Advice on a college laptop?

[woopidoo2]

I am going to college, and the purchase of a laptop is required.

 

I have found a nice one (at least, I think) but I could use some advice too.

 

 

 

http://www.hd.nl/p/HP/FP681EAABH (Dutch link, I cannot find an English or American link)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[hide=Specs]Specs:

 

-HP DV5-101ED

 

-15.4 "

 

-1280 x 800 Pixels

 

-1,9 GHz

 

-Level 2 cache 1 MB

 

-AMD Athlon X2 dual-core processor for notebook pc's QL-60

 

 

 

4 USB 2.0, 1 HDMI-connector, 1 eSata-connector, 1 VGA-poort, 1 RJ45 Ethernet-connector, 2 hoofdtelefoonuitgangen, 1 microfooningang, 1 IEEE 1394

 

 

 

Memory:

 

Internal memory 3072 MB

 

Memory layout (1 x 1024 MB + 1 x 2048 MB)

 

 

 

 

 

Hard Disk

 

-320 GB

 

-5400 RPM

 

 

 

Weight and Sizes

 

35,7 cm (B) x 25,9 cm (l) x 3,49 cm (min. h) / 4,19 cm (max. h)

 

-2,65 kg[/hide]

 

 

 

It costs 665.00 EUR or 979 USD. Is it worth it?

 

 

 

My dad will pay the first 500EUR, I have to pay the rest. I will probably use this laptop for 4 years.

 

 

 

Any advice is appreciated.

[The Observer]

Well, it's a pretty decent laptop. Like, if you're going to use it for college, you shouldn't have any problems at all. In fact, you probably can run some decent games on there as well. Plus, it's a nice price from a great quality brand.

[OldJoe]

Yes, pretty good deal.

 

Good computer all around, also got ATI 3450... older games and movies!

 

Now i'm to lazy to search any other sellers, but Zepto has good deals too. But their 300 euro laptop must have sold-out, because i know they had one 2 months ago.

 

Anyways, here's a nice one - http://www.zepto.se/Shop/Notebook.aspx?notebookid=1077 , but it's not available in NL d'oh.

 

 

 

There's also this one: http://hp.hd.nl/p/HP/KW124EA%2523ABH , bit cheaper and same performance. 1gb less ram, 70gb less hd... else not much difference.

 

Get open office for school, saves you alot of money.

[gonpost]

For that price? Yeah it's not bad.

 

 

 

But what would really help us is:

 

 

 

1. What's your price range?

 

2. Do you need any real power? (Are you going to be an engineer? Are you going to play modern games?)

 

3. Do you want a good laptop or do you not care much at all about your computer, and you just want it to work?

 

 

 

Tell us any other wants/desires that you can think of.

[Makoto_the_Phoenix]

For what it's worth, that's a good all-around machine. Just so long as you don't plan on playing Crysis or UT on it or something, you should be just fine with it for school.

[D. V. Devnull]

For what it's worth, that's a good all-around machine. Just so long as you don't plan on playing Crysis or UT on it or something, you should be just fine with it for school.

 

Tip: Specify WHICH UT you're talking about, for the sake of the person who started this thread, please! (I'm assuming, anyway, that you were talking about UT3, right?)

 

 

 

@ woopidoo2 --- I think Makoto meant UT3 when he referenced UT... 'UT2004'/'UT Original' should run like wildfire on those specs. :thumbsup:

 

 

 

~Mr. D. V. Devnull

[stevepole]

I don't know if this is in your budget but look into getting a macbook even the cheap one. I say this because almost everyone I know has had some serious issue with a windows PC while at college while everyone whose has a mac never have issues with there computers while at college.

 

 

 

My personal advise is find what fits you best otherwise your going to dread your choice later on down the road.

[Dracion1]

Looks like a good choice for what you want to do. You can always save up and buy a proper pc at a later date if you wanted though.

 

 

 

@Devnull: I think it's fair to assume he meant UT3. Heck, my laptop only has an onboard gpu and a 2.0Ghz Celeron dual but it runs 2004 fine on near lowest settings.

[woopidoo2]

Alright, thanks for the advice. =D>

 

 

 

1. What's your price range?

 

2. Do you need any real power? (Are you going to be an engineer? Are you going to play modern games?)

 

3. Do you want a good laptop or do you not care much at all about your computer, and you just want it to work?

 

 

 

Tell us any other wants/desires that you can think of.

 

 

 

1. Like I said, my dad promised me that he will not spend more than 500 on my laptop. If I want anything above 500, I have to pay the rest myself. I thought, 800 is too much but I do want to spend an extra 165 on this one (Price: 665)

 

 

 

2. Power - as in battery life?

 

If so, yes I do prefer a nice battery, considering I will use it at school without adapting it to the net every 45 minutes. My dad has one of those laptops, a Fujusi (sp?) Siemens, now thats a crappy laptop. It has to be adapted to a power supply, because it simply cant survive long without.

 

 

 

I am studying to be a Graphic Designer, I will build websites - Posters - Advertisements - 'write an immersive space' etc, that means I will use Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Illustrator alot.

 

 

 

3. I do want a good laptop, the 3GB internal and 320GB hard disk are pretty awesome compared to my own home computer (which I'm writing from) with 250GB + 2GB. And I have only 22gb free space left, but thats another problem.

 

 

 

About the UT2004 thing: I played that game with this computer without any lag, but seriously, its a bad game. I played it for like 2 weeks, but never again. I might try to play some Call of Duty 2 on it though.

[gonpost]

Mk well here's my advice then.

 

 

 

Get 2gigs of RAM or 4gigs, but not 3. You want to be able to run in dual channel mode (you need two sticks of the same size/type). It's worth it. There's very little difference at all between 2 and 3 gigs because of this, and there's really not much difference between 2 and 4 gigs unless you're on vista with a LOT of stuff open, but even then 2 gigs will do you alright IMO. I'd only consider getting 4 gigs if it's like a $50-$75 upgrade.

 

 

 

I suppose that you'll be getting an integrated graphics card, so get the X3100. That *should* be your only option. It'll increase battery life a lot, for what it's worth.

 

 

 

Obviously you need a lot of storage. One option to consider is a good 250gb internal drive, and then maybe get a cheap external hard drive later. It's hard to fill up 250GB unless you have a LOT of media (movies and such), so that's really your call. Depends if you think it's worth the money for 250->320. Personally, I wouldn't.

 

 

 

Lastly, the most important aspect of the computer for you will end up being your processor. If you have any extra cash, or if a decent upgrade is available for maybe $50 more, I'd seriously consider getting it.

 

 

 

Also, don't get a 9-cell battery. 6-cell will do you just fine.

[Sbrideau]

Well, to me, you got a great deal, considering I bought a laptop recently with similar specs and similar price, exept the Hard drive 250Gb and Gfx is an ATI HD 3470 (still HD lol).

 

 

 

To those wondering, I have a desktop still stronger than that, that I will still upgrade as time passes.

[woopidoo2]

Thanks for the advice, my mother asked me if we should go buy it today and because I need it next week, I said yes :D

 

 

 

I'm really looking forward to it, should be a great deal.

[sloter]

Nice and good luck with your machine. I will say what everyone else has said for the most part it will be fine for what you need it for. It won't play games very well though.

[D. V. Devnull]

It won't play games very well though.

 

LOL :lol: ... For the two most recent generations of games, you're right on. However, I think that you'd agree that the ones before that will run fine or scream like rampant lightning. :thumbsup: ... And some may run too fast, as I found out from someone else IRL... :P

 

 

 

~D. V. Devnull