfect for you. 15" is a good balance between size and portability.

Oh yeah, that is a Canadian link, $1,199.99 Canadian.

If you have any questions, let me know. I bought that laptop for work, and been carrying it around the US and Canada no problems.

Which Uni are you going to?
 
I use a m11x R2 for work and no doubt I would have when I was in college
 
SpeedyVV said:
This MSI GX640 is perfect for you. 15" is a good balance between size and portability.

Oh yeah, that is a Canadian link, $1,199.99 Canadian.

If you have any questions, let me know. I bought that laptop for work, and been carrying it around the US and Canada no problems.

Which Uni are you going to?
Click to expand...

Acadia, thanks for asking, and thanks for the recommendation, still looking around, but around 15" seems a good balance. also looking at the envy14 right now.
 
sorry about the double posting, but was recently looking at sager and was wondering whether anyone has had any experience with them. looking on reseller ratings it appears that there customer service is horrible, but that might just be due to response bias. more specifically was wondering whether anyone had any experience with the NP8690.
 
The MSI GX640 is one heck of a laptop for the price

I personally have a M11x, and love it.
 
Also looking at the msi gx660 which is supposed to be coming out on the 12th, but I don't really like the case, too flashy. or the asus g53jx which is also supposed to be coming out soon, unfortunately perhaps a bit too late for me, and I don't relish the thought of switching laptops partway through the year, although it probably wouldn't be that difficult.
 
M11X. We have some 15" laptops in the house and there's no way in hell I'd carry one of those things to class. My friend bitched about lugging his 17" monster around every day at school.
 
Yeah my brother has a 12.1" Tablet and I offered to give him my old Lenovo Y530, very nice strong laptop, plays SC2 ~60fps all the time.

He couldn't see himself lugging it into class, despite it being only 15.6" (Big but not 17" big!). he loves my m11x but there is no way I'd let him take it for a year lol

But definitely for class go with M11x like I said above. If you aren't a fan of dell, HP has the envy line which are very nice. If you want to go more expensive Sony has the Z which is also awesome
 
The Envy14 is a nice looking computer for sure. A bit heavier than the M11x, but to be expected.

I'd still recommend a i7 M11x
 
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