QOTD: What's the Best Computer for a Student?

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KyleSTL

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Depends on major and can vary from 10" netbook to 17" laptop with discrete GPU. Or even a notebook + desktop setup in some cases. WAY too many variables to have a discussion. Also, the fact that certain universities or colleges or programs require a certain spec (OS, etc) kind of negates the relevancy of this QOTD.
 

anonymous x

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Humm, "student" encompasses a wide range of people. If it were me and I could spend as much as I want I would honestly get a 15" macbook pro unibody with the matte screen (if there's an option) and dual boot windows 7 on it. I do appreciate build quality and design.... If I was on a budget then it would depend on what the budget is, and of course on what the course requirements are
 

kittle

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[citation][nom]Soldier37[/nom]A 18.4 inch alienware quad core dual gpu beheamouth. You'll be the man on campus cause you have a 8 thousand dollar laptop with 2 tb of storage for your high end games and pirated movies, lol.[/citation]
And then you'll need to spend the REST of your tuition money to hire security guards so nobody steals your laptop investment.
 
G

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I personally believe the EeePc 901 (as one of my favorites), loaded with XP, is one of the best netbooks money can buy!
The SSD drive isn't too big, but it's fast enough, and the OS is light.
On top, the battery life is 5+ hours under light work!

I think an EEEPC 901 has what it takes for study.
It may not have what it takes when you need to load it with 3D cad programs, or programs for study that need lots of CPU or GPU processing power.
But for reading books, typing, and so they're more than good!

Besides, one can always plug in an LCD monitor, and an external keyboard/mouse on those devices for less than a $200 extra.
 
I am of the opinion that a netbook is plenty. I just got one for my wife and I am quite jealous now as I am still lugging my 15.4" compaq around campus. I really can't do anything that she couldn't do except run my battery out in no time while playing a game. She has 8 hour computing. Meanwhile I am breaking my back, for what? So I can check my email, which I can do in any of the 10 computer labs on campus?

Most days I just leave it at home. Which kinda defeats the purpose of a "portable" pc. I secretly loathe my notebook now. Its become my bedroom pc, which in a marriage doesn't work out to well. So I guess I have a 500 dollar piece of crap.
 

Robert17

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This being an electronic forum, and the question obviously related to the web sites advertisers/financial interests, I submit the following most humbly. The best computer, their brains. Take a pencil and paper to class. Don't be ashamed. Think through what's being taught, don't just type, letting spell checker or formuala maker do all the work. Sure have a computer in your dorm/room. Use it as a last resort. Neater than handwritten reports. Great for presentable analysis. But let the brain do even the bulk of the grunt work. When it comes to thinking on the run out in the working world, it helps to have practiced the thinking process.
 

deltatux

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I'd put in to just say anything from Lenovo, ASUS and maybe HP would do in the C$700+ range. I will NEVER recommend Dell as they break down too often and I'm sick and tired having friends asking me to repair them. I myself have a 13.3" Macbook which is excellent for what I do (computer science student) because of its easy to use UNIX base.
 

descendency

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Honestly a good 13 inch laptop is the way to go. I have a 15 and it's a little big, but I wanted the full HD screen. If you don't game, get a 13 inch.You will adjust to the screen size.

I see a lot of netbooks in the CSC department now, so they are not bad computers but I think they are a bit overpriced when you look at what is just above them.
 

bliq

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I think a lot of people will be disappointed by the netbook in college. I have one, and it has a specific purpose, but I don't think it's a good general purpose machine. I'd say a 13in notebook would be ideal for a college student.
 

jay236

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I'm going to have to recommend the Acer Timeline series in terms of retail laptops (students want the convenience of returning the laptop in-store right?)

Great battery life, lots of RAM and HD space, very light, good for those long lectures that require a lot of note taking / pdf file reading.
 

brando56894

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One that runs on Linux, you dont have to pay $400 for Windows Vista/7 nor do you have to pay $1500-2500 for the apple name and a spiffy version of the Unix/BSD os, all you pay for is the hardware.
 

Trauma

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My daughter is a music major so there are no high powered apps on her system. She manages with an under clocked asus Eee pc and loves it. Cheers.
 

dmwright

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Like the others have said, It really depends on your situation.

I'm currently a Computer Science Student, but I have a pentium 4 3gz. Which is by far enough power to use. As for engineering and using cad, then it's possible you would need one, *If your school labs didn't have the computers already. In my major we have a Computer Graphics course, which we are required to do rendering, but since our lab is run on Fedora, we are able to log into several computers to Render the frames in the background.

But as a normal student, I think anything around 2gz is fine, even for playing games. Depends on what you play, but I had a 2gz Labtop from Dell back in 2002, and it was just fine playing games like StarCraft, etc.. As for saying you HAVE to play Crysis on high resolutions, that's not for everyone. Most students aren't *Computing* students, so I think most are fine with anything that they can play a little tetris and Bejeweled and of course Facebook...
 

virtualban

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Come on, if you really need to let others decide, decide on this, any cheap/used/office replacement computer that makes you think what do you need to upgrade and for the real thing make the informed decision we expect of mature people.
My advise: Anything that does not catch fire would do, but a passive cooled atom x2 to take away the noise and the poor student does not get noise when 'studying' :)
 
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