My brother is going to be starting college next year and my parents were thinking of buying him a laptop computer for a Christams gift. They know nothing about computers and asked my advice, but I don’t really know that much either. So I thought I would ask you guys here a few questions.
Is it best to wait until next summer to get the laptop, due to changes/advances in the industry?
How much does a laptop cost? I am thinking they cost between $1200-3500. How would a good laptop for a student cost? My parents were hoping to keep the cost under $2500, but would rather spend more if it means getting a better laptop.
What are some good places to buy a computer. I know about Gateway and Dell. Are these good places to look for a laptop?
What features will a student need in a laptop?
Can a laptop wirelessly connect to internet? How much does this feature cost?
Will a new laptop last all four years or will it become outdated?
Please feel free to add anything else you can think of.
Sorry if this is the wrong forum. Please move this thread if it is.
Thank you.
Never wait for the next generation. There will always be a next generation. You’ll end up waiting forever.
You are completely thinking about this wrong. Buy the hardware needed for the software you are using. Repeat: Running software is the goal, not getting cool hardware. Since you only specify “student” we can’t tell you much. If you want to surf the Net, do word processing, etc., you can get a $400 laptop and that would be overkill. If you want to do serious video editing, then even a $3000 laptop may not be good enough. (Think desktop.) If you want to play the most recent games, you are not a student, you are wasting money buying a “student” computer. Software first and foremost is the issue.
BTW, colleges have started issuing guidelines for “necessary” student computers. These should be ignored. They are hardware specific. The software needed by your classes is what counts. Some majors basically don’t even need a computer. (As an ex-CS prof, I was frequently asked to provide such guidelines. I point out the flaw with such a stupid concept, and I got the “eyeball roll”. Umm, I’m CS prof. I know what I’m talking about. You’re a flunky in the deans office who never uses email. Sheesh)
A few people that have posted in the past here seem to like Dell, few seem to like Gateway. I happen to like IBMs a lot. There are quite a few Apple fans here, they’ll show up soon and tell you why those are great. You need to go to a serious computer review site (Tom’s Hardware or such) and read about it. Warning: the PC magazines are in the business of selling ads. Their reviews may not be unbiased.
Huh? What does the student want to do, etc.? See point 2.
Some have WiFi, some don’t. You can always get an extra card. The nice thing about not having it builtin is that you can easily upgrade when the next stuff comes out. Security is really, really, crappy with even the latest WiFi systems. Cost? More than it should. Seriously, Laptop Pricing World is very different from the rest of PC Pricing World.
No current generation laptop will become “outdated” (whatever that means) for student use in a short period of time. In terms of “lasting”, the issues for students are damage and theft, not tech. You should assume the laptop will “go away” for some reason in a short period of time. (So getting just what you need now makes a very good financial plan.)
This is not the 1960s where you were embarassed to drive a car more than 3 years old. Think real, ignore the hype, “cool” is just a company’s way of parting you from your money.
One of my sons used a Pentium 100 laptop for college last year and was quite happy with. He’s a techno-geek-nerd like me so he’s not impressed with Ad Hype but real issues. Programming, web design, surfing the Net, playing MP3s, and writing essays. Doesn’t take much. (My other t-g-n son is just about to finish college and never expressed an interest in a laptop at all.)
1 computer prices tend to go down and power go up, so wait as long as practical to buy but don’t hold off once you feel you should get it.
2 You may do very nicely with a $1500 laptop or less depending on our needs.
3 I would recomend dell but wouldn’t rule out others. I have had very good luck a w/ compaq laptop and would consider them
4depends ont he subject. Any laptop should be able to run a standard set of programs (word, spreadsheet, interent, email). The school may help you decide between a PC and Mac (use the OS that they do). One thing to watch out for is the ‘mouse’, somehave touchpads (Which I like) and some have, well a little red button between some keyboard keys, (by carefully pushing the button in the direction you want the mouse to move the mouse may or may not move in that directing and at either a very slow pace or one half the speed of light, nothing inbetween) Chose the mouse you want, I will never get a laptop with that red button.
5 yes, either internal to the laptop or a PC card that inserts into the laptop. figure on an extra $100 for it comming w/ the laptop and $30 to $60 aftermarket (the aftermarket units will stick out of the laptop for the antenna). You can also use a USB connection to do this but this option is somewhat inconvineent to to bulk. YOu can also connect usign a cellphone but that is not what I think you are talkign about.
6 A laptop might last 4 yrs, mine has. It is outdated but it still runs everything I need including cellular interent access. I replaced the battery 4 times (3 under warnetee). Expect to get a year per battery. Because laptops are pricy they tend to be used longer then desktops.
Get the best extended warentt offered. Laptops due to the mobile nature get dammaged often and are expensive to repair - also I never take extended plans on anything else. I dropped mine on cement, the screen had a line across it, the battery wouldn’t charge, the screen was loose, the case was cracked. I had 1 month remaining on the plan. They fully rebuilt it including a new better screen (I guess they were out of the old one) and it has worked like new till recently (I got a line across the screen again :(. )
As to what he will be using the computer for he is going to be political science major and will be pre-law. I don’t if this major will require any specific things in a computer.
If I understand your post, he won’t need a state of the art laptop. Correct? And it should last all through school if he doesn’t lose it or destroy it. Would he be able to use the same non-state of the art laptop all through law school? I thought computers tended to become updated pretty fast?
I do know that he will want to be able to connect to the school’s network in the dorm.
Sorry, if it sounds like I don’t know anything about computer. I don’t.
You also may want to ask him what he needs and what he wants in a computer. By the time I was 18 (and that was 11 years ago) I knew what I needed in a computer for college. I am not sure if your parents want this to be a surprise or something, but it is really to big an investment not to ask his oppinion on what it is he is looking for.
As to the Mac/PC issue (yes I am a mac person, and no I do not think everyone should get a mac) the only thing that might dictate one way or the other is if the school he is going to has a special deal with apple. Apple has been making deals with certain schools. If that is the case, it may be easier for him to get hooked up in his dorm if he is using a computer from the company that the schools deals with. Other then that, a poly-sci major should probably get a PC, they are less expensive and the only thing they truly excell in is graphic arts.
I endorse virtually all of ftg’s post. You should aim for the hardware that will support what you want to do with it for the next 4 years. Unless you are in a processing-power-intensive field of study (in which case you will mostly rely on the schools’own hardware) , something that’s “the good stuff” today should hold out for 4 years for almost any purpose. This does mean you should not be a cheapskate with a laptop: they are hard to upgrade so you should get something that will handle your foreseeable needs with resources to spare.
Myself, I’ve been a Toshiba man on laptops/notebooks, but that’s just a personal preference, heavily aided by the main authorized Toshiba service shop in town being a short bus ride away and having been my saviors several tiems over. That said, a local computer store with staff that knows what they’re talking about is priceless. The machine I type this on was bought at a small storefront… that has been there ten years (in IT-years, that’s like forever).
BTW, 4 years is about the reasonable limit on a hard-to-upgrade system. As to the Poli-Si/Law track, Law involves a lot of looking up specifically law-dedicated databases so at the time he heads for Law School he’ll need to reevaluate and is likely to require new gear.
BTW IvaHD’s comment of “excelling in graphics” is meant to refer to Macs. Heck, in Law these days there’s the peculiarity that a lot of stuff is still in WordPerfect format.
Well, if he is a poly sci student, and won’t be doing any serious gaming, just word processing/web browsing/email, then a $750 Dell would be more than enough of a machine for that task. Also, look at IBM, Compaq, HP, and Gateway’s, and other large manufactures sites to see what deals they have.
As for waiting for the hardware, with computers, I reccomend holding out for as long as you can, to get the best price/performance.
Generally, try to get at least a 2ghz Celeron/1.3ghz Centrino/1.8ghz Pentium4 or a 1.67ghz Athlon, and get at least 256 megs of RAM; more being better. Harddrive wise, the smallest you will find these days in new machines is ~20gigs; unless your brother really builds up a mp3/video collection, that should be more than enough.
I’ve been quite happy with my HP Pavilion ze4000. For about $950 I was able to get a system with almost the same specs as my desktop (the laptop has an AMD 2600+ CPU, the desktop a 2800+. Both have 512Megs of RAM). Of the systems I looked at, HP offered the most configurability and the most muscle for under $1000.
While the laptop isn’t quite as snappy as the desktop (bus, video processor and hard drive differences I suspect - not much I can do about that though) the laptop is certainly good enough for me to use as a machine for my job (programmer). For doing that I run a VPN client, 3270 emulator, Lotus Notes, programming editor, programming Test Lab, and an internet browser and my personal email client. I run all of these at the same time and have no noticeable slowdown when switching between them.
It came with a modem, ethernet and wireless all built in. A CDRW or DVD drive was available, but I opted for just a CDRom. No floppy drive included which I haven’t missed but as a student it might be necessary; I’d certainly ask the school about that.
Computer makers are always updating stuff and love to have people buy the new stuff so they can make more $. If you have a 10 year old computer that does what you want, why update it?
In the corporate world, the old standard cycle for desktop upgrades was 3 years. Now even 4 years is getting to be considered rapid turnover. A 500MHz desktop for a cubicle zombie is plenty good enough. And corporations have a lot more $ for upgrading. Consumer stuff has an even longer life cycle as long as you ignore the ads.
Laptops are somewhat special due to the difficulty of upgrading certain components. This has been nicely pointed out. Adding a bigger HD, certain types of CDRW/DVDROMs etc, can be done. Memory is usually not so expensive with today’s laptops. But you can’t usually upgrade the graphics processor and only limited capabilities to upgrade the CPU on just a few systems.
Connecting in a dorm? They’ll have ethernet ports all over the place. I know wired isn’t as “cool” as unwired, but it’s a lot more secure. 10MBit ethernet and current WiFi rate’s require astonishingly little processing power. ISA cards in old 386’s can handle that level of network load. 100MBit ethernet can run easily on 486s. Networking doesn’t require anything at all powerful, CPU-wise. I know Intel claims that you can surf the Net faster on their latest CPUs, but that’s nonsense.
As for being a PolySci major. The student’s real needs are probably extremely trivial. Word processing and web surfing nowadays can be done easily with a 400MHz processor. In 4 years they will still only use a 400MHz processor. Again, ignore the Ad Hype.
What I would do is get a sub-1GHz laptop, just a basic model and then a mid-range desktop. All for $1500. But probably $2000 for less savvy buyers. (Actually I could do it for $500 by building/fixing it myself. I’m citing “store” prices.)
And there is nothing peculiar about using WordPerfect. I love it (and I’m using a quite old version). None of the other Computer Science profs at my last acad. position used MS Word/Office. The more you know …
Sometimes a school will specify that there is a certain system their students are expected to have. This is to help with supporting the same hardware and software for everyone and makes sense from that perspective. You’ll want to see if this applies. For one thing, it would save you a difficult decision.
My guess is he will wind up getting a new system when he goes to law school. If you have $2500 to budget, spend $1000 or less now. Then see what the remaining money will buy in 4 years, would be my advice. That way he’ll be more familiar with what features he really uses.
I would recommend any notebook that can run XP and this usually means 800 mhz+ units. As others have indicated you can use older equipment, but I have found that powerful new notebooks with new warranties are not that expensive ($ 750 + or so). and trying to skate by with older units is more trouble than it’s worth in dealing with old(er) batteries, no warranties and limited horsepower, all for the the difference of a few hundred dollars.
As a favor for friends I have configured numerous notebooks just like ftg has suggested for a few hundred dollars for their college bound kids (mostly 350-500 mhz Thinkpads) Practically every one has come back to me with a headache of some kind or another, mostly due to filling the hard drives with Kazaa clones, MP3s and spyware, which older systems running 98/ME or 2000 do not have the horsepower to tolerate nearly as well as newer units. There’s also the usual dead batteries, misbehaving keyboards etc. you get with older systems after few years of use.
The bottom line is that for the 300- 400 difference between old and new, it’s just not worth (to me) the difference in performance levels or the headaches. I tell all parents now to go low end new. For $ 750. the powerful, brand new notebooks you can get nowdays are unbeatable deals.
I would feel lot more comfortable giving a less powerful notebook to a “knows the hardware limitations” CompSci geek than to SuzyQ coed or a polysci pre-law. A more powerful notebook running XP is going to be lot more tolerant of the crap they will likely install, than the older unit, IMO
Do be aware that laptops are much more stealable - and losable - than desktops. Also upgrades are vastly more expensive if even possible.
Laptops are also much more breakable and difficult to repair. With a desktop, if one bit breaks, it’s reasonably cheap to replace, but with a laptop, it’s often uneconomic.
In case you hadn’t guessed, unless there’s a really good reason why he absolutely needs one, I’d recommend against a laptop.
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“Inspiron 5100 Notebook P4-2.66Ghz 14.1” Screen, 256MB/Free 40GB HD, DVD-ROM, Radeon 7500 Video card, Ethernet, Modem, Wordperfect, MS Money, XP Home, Free carrying case $969 - $100 rebate = $869 shipped free. DVD/CDRW +$49
Select $100 rebate/Free 40GB/Free carrying case/Select ISP"
Here’s something that everybody else is forgetting. He’s a student. He’s going to want to take this laptop to class, to the library, to study group, etc. He probably wants a light laptop. Weight and form factor are probably more important than GHz in this case (especially since most of the new lightweight desktops are Centrino-based, and the slowest Centrino will suit the needs). You can get plenty powerful systems that are around 4lbs and less than 1 inch thick for around $1500.
If you’re looking for a powerful, light weight laptop, and don’t mind a Mac, I’d strongly recommend either the 12" iBook G4 or the 12" PowerBook G4. Both are plenty fast, very light, and come with built in Ethernet for plugging into dorm networks. You can also add 802.11g wireless support, bluetooth and a 3-year protection plan for reasonable costs. The iBook burns CDs and reads DVDs, while the PowerBook burns DVDs as well.
Add Office Student & Teacher Edition for $150, and you’ve got a system that should easily last you through your four years of college, and with Office you’ll be able to exchange files with professors and other students. You also won’t have to worry about the viruses and worms that are par for the course when one uses Windows with Microsoft Outlook.
Oh, and both the 12" PowerBook G4 and the 12" iBook are well within your prospective price range.
Weight is an often-overlooked, and immensely important, aspect of a portable computer, and Apple does very well as compared to the competition in this arena, and it’s prices are in line with those of the Windows world, too.
As handy’s info shows us, you can get a damn nice system around the $1,000 mark. I don’t think that it’s a good deal to try and save a few hundred by getting an old system. It can come back to haunt you when needs some fancy new program that the old system won’t run.
Don’t get the system early, since prices always go down over time. Wait until right around the time he needs it, then find a good deal on a solid system. No need for bleeding edge technology, but I’d stay away from the leftovers too.