Computer Advice

[Lady Gaga]

So I am starting college in the Spring, and I just wanted to get your guys opinions on the laptops I want to buy. I'm generally pretty good at anything involving technology as long as I don't need to go deep within the details. I'm really just looking for someone to answer a few questions and critique my choices.

I'm going to have 1000 dollars by the end of December for a school computer. I am kind of on the border of two choices. My current home computer is getting old, it needs to be replaced. I need to buy a school laptop so I figured why not just spend the money on laptop that will be able to replace my home computer (which isn't that good to today's standards) and I will be able to use it for school too. I can easily get a laptop that is pretty good for around 800-1000 dollars.

But, the problem is - something could happen to it while I am not at home. What if I have to work right after school? Keeping a 1000 dollar laptop in my car isn't a very nice thought to me - even if it's hidden. I could drop it, lose it, or someone could steal it and all those are more likely to happen when I take it outside of my house.

So I am now thinking about getting the 'new' Dell Mini 10 as a school laptop. All I will need to do is browse the web and do Word/Excel/Powerpoint at the most for school. So a netbook that I upgrade to 2GB of ram could easily do that.

I am kind of curious about Windows Seven Starter though. I know it's optimized to be used with the Dell Mini, but does it really hold up? It seems to me that it would run fine at first but after I install a few programs it would slow down considerably. I could easily replace it with a Linux OS though.

As for the home computer, I figured I would buy the CyberpowerPC. That's a really good laptop, way better than my current computer. I don't know how good it will be in the future though so I want to know what you think of it?

My current computer is still running fine, but I am predicting that in the next year it will die. I mean, already I had to replace the motherboard and power supply (which is hanging out of the case because it is too big for the case. Great footrest for my right foot though!

[Dominoflare]

In my personal opinion, price doesn't really matter, the main things to consider when purchasing a laptop is amount of Ram memory.
amount of hard drive space is also important if you're in college and you'll be saving lots of files to your pc, anything from 350gb of hard drive space is great.
really those are the only really important things when buying a computer, so you don't have to spend up to 1000. you could get a computer with 4gb or 6gb of ram for a LOT less than that.
i recommend buying a cheaper laptop with at least 2/3gb of ram and using the remaining money for accessories (a printer maybe? since you'll be working with word/excel powerpoint stuff)

[Lady Gaga]

Ram is expandable though, if I buy a computer with a low amount of ram I can easily buy more (and ram is really cheap right now.)

Laptop and computer vendors tend to yank prices much higher due to higher amounts of ram, and that hike in price is not proportional to the amount it actually cost to put the extra ram in.

And the reason I chose that laptop for my home computer is because it can play high quality games. I also already have a printer (which is a printer/scanner/copier all in one)

HDD space isn't that important to me for school because I will back everything up on my 1TB backup drive.

[thylvin]

ok first off, Windows 7 isn't that bad. It is actually the best thing that came since XP. I would only advice you to disable Windows Update.

Lets face it, yes windows does have security issues, but you are not the President of a country or a big corporation. Your a student, so your computer at risk of being hacked is very LESS likely. I found that once I disable the updates, then windows keeps running as good as it was first installed. The only updates I do install is the service packs.

For general office applications and minor photo applications the netbook is more than enough. It will do everything and maybe a slightly more, as long as it doesn't have an Atom processor... if it has, then shop elsewhere.

The other laptop for your home, is a very good model, just one thing about laptops you should know. it isn't like a PC where you can upgrade various hardware over time to keep it running the latest software and or games. once you buy a laptop, aside from memory and hard drives, you won't be able to upgrade much. Laptops have a general 2 year life cycle, before new software (specifically games) won't work to well on it.

That said, I'm not sure about the make, but if you buy like really the top notch laptop (not speaking of the gold plated iBooks lol), it should be able to go beyond that time. I mean look at my lappy, it's an HP and at the time i brought it more that 2 and a half years ago, it was the best on the market (African markets anyway), but it still runs the new games as any other. I have to say that once I brought it, I also brought the memory upgrade.

My problem here in Africa is that we don't yet get the 4GB memory modules for the lappy. So I have to wait a little longer to upgrade it to the maximum of 8GB.

---------- Post added 23rd Aug 2011 at 03:49 PM ----------

ok first off, Windows 7 isn't that bad. It is actually the best thing that came since XP. I would only advice you to disable Windows Update.

Lets face it, yes windows does have security issues, but you are not the President of a country or a big corporation. Your a student, so your computer at risk of being hacked is very LESS likely. I found that once I disable the updates, then windows keeps running as good as it was first installed. The only updates I do install is the service packs.

For general office applications and minor photo applications the netbook is more than enough. It will do everything and maybe a slightly more, as long as it doesn't have an Atom processor... if it has, then shop elsewhere.

The other laptop for your home, is a very good model, just one thing about laptops you should know. it isn't like a PC where you can upgrade various hardware over time to keep it running the latest software and or games. once you buy a laptop, aside from memory and hard drives, you won't be able to upgrade much. Laptops have a general 2 year life cycle, before new software (specifically games) won't work to well on it.

That said, I'm not sure about the make, but if you buy like really the top notch laptop (not speaking of the gold plated iBooks lol), it should be able to go beyond that time. I mean look at my lappy, it's an HP and at the time i brought it more that 2 and a half years ago, it was the best on the market (African markets anyway), but it still runs the new games as any other. I have to say that once I brought it, I also brought the memory upgrade.

My problem here in Africa is that we don't yet get the 4GB memory modules for the lappy. So I have to wait a little longer to upgrade it to the maximum of 8GB.

[Dominoflare]

I agree, i also own a hp laptop and a 6gb imac desktop computer, in my opinion if you're getting a windows computer HP is the way to go, the best brand for windows imho, just as good as macs(and a lot cheaper too) especially if you want something that'll last long and you're going to be playing high quality computer games. and unlike what thyvlin said i'v had my hp for well over 3 years and it still runs perfectly fine(though i mainly use my mac tbh) it's got the latest softwares windows 7 and i updated the hard drive etc
anyways good luck with whatever you decide to get.

[Veronica]

I'd just install ubuntu. It's lightweight, fast and free and does all the regular stuff (email, web, IM and office) out of the box.

But then, I'm a Linux fan. We're a bit weird. (But have better working computers!)

[Lady Gaga]

Originally Posted by thylvin

ok first off, Windows 7 isn't that bad. It is actually the best thing that came since XP. I would only advice you to disable Windows Update.

Lets face it, yes windows does have security issues, but you are not the President of a country or a big corporation. Your a student, so your computer at risk of being hacked is very LESS likely. I found that once I disable the updates, then windows keeps running as good as it was first installed. The only updates I do install is the service packs.

For general office applications and minor photo applications the netbook is more than enough. It will do everything and maybe a slightly more, as long as it doesn't have an Atom processor... if it has, then shop elsewhere.

The other laptop for your home, is a very good model, just one thing about laptops you should know. it isn't like a PC where you can upgrade various hardware over time to keep it running the latest software and or games. once you buy a laptop, aside from memory and hard drives, you won't be able to upgrade much. Laptops have a general 2 year life cycle, before new software (specifically games) won't work to well on it.

That said, I'm not sure about the make, but if you buy like really the top notch laptop (not speaking of the gold plated iBooks lol), it should be able to go beyond that time. I mean look at my lappy, it's an HP and at the time i brought it more that 2 and a half years ago, it was the best on the market (African markets anyway), but it still runs the new games as any other. I have to say that once I brought it, I also brought the memory upgrade.

My problem here in Africa is that we don't yet get the 4GB memory modules for the lappy. So I have to wait a little longer to upgrade it to the maximum of 8GB.

Uh, I never said anything bad about Windows Seven. I never said I was afraid of being hacked. I am only skeptical about Windows Seven Starter because it's not the full version of Windows Seven. It's very limited.

Originally Posted by Dominoflare

I agree, i also own a hp laptop and a 6gb imac desktop computer, in my opinion if you're getting a windows computer HP is the way to go, the best brand for windows imho, just as good as macs(and a lot cheaper too) especially if you want something that'll last long and you're going to be playing high quality computer games. and unlike what thyvlin said i'v had my hp for well over 3 years and it still runs perfectly fine(though i mainly use my mac tbh) it's got the latest softwares windows 7 and i updated the hard drive etc
anyways good luck with whatever you decide to get.

I am personally not a huge fan of HP. Every time I've had something of theirs it has broken within the first month. The only HP products I actually like are their printers. I've had my HP printer for almost 4 years now and it works perfectly.

Originally Posted by Veronica

I'd just install ubuntu. It's lightweight, fast and free and does all the regular stuff (email, web, IM and office) out of the box.

But then, I'm a Linux fan. We're a bit weird. (But have better working computers!)

I like Linux, but Windows Seven is better in my opinion, I just like the look of it and the fact that I don't have to run programs through another program.

Linux would probably replace the original OS on a school laptop though. Although I'd still dual boot with XP just in case I really needed a Windows computer.

[Veronica]

Originally Posted by Lady Gaga

I like Linux, but Windows Seven is better in my opinion, I just like the look of it and the fact that I don't have to run programs through another program.

Ah, but when you switch to Linux, you don't run programs through another program any more (I assume you mean wine). You get the open source alternatives!

Also, Win7 is shiny because it's bloated. It is a massive waste of computer resources. So for what I do on a daily basis Win7 is horribly behind Linux in all ways relevant to me. I Liked XP quite a lot though. A very good OS.

But yeah, it's flashy, I'll give em that. It is also horribly annoying when you want to do some more advanced things with your OS.

[jostle100]

I have a MAcbook Air. The 13" 128gb intel core i5 and 4gb of ram. Available at Apple - MacBook Air - The ultimate everyday notebook.. This is the latest generation btw, and that configuration costed me around $1300 plus tax. Fast and great computer. The previous generation had 2gb of ram and a core 2 duo processor. They are discounted for about $100 (new) at best buy plus you get a free apple TV. You could even sell the apple tv someway. You can return the apple TV to an apple store and they'll give you $100 back. A 11" 128gb core 2 duo 2gb of ram will cost about $999 and with an apple tv costs about $900. You can also get an education discount which is a further $50. Plus you get an free $100 Mac App Store Gift card with education discount.

Original Price of 11" 128gb 2gb of ram core 2 duo $1099
Reduced price $999
Education discount $950
$100 MAc app store gc with education discount $850
Free apple TV with previous generation air $750
so a really great deal which was once over $100 dollars. I don't know if Best Buy offers education discount but you might give them an call of visit them in store.