What laptop should I get for uni? (1 Viewer)

[shumphrey]

Just wondering what laptops you guys use and if you have recommendations

I can spend up to $1500 for one

am studying science at unsw if that effects it (applications required?)

 

[shumphrey]

bump

 

[Jakulore]

Mmm, there's no specific type I feel that you 'should' get for uni. I use a Mac, because it is very light, convenient, and has a very long battery life but it just depends on you. From what I have observed though, the majority of students use a Macbook of some form (Regular, Air or Pro). So yeah, my personal recommendation would be a Mac, but you may want an even more powerful system yourself, though since you are doing Science I imagine it should be fine.

In terms of applications, you pretty much just require the standard Microsoft Office pack, and then if there are any specific programs related to your degree that you may need, your lecturer's/tutors should be able to provide you with access/allow you to get it

 

[BLIT2014]

What is your major for science?

What else would you be wanting to use it for besides uni?

 

[Queenroot]

Macbook if you are an arts student is mandatory

 

[pikachu975]

You probably don't need a laptop you can just use pen and paper or the computers at uni, but I'd say a mac as others have said. A mac air uses SSD as its storage so it loads up fast but it means it costs heaps to upgrade storage. Just get any decent computer that you like.

 

[hrithikroshan]

I spent a week or two finding a cheap good laptop. Got a tablet laptop for cheap. It ended up breaking because its RAM was so low and I had to get it fixed 2-3 times.

Then I spent a MONTH researching to find the absolute best laptop for a good price. This was DURING YEAR 12. Such a waste of time of holidays + school.
Ended up deciding on a mac so I could have a laptop tension-free for the next few years. Best decision.

Get a mac, seriously. It's fast, lightweight, convenient.

 

[Jakulore]

You probably don't need a laptop you can just use pen and paper or the computers at uni

You may say that now, but wait until you get into the lectures and you are trying your best to get a good balance of the slide content and the mini-speech given by the lecturer down before they change the slide every 20 seconds.

 

[Queenroot]

You may say that now, but wait until you get into the lectures and you are trying your best to get a good balance of the slide content and the mini-speech given by the lecturer down before they change the slide every 20 seconds.

U don't need to take notes from the slide tho? Well idk always had access to mine

 

[Jakulore]

U don't need to take notes from the slide tho? Well idk always had access to mine

I take some of them so that I don't have to review as much later, and also, in some of my law classes we weren't allowed to access the slides, nor take pictures of them.

 

[shumphrey]

What is your major for science?

What else would you be wanting to use it for besides uni?

major:sorta undecided but looking toward double with molecular and cellular bio and neuroscience

What else? procrastination

 

[shumphrey]

I take some of them so that I don't have to review as much later, and also, in some of my law classes we weren't allowed to access the slides, nor take pictures of them.

why no takeing pics thats retarded

 

[Queenroot]

major:sorta undecided but looking toward double with molecular and cellular bio and neuroscience

What else? procrastination

ye okay you'll have access to all ur slides
TBH u don't need notes they're pretty uselesss
Just listen to the lectures

why no takeing pics thats retarded

copyright

 

[i1337]

Wouldn't reccommend macs unless you are reuqired to get one, simply because repairing them is *fucking expensive*. I sell them (including other laptops) and I always have to deal with pissed of broke students / customers complaining that they've gotta spend $900 to repair a mac because they dropped it and fucked some components inside.

If you get *any* laptop with an SSD, an 6th gen i3 / quad core or above and 720p~ or above screen and 7~ hours tested battery life with atleast 4gb of ram...you'll be fine. Seriously. That's around $600ish these days?

If you want to spend abit more, get something with a FHD screen (1080p), perhaps a larger SSD size and maybe an i7 with 8gb of ram. That would be plentyful. I'm running a 4GB ram laptop right now with a dual-core i3. It runs fast as hell simply because it has an SSD

The most important thing is probably SSD. Not just for the speed, but they are significantly more durable/robust than traditional hard-drives. Data is important

Also avoid laptops with a non-ingragted graphics card unless you want to play games. They make the laptop abit heavier/pricier.

I guess if you want to search some stuff up, search these keywords: Surface pro, Lenovo yoga, ThinkPad, Lenovo MIIX, Dell XPS, Inspiron, Toshiba Satellite series

use www.staticice.com.au to find the best prices

Browse ozbargain for good deals under the laptop sections

PM me if you need any advice (goes out to anyone)

 

[pikachu975]

Wouldn't reccommend macs unless you are reuqired to get one, simply because repairing them is *fucking expensive*. I sell them (including other laptops) and I always have to deal with pissed of broke students / customers complaining that they've gotta spend $900 to repair a mac because they dropped it and fucked some components inside.

If you get *any* laptop with an SSD, an 6th gen i3 / quad core or above and 720p~ or above screen and 7~ hours tested battery life with atleast 4gb of ram...you'll be fine. Seriously. That's around $600ish these days?

If you want to spend abit more, get something with a FHD screen (1080p), perhaps a larger SSD size and maybe an i7 with 8gb of ram. That would be plentyful. I'm running a 4GB ram laptop right now with a dual-core i3. It runs fast as hell simply because it has an SSD

The most important thing is probably SSD. Not just for the speed, but they are significantly more durable/robust than traditional hard-drives. Data is important

Also avoid laptops with a non-ingragted graphics card unless you want to play games. They make the laptop abit heavier/pricier.

I guess if you want to search some stuff up, search these keywords: Surface pro, Lenovo yoga, ThinkPad, Lenovo MIIX, Dell XPS, Inspiron, Toshiba Satellite series

use www.staticice.com.au to find the best prices

Browse ozbargain for good deals under the laptop sections

PM me if you need any advice (goes out to anyone)

Will the i3/low RAM ones run stuff like MATLAB or modelling programs efficiently though? Thanks!

 

[i1337]

Will the i3/low RAM ones run stuff like MATLAB or modelling programs efficiently though? Thanks!

Full disclosure haven't used MATLAB but have friends in engo.

I see no reason why a 6th gen i3 processor would struggle to reasonably handle uni stuff in MATLAB provided its a decent higher-end i3 (some i3's are faster than i5's).

In terms of RAM, this will vary alot on what you do with it and what else you have running on the background. Again, I'd wager that 4gb would be enough for uni-level stuff but 6gb+ would be ideal just incase you have some background running stuff.

I don't think the complexity of anything you do at uni in engineering for Matlab is going to be too awfully intensive.

If you want to get a computer to handle stuff for 3d modeling smoothly/matlab, then something like:

8GB ram

i5

SSD

would be ideal. If you were on a budget, you could get away with 8gb ram, i3, HDD but you might experience abit of slowing down if you are doing something intensive

edit: just found these links

http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-3565-laptop/pd?oc=a510430au&model_id=inspiron-15-3565-laptop

and

http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-5565-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family

Those prices are really good, would buy if I personally needed them

edit #2 ok the above sale was gone literally a few hours after I posted, lol

 

[obliviousninja]

macbook to flex on the other kiddos and impress the ladies

 

[shumphrey]

Full disclosure haven't used MATLAB but have friends in engo.

I see no reason why a 6th gen i3 processor would struggle to reasonably handle uni stuff in MATLAB provided its a decent higher-end i3 (some i3's are faster than i5's).

In terms of RAM, this will vary alot on what you do with it and what else you have running on the background. Again, I'd wager that 4gb would be enough for uni-level stuff but 6gb+ would be ideal just incase you have some background running stuff.

I don't think the complexity of anything you do at uni in engineering for Matlab is going to be too awfully intensive.

If you want to get a computer to handle stuff for 3d modeling smoothly/matlab, then something like:

8GB ram

i5

SSD

would be ideal. If you were on a budget, you could get away with 8gb ram, i3, HDD but you might experience abit of slowing down if you are doing something intensive

edit: just found these links

http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-3565-laptop/pd?oc=a510430au&model_id=inspiron-15-3565-laptop

and

http://www.dell.com/au/p/inspiron-15-5565-laptop/pd?ref=PD_Family

Those prices are really good, would buy if I personally needed them

edit #2 ok the above sale was gone literally a few hours after I posted, lol

i dont know about dell man, have a dell latitude and it seems rigged to break around when warranty expires, right now it is slow and continually faltering.

 

[i1337]

i dont know about dell man, have a dell latitude and it seems rigged to break around when warranty expires, right now it is slow and continually faltering.

That's no good at all! If the warranty period expires (i.e. 12months usually) you are still entitled for warranty under your ACL. In fact, I've heard of people getting repairs and warranty claimed free years after the warranty period ended. For more info search up ACL Consumer Rights.

 

[BlueGas]

That's no good at all! If the warranty period expires (i.e. 12months usually) you are still entitled for warranty under your ACL. In fact, I've heard of people getting repairs and warranty claimed free years after the warranty period ended. For more info search up ACL Consumer Rights.

Yeah but how do you say that to customer service? Do you just say under ACL consumer rights I am entitled to have my laptop repaired even after it's warranty has expired?