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Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-04 15:27
Hi!
So in september time I will be going to university to study Computer Science. I will be moving out into accommodation and will be taking my PC with me - This will mainly be for gaming, streaming, rendering etc.
However, I am also going to need a laptop of which is portable, powerful and generally fast.
It would mainly be used for browsing, writing documents, watching videos, coding and possibly light gaming. I may also in some cases have to use photoshop or other software packages that require some decent CPU power and a decent amount of RAM.
I have also been trying to find a laptop which has an SSD rather than a HDD. Storage wouldn't be such a problem as I would probably use a portable SSD for storing files.
These are a few laptops I have currently had a look at and may be interested in:
ASUS ZenBook UX410UA 14" 4GB 128GB Core i3 Laptop - Nice specs but only 4GB of RAM.
ACER Aspire E15 15.6" Laptop - Black - Not keen on the fact it doesn't have an SSD, but the specs are decent.
Acer Swift 3 14" 8GB 128GB Core i3 Laptop - Nice specs and the fact it has 8GB RAM makes me quite interested in it.
So, I was wondering if any of you have any suggestions? Either from personal experience or just from knowledge. I am looking at spending around £600.
I know that by September prices may change etc, but I am looking at getting a good idea of what to get now so that I am prepared for the start of Uni.
Thanks for any help!
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Cola - 2018-03-04 15:58
1. Get a Thinkpad. Any will do but preferably T-, X-, or W-series. It will still work as new when you are two years into your study.
2. If you are not planning to do heavy gaming, any i5 with 8GB of RAM will do. SSD is a must.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-04 16:06
(2018-03-04 15:58)Cola Wrote: 1. Get a Thinkpad. Any will do but preferably T-, X-, or W-series. It will still work as new when you are two years into your study.
2. If you are not planning to do heavy gaming, any i5 with 8GB of RAM will do. SSD is a must.
Hmm Thanks, I'll take a look at the ThinkPads. The teachers at my school actually use ThinkPads too. However, as far as I know, they are quite expensive at retail prices.
What is your opinion on the IdeaPads? - Here is one I just found - Good Specs and in a price range that I can afford.
LENOVO IdeaPad 320s-14IKB 14" Laptop - Mineral Grey
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Owl - 2018-03-04 16:30
You cannot beat the price of a Used ThinkPad T420 or T430. Really really good laptops. My T420 cost me £140 2 years ago and is still much much more powerful than laptops in the same price range today. I can do Photoshop, Solidworks, run TIA Portal (for anyone who's in automation knows that not even a midrange desktop pc can run this efficiently). It is the device that I am currently using to program StatOwls right now. As far as cheap and cheerful and also powerful laptops go, ThinkPads are the way.
You'll be much better off getting a used industry standard laptop because there is no market for them, they don't look as appealing and aesthetically pleasing which is something that people look for in laptops these days. Newer laptops, you have to be spending quite a bit of money to get a decent power new laptop these days. You also upgrade the processors in ThinkPads, which is not possible in most laptops. Cola did a guide a while back on a CPU upgrade on a T420
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-04 18:11
(2018-03-04 16:30)Owl Wrote: You cannot beat the price of a Used ThinkPad T420 or T430. Really really good laptops. My T420 cost me £140 2 years ago and is still much much more powerful than laptops in the same price range today. I can do Photoshop, Solidworks, run TIA Portal (for anyone who's in automation knows that not even a midrange desktop pc can run this efficiently). It is the device that I am currently using to program StatOwls right now. As far as cheap and cheerful and also powerful laptops go, ThinkPads are the way.
You'll be much better off getting a used industry standard laptop because there is no market for them, they don't look as appealing and aesthetically pleasing which is something that people look for in laptops these days. Newer laptops, you have to be spending quite a bit of money to get a decent power new laptop these days. You also upgrade the processors in ThinkPads, which is not possible in most laptops. Cola did a guide a while back on a CPU upgrade on a T420
Yeah, I'm actually currently looking on Amazon as there seems to be a lot more ThinkPads on there. The good specs ones are actually fairly cheap tbh.
Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 3rd Gen G4 8GB 240GB SSD i7-5600U Full HD Windows 10 Home (Certified Refurbished)
I found this one - Although it is pricey, It seems cheaper than it would be at retail costs... And the specs are great.
However, If I was to get something not as good but save a lot of money...
Lenovo ThinkPad T430 i5-3320M 2.6GHz 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD
I definitely didn't realise how cheap they can be at a refurbished/used price.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Owl - 2018-03-04 20:25
Even cheaper on Ebay, don't worry they usually are in very condition - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/CHEAP-FAST-Lenovo-ThinkPad-T430-Core-i5-2-6Ghz-8GB-250GB-HDD-Win7-3rd-Gen-Webcam/122154756222?_trkparms=aid%3D555019%26algo%3DPL.BANDIT%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D43781%26meid%3D08a9d81b2425458d92e570be2feba618%26pid%3D100506%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D1%26%26itm%3D122154756222&_trksid=p2045573.c100506.m3226
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Cola - 2018-03-04 20:30
Ideapads are as rubbish as all the other consumer stuff. Not at all comparable to Thinkpads.
Owl covers some good points. Generally most people could easily suffice with a slightly older pc, since not a lot has happened on main stream processors the later years, with the exception of some minor things and lower power consumption of course. Personally I use a T440P that I've had for 2 years now. I bought it used back then when it was already two generations old. It's more beefy than many other laptops, but the cooling is really good and the fact that Lenovo didn't really have to restrain itself on space within it, means that they have probably spent those engineering hours other (better) places. For instance the hinge mechanism which still works as when it was brand new...
TL;DR
You (and 90% of everyone else with a new consumer laptop) can most probably do with a Thinkpad from a few generations ago.
With 600£ I'd probably buy something like this and save the rest of the money, or maybe find a nice T470 instead.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T460-i5-6300U-CPU-8GB-RAM-240GB-SSD-Windows-10-Pro-64-Bit/132519248341?hash=item1edac341d5:g:BdoAAOSwdnZaNwtz
I wouldn't go back as far as a T430 today, as they are becoming a bit dated. T440 or after would be my recommendation.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-04 22:25
Thanks for the helpful information guys
- I will look around and see what the best deal is that I can get 
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Cam - 2018-03-09 02:43
Please let us know what you end up getting and the price you paid, if you do get anything.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-11 11:26
(2018-03-09 02:43)Sonic Wrote: Please let us know what you end up getting and the price you paid, if you do get anything.
I will do
- It will be a while before I get one but I shall make a detailed post about it, including some information about how it runs and if I think it was worth getting etc.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Pete - 2018-03-18 17:45
During my CS undergraduate, I primarily used a £200 Asus netbook. I used the same netbook during my Masters and for the first 18 months of my PhD before investing in a 13" MacBook Pro.
I had a Windows/Ubuntu dualboot on the netbook. It's useful to have a linux partition as well as a Windows partition during a UK CS undergraduate.
Of course, I utilised the PCs at university and my PC at home, but in the meantime, for lectures, travel and stuff in the library, my netbook was perfect. Sadly, for the things I'm doing these days, it simply wasn't powerful enough, plus I only develop on unix now so that's why I got the MacBook.
Good luck with your degree.
RE: Recommended Laptop for Uni? - Lewis2212 - 2018-03-18 23:22
(2018-03-18 17:45)Pete Wrote: During my CS undergraduate, I primarily used a £200 Asus netbook. I used the same netbook during my Masters and for the first 18 months of my PhD before investing in a 13" MacBook Pro.
I had a Windows/Ubuntu dualboot on the netbook. It's useful to have a linux partition as well as a Windows partition during a UK CS undergraduate.
Of course, I utilised the PCs at university and my PC at home, but in the meantime, for lectures, travel and stuff in the library, my netbook was perfect. Sadly, for the things I'm doing these days, it simply wasn't powerful enough, plus I only develop on unix now so that's why I got the MacBook.
Good luck with your degree.
Thanks for that information - Definitely helps out with what I'm looking at etc. I think I'll definitely use the Computer labs at University to my advantage, as well as my PC back at my accommodation.
The idea of having a laptop with a dualboot is something I never really thought of much. Definitely an idea which I will probably go with.
It's interesting that you used a relatively cheap Netbook for it. I'm still looking around at what to get
Thanks Pete.