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Uni laptop

The Admiral

Well-Known Member
Looking for a laptop for uni. Current cost limit is $1,600. I want something I can play games on too though, as I'd rather use my laptop for LAN's than my desktop.

Liked the studio 15 lots but just read somewhere that it isn't particularly mobile.

What I basically want:
-mobile enough for uni classes so not a 16" screen. Is 15.6" too big for uni? I do realise they're practically the same, but eh. (probably an engineering course, but either computer engineering or software engineering, so frequent use)
-triple boot Win 7, OS X, Linux flavour of the month - therefore must have hardware that works well when I turn it into a hackintosh
-good enough specs for some gamez. 3GB or more RAM, 2.2 GHz or greater dual core CPU, 256 MB graphics or greater - probably 512 MB though, as my 7300 LE on my desktop isn't quite good enough for most games, though it's an old machine.
-Within budget
-Don't care if Intel or AMD or NVidia or ATI.
-Don't care what brand it is unless it is made of terrible parts and looks terrible. I'm looking for something that'll last me a significant amount of my 5.5 year degree.
-Not too heavy. I lied. I don't really play football. Weight affects mobility too.
-Semi-decent battery life. 3 hours+

Idk. Any suggestions you guys could throw at me would be awesome. Preferably not a mac though. I hate their keyboard and lack of two mouse buttons. I only like their software.


*EDIT*
Oh, hard drive size isn't too big a deal either. 250 or 320 is fine. Ideally though, I'd just like to know what you cool kids are using and what you've seen your friends use that are even better for uni.
 

Black Racoon

Head Poncho
Staff member
Dell have some nice deals and if you use their coupons at the full advantage then it can definitely become a good buy through them, in my opinion the Studio 15 are great, they aren't that big and they are smooth in design.

Specs:

CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.53Ghz -(Top of the range for the Studio 15)
Ram: 4GB DDR2 800 (Can pay more for DDR3 Memory Upgrade..)
HD: 500GB (Top of the range for the Studio 15)
Graphics: HD 4570 512MB (Top of the range for the Studio 15)
Display: 15.6 Bright LCD w/Webcam
Accessories: External mouse and case


Get it all for $1500-$1600 w/ using their EPP Coupons.

Good Luck in finding your laptop, but definitely a good buy from Dell in my opinion.

Cheers, BR
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
EWww Dell, if you want the whole package scope around the Asus range. $1600 is well enough for all your needs.
Why Asus........ they provide a 2yr global warranty unlike dell which is limited 1yr so check out the K50, N50 and U50 range.

IMO if your planning to use the laptop for long sessions, I'd advise you to get the biggest screen possible which will be the 16" for your budget.

Manufacturers will supply ram in factors of 2gb. Getting 3gb will be custom and itll probably be cheaper to opt for 4gb(most manufacturers will offer the free 4gb upgrade for ddr2 ram now so shop around).

Finally Laptops aren't made to last over 3yrs so if yours happen to last longer then just be happy about it.
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
16" is not portable in any stretch. Try lugging that across the bridge every day, I did with a 15.something incher in my first year and it cained my shoulder.
That's why I got my tablet laptop that is a 12.something screen. It is like 1.6 or something kgs which makes it perfect to slip into a normal satchel bag and not a non-stylish laptop bag.
A piece of advice, don't get an all purpose machine if you are using it for uni. Keep it light. If you are doing engineering and dealing with things like matlab, (read: you will be), make sure you have a decent processor/ram to run some big calculations. I would go as big a hard drive as you can, you don't think you will use it but it fills up quick.
If you really want a gaming laptop for gaming at a mates etc, then get a big one with a big screen and just use the computers at uni to do your work. I would advise against this and would again say go for a light laptop. Be cool like me and get a tablet PC and watch all those suckers lose their pieces of paper while you so stylishly swivel your screen around and find all your notes categorised neatly in onenote.
Either way, if you are going to QUT hit me up when you start and I'll show you the right places to go to get a decent computer without having to fight everyone in the library for a glimpse at one.

Cheers
 

The Admiral

Well-Known Member
BR said his bro had a studio 15 and that it was portable. I'll head over to the Carindale Dell Kiosk some time to see what they're actually like.

At the moment, UQ is my top preference, but the next 3 are QUT, then another UQ and then Griffith. And if I did go to QUT, I'd probably pay the extra to get dumped in the city rather than walk.

What specs are your tablet? New eee touch screen is out/coming soon or something and looks good. 8.9", eighs just udner 1kg. Gigabyte tablet netbook too, 10.1", 1.48 kg.

Think I'll look at 14" for the moment. Can always just hook it up to my screen/TV when I'm at home. Laptop + screen is still easier than tower + screen + external HD for LAN's.

Do I need bluetooth? Or would it just drain battery and be useless? My iPhone probably won't do anything with it at the moment - because I can just setup an ad hoc network to connect to my iPhone anyway - and most bluetooth mice come with the USB plugin things that are getting to be pretty small.

Studio XPS that I just built comes to $1,900. But I think you can get the $100 cash back and then like 15% discount too later on and you can trade in all their bloatware for more money off or upgraded hardware.

Do you really need 4GB or more RAM?
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
Sif walk from the city, fatty. Exercise is good.
My tablet isn't fantastic, its 1.3ghz, 4gb ram and like 100gig hdd.
The newer model is pretty slick though, mine is the HP 2710p.
Bluetooth isn't essential, you will find it will be on most laptops nowadays anyway though and you can always just switch off the radio when you don't use it. It's cheap enough to just get it. It can be fun in boring lectures to send people random pictures or to do other things if you are devious enough.

Cheers
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
With engineering courses 4GB ram is pretty much a prerequisite for your computing needs.

Bluetooth isn't required on laptops but with almost all manufacturers offering this feature as a free value added option you pretty much dont need to strain your brain over it. Bluetooths mainly aimed for the european market since they bluetooth everything there, well thats prior to wifi becoming mainstream.

In regards to battery life, laptops have their own battery power preferences, at lowest setting they should last 3-5hrs, performance will last 1hr then everything else in between(generally you can get up to 3hrs even with wifi on at medium strength). Anyway since you'll be using at Uni you shouldnt worry about it since theres more than enough power points to give your batteries a little boost every now and then to last the day.
 

The Admiral

Well-Known Member
-OZ-Trigger Happy said:
Sif walk from the city, fatty. Exercise is good.
My tablet isn't fantastic, its 1.3ghz, 4gb ram and like 100gig hdd.
The newer model is pretty slick though, mine is the HP 2710p.
That's funny, because Joy, BR and I pointed out every fat guy at QUT and were like "That's Trig". Anyway. Gigabyte Touchnote looks nice. $800? or $700 for 1.66 GHz processor, 10.1", 160GB HDD and I don't remember how much RAM. Apparently the graphics on it are terrible though. Meh.

Mmm, I realised how long it had been since I last built something on Dell to realise that Bluetooth is now standard.

Found http://www.superwarehouse.com/Cisco_Cat ... 8G/px/8581 for $68 on Ebay including P + H. Thinking of getting a Cisco switch, as Cisco is like, the industry brand for things. And having my own switch makes LAN parties easier. Because I want to join a billion clubs next year and have LAN's with all of them. Ftw. Could get a 24 port switch instead, but all the cisco switches cost about $70-80 anyway, so may as well go for the 48 port one. Is gigabit speeds that important for a LAN? I didn't think so, because we play over the internet fine, and that's far from 100MB speeds for most of us. Thing doesn't say if it comes with a power cable though. I'd normally assume it does, but eh. I'll wait until I have money in Paypal before asking the seller. http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Cisco-WS-C2948G- ... 286.c0.m14

Back to looking at Studio 15. This year's model is better than last year's by far. Was previously thinking of getting 1GB and upgrading to 4GB manually but it seems they only offer 4, 6, 8GB.

Get a 9-cell battery instead of a 6? Or both? I'm thinking both, as it only adds $130 to the price. Which is actually a lot. But not that much really. Is it?

Naturally, through various upgrades, I've managed to bump the price up considerably. $1,869.60. However, Whirlpool tells me that Dell are easy as to deal with. So I could conceivably get rid of Microsoft Works for $60+.

COLOR OPTIONS Mike Ming Sea Sky
PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor P8700 (2.53GHz/ 1066 FSB/ 3MB Cache)
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista(R) Home Premium SP1 64 bit (English)
SOFTWARE Microsoft® Works (Including Microsoft®Office Home & Student 2007 60 Days Trial Pre-installed)
ESSENTIAL HELP I don’t need help while operating or getting started with my PCWARRANTY & SERVICE 1 Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty, InHome Service after Remote Diagnosis
SECURITY SOFTWARE McAfee(R) Security Center 10 (Multi Language) - 15 months
HD DISPLAY 15.6 " Full HD(1080p)WLED (1920 x 1080)Display with TrueLife(TM) w/Camera
MEMORY 4GB (2X2GB) DDR2 SDRAM MemoryHARD DRIVE500GB SATA Hard Drive
OPTICAL DRIVE Slot Load 8X DVD+/-RW Drive with DVD+R double layer write capability
VIDEO CARD 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570
AUDIO SOLUTION Integrated CREATIVE Sound Blaster(R) X-Fi MB Audio Software Solution
BATTERIES 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
ADDITIONAL POWER 9-Cell Li-Ion Spare Primary Battery
WIRELESS NETWORK CARD Intel(R) WiFi Link 5300 (802.11a/g/n) Half Mini-card
BLUETOOTH Dell(TM) Wireless 370 Bluetooth Module
KEYBOARD Dell(TM) Backlit Keyboard with Touchpad (English)

Accessorise My Dell
CARRYING CASES Belkin DFD Slim Backpack - Pitch Black Soft Grey (up to 15.6")
MICE Logitech NX50 Corsica Laser Mouse for Laptops
REMOTE ACCESS Dell Remote Access, free basic service
DATASAFE BACKUP SERVICE Dell Online Backup 2GB
DELIVERY CHARGES Standard Delivery: Delivery 9am-5pm - Monday to Friday (excl. public holidays)
Basically:
CPU: Core 2 Duo 2.53 GHz (1066 MHz FSB), 3MB Cache
Custom Case
2x2GB RAM
15.6" screen @ 1980x1020 - lower res 1366x768 is only $83.60 less and I can just run it at a lower res if I need to.
4570 graphics (512 MB)
6 Cell battery and a 9 cell battery
Backlit keyboard.

Plus carry case and mouse.


Overall, I quite like it. Don't have enough money for something so beautiful currently, so it'll be an after Christmas purchase probably. And by then it should have 7 Professional on it hopefully. Need remote access which isn't in Home Premium.



Dammit. Whirlpool spat this out. http://www.jbhifionline.com.au/computer ... ook/452239 Ridiculously nice.
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
Just remembered too, if you are doing engineering, (electrical side, not the other crappy ones) you will most likely want a serial port or at least a usb-to-serial port (one that actually works and has drivers). Chances are you will need to program some chips and unless they have upgraded the chips they use, it is all through serial. Makes life easier to have the software on your computer and all that jazz.
As an aside to the laptop, if you are looking at electrical/software engineering, get to know Visual C++ well along with C and embedded C type coding. By embedded C, I mean bitwise operations since that is most likely what you will have to do. You will find that it doesn't matter that a chipset can do 32 bit instructions or not, you will have to manually make your own out of two 16 bit registers to show you know your stuff. If you lean the software way, learn things like C# and Java (eclipse ftw) along with C/C++ so you grasp the concepts of OO.

Cheers
 

nelots

Well-Known Member
I don't think many laptops that can run games will have the old serial ports. They're all fitted with those nifty e-sata.

Seriously with the battery just use the included one, with the modern convenience of power points being nearly everywhere you won't need the extra battery pack let alone a 9cell ball buster.

http://www.lmc.com.au/products/Notebook ... 2_Yrs_Wnty

Check that one out, way better than your Dell and cheaper too with HDMI. Also another benefit of Asus is the standard webcam and 8 in 1 card reader.

Specs of the U50Vg : http://www.asus.com.au/product.aspx?P_I ... X6p5bFiaSI
 

Trigger Happy

Moderator
Yeah the serial port will be really hard to find unless you get the thinkpads or something that is the swiss army knife of laptops.
What I meant to say was to at least buy a usb-to-serial adapter thing. You can find them cheap on the net but you need to make sure you can find the drivers (for some reason, some cheap ones are hard to get working whereas others just plug and play, depends on the chip inside the adapter) and if you get them of a place like DX, test it with a multimeter that the pins actually line up properly.

Cheers
 

The Admiral

Well-Known Member
I think the colourful MIke Ming designs are pulling me towards the studio 15. Trying to find a page about it that I saw a while ago that was the most ridiculously in-depth review ever. Might wait until December to start looking again I think.
 
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