Need laptop for uni :D

MumboJumbo

MumboJumbo

MumboJumbo

Soldato
Joined
2 Dec 2006
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Hey guys, so basicaly just discovered ive got into uni and need a laptop.

My budget is what ever gets the job done. Im not looking for a cheap job but not looking to pay through the teeth for little gain. Would be nice to keep it around £1000 or under if its not worth it.

Idealy i want something not too heavy and able to do reasonable gaming. Im not expecting to be playing games that much, but everyone gets bored sometimes and id like it to be able to cope reasonably well. Im also thinking a 17" is what im looking for so i can watch films on it but i may look into 15" due to being a lot lighter.

So what do you suggest? Im not looking to max games out.

:EDIT:

As much as i dislike alieware for being overpriced having been on the dell website i am considering some of them. Have they come more in line now or is it still overpriced for what its offering? IVe yet to look round enough to comfirm it either way.
 
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It's not about building a pc. I want a laptop i can take about, I want portability. I already have a gaming rig as you can see in my signature. If i want to take it up to uni i will but the point is i then have to bring that all back down again and i don't want to keep doing that. Further more im not going to uni to play games. Im going to uni to socialize with a bit of gaming when I have nothing better to do.

But as identified you can see the problem. I want a 17" for films and that, but i want it to it to not be too heavy as well and obviously don't want to always be charging it.

I wont be using it in lectures though as you just don't do that in uni. You make hand notes.

Ill look into the lenovo x200, thanks.

:EDIT:

Lenovo X200 only has a 12.1" screen? far too small.
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
What about something like this? Lots of RAM, decent CPU and a very able graphics card. I also added the 9 cell battery in for you.


Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8600 (2.40Ghz, 3MB, 1066MHz)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium SP1 (64 BIT) - English
15.6in Widescreen High Definition (1366x768) WLED with TrueLife
4096MB 800MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x2048]
250GB (5,400rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive
512MB ATI Mobility RADEON HD 4570
Fixed Internal DVD+/-RW Slot Load Drive including Software
Primary 9-cell 85 WHr Lithium Ion battery
Dell Wireless 1397 Mini Card (802.11 b/g)
2.0 Mega pixel Integrated Web Camera
Internal UK/Irish Qwerty Backlit Keyboard
---------------------------------------------------
£719.02

That's from Dell, the laptop model is a Studio 15, you also get a choice of funky laptop lids although in my opinion plain black looks the best.
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Thats looking pritty good, thanks. Ill have a play around with it. See if i can up the HD. Though i really am thinking i want a 17". So might look at the same model with bigger screen.



Aod said:
coming from someone who's been using a laptop every day for over 4 years (including a year at uni ;)), a 12.1" laptop is a godsend!

what you should do is take your PC up to uni with you, and when you come home between terms / long weekends, bring the laptop. this way, you avoid the hassle of lugging a huge laptop to lectures, a huge PC home every now and then and you can game to your hearts content, inbetween the short short periods of actual work.

trust me on this.

<edit> what Uni are you going to, by the way?
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Id rather not leave my pc up there and im going to leeds uni :)

Id like a bigger laptop then that because i have a 24" at home and i now cant stand low resolution screens.
 
The studio XPS 16 comes with a 15.6" screen with a resolution of 1080i, thats not bad. Good resolution and compact. Also it has 4gb of ram and 1gb 4670.

But im totaly stuck on knowing anything about laptop cpu's, is this good enough to play games?

intel® Core™2 Duo Processor P7350 (3M Cache, 2.00 GHz, 1066 MHz FSB)

an extra 30 quid will get me this instead:

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600(2.40Ghz, 1066MHz, 3MB)

Only has a 6 cell battery though :/
 
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I wont be taking my laptop to lectures. Ill be writing notes.

This is what im thinking:

£1027

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo P8600(2.40Ghz, 1066MHz, 3MB)
4096MB 1067MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048]
1GB ATI® Radeon™ HD 4670 graphics card
500GB (7,200rpm) Free Fall Sensor Hard Drive


3 Year Premium Warranty Support
Primary 6-cell 56 WHr Lithium Ion battery
TV tuner as well.

Well i think thats not bad, my only consern is the 6 cell battery. What you guys think?

Its a 15.6" screen with 1080 resolution, sounds perfect.
 
Yeah, well im doing maths ya see so i figure maths is pritty hard to write out on a laptop so it will all be hand written mainly. Not many writing notes.

Reckon ill order then this later today just to see if anyone has any quirms with it. Is qurims a word? lol.
 
is the 4670 1GB of similar power to the 9800GT btw in normal PC's, or perhaps even faster? I was out of the loop for over a year and totally missed these cards.
 
I was looking at that but it has a smaller hardrive, screen resolution and 2ghz cpu might be a bottle neck to the 260M?

Its tempting though. Plus im more comfortable with dell after the numerous bad experiences ive had with ocuk.

5.8KG is pritty heavy too compared to 3kg.
 
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Yeah im just about to place my order :P Exciting stuff no? haha :P . The build quality of dell laptops I also find to be very good with slim designs and don';t weigh too much.
 
JonJ678 said:
This all makes minimal sense to me. Netbook + desktop is basically the answer for uni, with a gaming laptop as a poor compromise. Just take the desktop up and the laptop home in xmas holidays, move the desktop back down if you go home for the summer.

Dell build quality is nothing special. I've seen a particularly large number of dead inspiron 1525s lately. It's nothing like as bad as Acer but not brilliant. Ibm thinkpads are built like bricks, and would probably where I'd be looking if getting an over £300 laptop. Slim designs and low weight mean little heatsinks and a hot laptop with a shorter lifespan. If weight matters at all what are you even looking at desktop replacements for?

Mathematics is going to make you do work in matlab. This is going to make you miss your desktop very much. I dont think a gaming laptop makes any sense at all :(

edit: I see I was too late, well I hope you like your new toy
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Taking my desktop makes no sence if you do not wish to be gaming too much at uni and just want something to use every now and then.

As said many times i dont want to take my desktop with me. Leeds is 4 hours driving away and ill be traveling mostly by train as a result. Im not gaming heavily, maybe like hour or two a week. Just doesn't justify the hassel of taking my desktop up with me.

As for maths as far as im aware in lectures i wont be needing a laptop. If i do its no biggy as its ony 15.6" so its quite mobile and battery is good for 2.5 hours reviews seemed to say abouts.

Quite annoying how many people on OCUK think they know someone's circumstances better then the person they are trying to advise. If for any reason I do need a desktop, ill simply take the one ive got and add any upgrades that may be required to get what i want out of it. The laptop should be good for at least 2 years, maybe slowed down too much by the third and in the last year there isn't a chance ill be gaming anyway.
 
K1LLSW1TCH said:
Not as good as a 9800GT unfortunately.

I would have gone for that Dell that you specced except with the 9 cell battery instead. Don't worry about an SSD, you aren't running a top of the range rig so you probably won't notice much difference in performance. Make sure that you only charge it when the battery is dead otherwise you're going to be wasting capacity of the battery over time. Just incase you didn't know mate. :)

By the way, when it comes make sure you take a few pics. :D
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Yeah they dont sell it with a 9 cell so I guess if I find I need more battery i will have to buy one. Think it's a pritty good deal though. Also family had now something like 5 laptops so know all too well about their dwindling batteries.

JonJ678 said:
It must be infuriating that the university student thinks he has a better idea about university life than the college student yet to start his undergrad.
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Yeah i really don't know anything about uni apart from my sisters 4 years of experience at leeds uni doing dentistry.

Once again you presume you know all about my circumstances.

K1LLSW1TCH said:
I think the OP is entitled to spend his or her cash on whatever they want and far be it from anybody in these forums to tell them what they should or should not be doing. The OP was asking advice on laptops for university and I didn't see anywhere in the 1st post the OP asking for advice on wether to buy a laptop or lug a desktop about. The reason he wants a laptop is because no matter how big or heavy, they are still much more portable than a full desktop setup. You think that he's wasting his money, and he thinks that he's made a good purchase, I know who wins in my book. The OP came here asking a question, he found the answer to what he wanted and that should be the end of the matter imo. And by the way, the laptop that he got isn't a full on gaming laptop, otherwise he would have been spending much more than he did. It was just a Dell with an uprated graphics card on which he plans to game around 2-3 hours a week.
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And here is a good example of someone who doesn't pretend to know all the in's and outs of why i want a laptop. But at least reads what i say and gives me advice which fits what i asked.

Besides as he also points out, ive explained quite clearly why a laptop suits me. You on the other hand have a too bigger internet ego to presume anyone could possibly want something different to you.
 
Thats unlucky, well there are always good deals going on dell. But for me the 500gb 7200 was a really good deal in a laptop. They also jig the specs around week by week, unfortunetly sometimes they will change the wireless/bluetooth/webcam etc. Which is a real pain. When ordering my mums laptop we waited 2 weeks for some reason and each week they took parts out that I was getting as standard and keeping the price constant so it got more and more expensive, ended up costing another 50 quid for a worse spec slightly, it had a worse network card in and a smaller hard drive. Just how it goes i guess, of course it could always get better and you be in luck in a few months. It should be cheaper in 2 months anyway as they are new out.
 
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