Going to Uni, what to do with computers?

thel33ter

thel33ter

thel33ter

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Basically, I'm going down to uni in September, and just want some peoples opinions on this.

Currently, I have a big (Phanteks Enthoo Pro size) gaming PC, a 17.3" Quadro powered workstation laptop, and an older 15.6" basic laptop.

I'm trying to decide what would be best/most practical to take down there, my thoughts are to take the 17" laptop and the peripherals from the desktop along with possibly a monitor which would perfect for work and gaming during term time ect, but then its not exactly practical to carry around to lectures. The 15" laptop is a bit more portable, but being an older AMD system its battery life is still only 2-3 hours of actual use.

Hence I was thinking of instead selling the 15" laptop, and replacing it with a small Baytrail laptop or tablet, or possibly a Chromebook? is something like this useful in Lectures?

I guess TL,DR; What £250ish tablety laptoppy portable thing solely for note taking and work use with a decent battery life?
 
thel33ter said:
Basically, I'm going down to uni in September, and just want some peoples opinions on this.

Currently, I have a big (Phanteks Enthoo Pro size) gaming PC, a 17.3" Quadro powered workstation laptop, and an older 15.6" basic laptop.

I'm trying to decide what would be best/most practical to take down there, my thoughts are to take the 17" laptop and the peripherals from the desktop along with possibly a monitor which would perfect for work and gaming during term time ect, but then its not exactly practical to carry around to lectures. The 15" laptop is a bit more portable, but being an older AMD system its battery life is still only 2-3 hours of actual use.

Hence I was thinking of instead selling the 15" laptop, and replacing it with a small Baytrail laptop or tablet, or possibly a Chromebook? is something like this useful in Lectures?

I guess TL,DR; What £250ish tablety laptoppy portable thing solely for note taking and work use with a decent battery life?
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I've just finished my first year at Uni. I bought myself a 15.6" laptop for it and it was handy to take in when doing group activities etc. However you will find in lectures it's way too big.

Something like a Microsoft surface would be perfect. You can pick them up for around your budget on Ebay either new or uses. Alternatively just use good old pen and paper for lectures (that's what I did) and then type up your notes back at your room.
 
You won't need a laptop for lectures, pen and paper works just fine. I just completed uni with a 17" laptop which only left my room about 10 times during the course of the three years.
 
what course, have you seen your room yet (I'm assuming uni dorms)

When I was at uni (product design) I was able to fit loads of stuff in the dorm room, a massive case (had to hold eatx motherboard), tft screen, a4 and a2 printers, crt tv (smaller size), video/dvd player and a laptop etc.

Honestly you'd be surprised by how much you can fit in most uni rooms.

You could easily take the gaming pc and the workstation laptop in my opinion and then grab a slate with pen.

Also as a side note, I never bothered with a laptop in class, it was quicker to scribble notes on/in a pad, although it did help with presentations and as a spare computer during group work.
 
Cheers guys, I'm doing electronics (I applied for electromechanical engineering, cause it gets you in the department and had the lowest grade offers ;) ) at Southampton, which is known for having tiny rooms, although I've never looked at the accommodation. I'm sure pen and paper is the most practical, so unless I find a bargain on a Surface 2, or the Dell suggested I'll probably stick with that. I just have handwriting that would put a toddler to shame, and I found during A Levels my ****** notes caused a lot of suffering when I came back to revise from them, hence just typing everything up straight away.

Only reason I'm hesitant to take the PC is that its a hassle to cart around, and its harder to spend money on it when its far away :rolleyes:

The Dell looks excellent for the money, and I've found one for £250 on the bay. I may go wander around some shops and have a play with some of them.
 
thel33ter said:
Cheers guys, I'm doing electronics (I applied for electromechanical engineering, cause it gets you in the department and had the lowest grade offers ;) ) at Southampton, which is known for having tiny rooms, although I've never looked at the accommodation. I'm sure pen and paper is the most practical, so unless I find a bargain on a Surface 2, or the Dell suggested I'll probably stick with that. I just have handwriting that would put a toddler to shame, and I found during A Levels my ****** notes caused a lot of suffering when I came back to revise from them, hence just typing everything up straight away.

Only reason I'm hesitant to take the PC is that its a hassle to cart around, and its harder to spend money on it when its far away :rolleyes:

The Dell looks excellent for the money, and I've found one for £250 on the bay. I may go wander around some shops and have a play with some of them.
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It's definitely handy to have a laptop and I wouldnt advise taking a desktop PC. For lectures just use pen and paper and then when you get back to your room type it up the same day while it's fresh in your mind (Also helps you retain the knowledge) haha.
 
Yeah, writing stuff out again definitely helps me remember stuff, I'm just gonna have to be so much more organised than the last few years. I'm assuming there will be more time during the day to sort stuff like that out, at college I was there from 7am till 7pm, so never had time to just get stuff organised.

Thanks for the input guys, I shall stick with what I have at the moment, although I probably will still sell the 15" er just cause it doesn't get used anymore. (Anyone interested in an AMD A8 Acer? ;) )
 
I used my Nexus 10 tablet to view lecture notes (they were all uploaded to the student portal ready on the night before the actual lecture at the uni I went to, London Met), and even used it to help me present my dissertation. There were other poeple who did the similiar, some using iPads, others using Kindles. Still stuck with the standard pen and paper, nothing can beat that for note taking ;). My friend did buy the original Galaxy Note 10.1" for note taking, but in the end he didn't like it and went back to pen/paper.

I was planning to take my desktop down and downsized it to a more compact mATX case, but I still felt it was a bit big. So in the end I bought a 15.6" laptop with an AMD APU as well as one of my 1080p 24" monitor with my keyboard and mouse, so I could at least do some form of gaming and still have dual screens (dual screens helped a lot when I was doing A Levels).
 
thel33ter said:
Only reason I'm hesitant to take the PC is that its a hassle to cart around, and its harder to spend money on it when its far away :rolleyes:
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It's not that much of a hassle unless you're bringing it home weekly or taking it to lectures lol, seriously you'll likely move it once or twice per term if you're like me and come home during the holiday periods. Actually don't think I bothered bringing the pc home most of those times so it's probably less than that.
 
escape sanity said:
You won't need a laptop for lectures, pen and paper works just fine. I just completed uni with a 17" laptop which only left my room about 10 times during the course of the three years.
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This. There's no substitute for pen and paper for scribbling down notes and being able to simply get down what's required. Graphs, notations, abuse to your mate beside you, noughts and crosses..

I got a 13" Macbook Air as I like the Apple ecosystem, build quality and as a student, the discount and benefits from the Applecare along with an account voucher deal that was on - which I believe is on again right now - as an added bonus too. It all depends on what's required in the course - as i'm a Chemist and have no idea what goes on with Engineers :p - and what's available for your use if you were requiring computing power.
 
OK, pen and paper in lectures it is then. Tempted to take my desk top down as well now, my mates generally took their desktops down as well, I'll make my mind up when I get down there probably.

My big laptop has plenty of computing power. But the computer lab in Southampton is rather well equipped from what I hear. A Macbook Air with windows installed would be my ideal choice, but they're out of my prove range even with lots of discounts and the recent price cut.

Could always just go bare essentials and only bring some pens and paper down :D
 
Trust me, having your own pc to work on is always the way to go with pc intensive work, laptops might be powerful enough but they're laptops at the end of the day and I'd never want to rely on one as I'd be concerned it would overheat at the worst moment.
Also the computer labs might be well equipped but you need to be able to get in there or on the pc when you need it and that isn't always the case, especially when you have deadlines looming the next day lol.

The amount of times the pc's we needed at uni (they had different specs depending on age and they old ones just didn't cut it) were being used was unbelievable so in the end I said sod it and went and bought one as powerful (product design) which wasn't cheap but that's what student loans are for lol
 
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Thats a good point actually, I guess when you're coming up to deadlines and really need a computer is when its gonna be packed. I'm not too worried about this laptop overheating ect, with a serious overclock on the GPU ( http://gyazo.com/7219d7792ec6def5db82f84a6b04294c if you're interested) and it doesn't hit 70 bench marking stuff, or messing with CAD.

Anyways, I'm pretty much convinced to take my desktop down now, cheers guys :)
 
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