Need Recommendations On Laptop For Student
Marik_Steele
To rule in hell... Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9466Members
To rule in hell... Join Date: 2002-11-20 Member: 9466Members
<div class="IPBDescription">w/ focus on programming, not gaming</div> <you may skip the following rant if you just want to help me without hearing superfluous backstory>
[school rant]
My school is one of those that goes from Pre-K to 12th grade, and has a Board of Directors that loves jumping on the technology bandwagon early. As of some years ago, they started <i>requiring</i> all students from 7th grade up to buy themselves laptops.
As of this year, they decided to do something about the complaints that those laptops were never being used (at least not for schoolwork). They took out almost every desktop on campus. The school issued laptops to middle and high school teachers, and I'm pretty sure the only desktops left on the east half of campus are in the main offices.
For the past two years I've been taking computer science, which isn't taken seriously here by anyone except its students, the teacher, and one absolute genius in the math department. CS doesn't even count as being <i>in</i> a department; not science, not math, so it doesn't go towards any credit requirements, and because of that my class is now down to the 8 people who actually care.
So this year, the BoD's taking of the desktops we've always used is like a big "F U." To top it off they've moved us from our room in the library building to an abandoned chemistry lab. Why don't we get to stay in our old room, where the teacher could use the projector screen to show us what to do? The guy who donated the big $$ to build the room named it the "Graphic Design lab," and all the Photoshop junkies count as being in the Fine Arts department.
[/school rant]
I've had this Toshiba laptop for school since 7th grade. It's in very good condition, but...I've had it since 7th grade. If it was up to me, I wouldn't buy a new one just for senior year (no, not taking to college, it's being passed down to my sister in middle school). But we're doing Java instead of C++ in CS this year, and compiling "Hello World" takes 14 seconds.
My current laptop stats:
P1 MMX 266MHz. 4GB HD. unknown speed CD-ROM. No 3d accelerator. I recently tripled the RAM to a whopping 96MB. Win98 (and as of yesterday, and/or Knoppix. Luv to DOOManiac for showing me)
Stats of desktop I got to use for C++ programming last year***:
P3 800MHz. 256MB RAM, possibly more. On-board 3d and sound. Ungodly huge HD with network storage access for more. Win2k.
I need a new laptop. No need for amazing 3d. No need for THX certified sound. But it needs to be cheap enough that I don't feel like I'm wasting money on a machine to be used 1 year, and it needs to be an absolute processing beast for its price. Even if you don't know of specific models, at least point me to a brand name I may not have heard of before.
***In case you're wondering where those 800MHz desktops went when they were taken out: they were given to our school's elementary school teachers over on the west half of campus. My mother just got a job as a 1st grade teacher's aide and says the most she does on it is take attendance.
[school rant]
My school is one of those that goes from Pre-K to 12th grade, and has a Board of Directors that loves jumping on the technology bandwagon early. As of some years ago, they started <i>requiring</i> all students from 7th grade up to buy themselves laptops.
As of this year, they decided to do something about the complaints that those laptops were never being used (at least not for schoolwork). They took out almost every desktop on campus. The school issued laptops to middle and high school teachers, and I'm pretty sure the only desktops left on the east half of campus are in the main offices.
For the past two years I've been taking computer science, which isn't taken seriously here by anyone except its students, the teacher, and one absolute genius in the math department. CS doesn't even count as being <i>in</i> a department; not science, not math, so it doesn't go towards any credit requirements, and because of that my class is now down to the 8 people who actually care.
So this year, the BoD's taking of the desktops we've always used is like a big "F U." To top it off they've moved us from our room in the library building to an abandoned chemistry lab. Why don't we get to stay in our old room, where the teacher could use the projector screen to show us what to do? The guy who donated the big $$ to build the room named it the "Graphic Design lab," and all the Photoshop junkies count as being in the Fine Arts department.
[/school rant]
I've had this Toshiba laptop for school since 7th grade. It's in very good condition, but...I've had it since 7th grade. If it was up to me, I wouldn't buy a new one just for senior year (no, not taking to college, it's being passed down to my sister in middle school). But we're doing Java instead of C++ in CS this year, and compiling "Hello World" takes 14 seconds.
My current laptop stats:
P1 MMX 266MHz. 4GB HD. unknown speed CD-ROM. No 3d accelerator. I recently tripled the RAM to a whopping 96MB. Win98 (and as of yesterday, and/or Knoppix. Luv to DOOManiac for showing me)
Stats of desktop I got to use for C++ programming last year***:
P3 800MHz. 256MB RAM, possibly more. On-board 3d and sound. Ungodly huge HD with network storage access for more. Win2k.
I need a new laptop. No need for amazing 3d. No need for THX certified sound. But it needs to be cheap enough that I don't feel like I'm wasting money on a machine to be used 1 year, and it needs to be an absolute processing beast for its price. Even if you don't know of specific models, at least point me to a brand name I may not have heard of before.
***In case you're wondering where those 800MHz desktops went when they were taken out: they were given to our school's elementary school teachers over on the west half of campus. My mother just got a job as a 1st grade teacher's aide and says the most she does on it is take attendance.
Comments
Guess which technology bandwagon the school's board of directors decided to jump on most recently?
<b>Needs <i>internal </i>wireless network capability</b>. The PCMCIA card I've had since 7th grade is just about ready to have its antenna fall off.
I think you could probably find a model with a internal wireless card.
Well.... I can't think of any good advice other than "make sure it won't run any games".
You'll be able to find one from each of those companies that will fit your needs.
And SUYF to all you anti-Dell folks out there - he can't build his own laptop. And Dell makes good notebooks.
Oh yeah, you may also just want to look into a Powerbook, just so you're not able to play any games at all. <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
Now what you got to do is to go out in a shop and test it. You dont want to buy a laptop on specs gleaned off some webby or sales material alone.
You want to see the machine sweat when it works. You want to see how the keyboard feels like to type on. How large the screen is. To examine what kind of "dead pixel policy" of the TFT screen that the company has. You want to hear how much of a din the build-in cooling fan makes when you work with it. Not to mention how often.
I would never, ever, recommend you to buy a laptop that you havent at least tried to work with for at least 30 minutes. You can easily spot the bad ones in a few minutes. So find a store that has them on display, and preferably one where you can see a program running on the lap top. Actually just try and get it to show a 3d-screensaver, ought to make most laptops sweat a bit.
Im using a 2 years old HP Omnibook 6100. Best lappy I ever had. No noise to speak of, doesnt get too hot, great keyboard. I dont care if it's merely 1,1 ghz and 256 ram, the quality of the machine is good. Nowadays they sell them as Scumpaq Evo's and I aint gonna burn myself on a Scumpaq again, ever.
Opinions differ but DONT BUY ON MAILORDER unless you've tried it first.
Yeah, I know. A hassle. But it's what sorts men from sheep, those who aren't retail showers and those who can think for them self and work for it <!--emo&:)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/smile.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='smile.gif'><!--endemo-->
<a href='http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/series_inspn_notebooks.htm' target='_blank'>http://www.dell.com/us/en/dhs/products/ser...n_notebooks.htm</a>
That will be a tad difficult considering that Dell is mail-order only and does not maintain true retail outlets... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo-->
That will be a tad difficult considering that Dell is mail-order only and does not maintain true retail outlets... <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif'><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><span class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Which is why I avoid them like the Dell-vil <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink.gif'><!--endemo--> Maybe he can try the model at someone's place. I don't know. But I would say buying a computer untested and unseens equals buying a new car the same way. Just not smart IMO.
He got it for about 1k and it runs Unreal2k3 @ 30fps low-medium graphics.
Dell is good if you can't build it. They have good tech support and get the extended warranty, you will love it.
Plus Dell's can be customized if you order by phone. Instead of a crappy vid card the guy on the phone got me a 3dfx Voodoo3 AGP