Open up your computers and clean the fans, it'll do wonders for overheating.

Originally Posted by RememberTwce

Open up your computers and clean the fans, it'll do wonders for overheating.

Not for HP's I got my HDD and Fan replaced (brand new) and within 1hr the problem of overheating and loud fan noise was back They are pooly designed and heat dissipation is probably the worst, along side Toshiba laptops.

I have to agree with blackdragon, i used to have an HP laptop and it sucks!! Loud noises and always over heating. One time it got really hot and it shut itself down. I had a K52J Asus and it's amazing!!! and yeah my brother just bought the same laptop for 500$ .

Originally Posted by blackdragon

Not for HP's I got my HDD and Fan replaced (brand new) and within 1hr the problem of overheating and loud fan noise was back They are pooly designed and heat dissipation is probably the worst, along side Toshiba laptops.

I can't agree more. I had both an HP and a Toshiba at one point or another, and both lasted me one year max. They both just overheated and gave out, it was ridiculous.

in general stay away from dell/hp/compaq. toshiba varies due to hardware issues for past toshiba lineups but i guess theyre decent. acer has improved alot but i choose not to use them. idk about lenovo ever since they bought out thinkpad. they seem good only the above average ones. then again all computer parts are made from china anyways

Originally Posted by lizziepizzie

Out of curiosity, how many of you guys bought your own laptops and how many of you got them as gifts?

well i am not buying it from my money my family is giving me macbook pro 13" as a gift for university

Yes, parts are usually the same, BUT, the design of the laptop varies, and that is the most important. My lenovo has pure orange copper for heat dissipation. It NEVER heats up, and is sooo silent.

Quick inquiry. I will be attending McMaster next year for Engineering I co-op and wish to proceed in electrical engineering over the next years. What laptop is recommended for this course as I have a Macbook pro in mind, however I do not know whether all of the engineering applications will run on a Macbook pro. If it helps, the configuration of the laptop would be as follows:

• 2.2GHz quad-core
  Intel Core i7
• 4GB 1333MHz
• 750GB 5400-rpm1
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• AMD Radeon HD 6750M with 1GB GDDR5
• Built-in battery (7 hours)2

I would get a lenovo, asus, or sager laptop. Macbooks have incredible battery life but otherwise you're paying a large premium for a comparable laptop.

The one blackdragon linked is a great value. However I cant seem to find its weight, I imagine it would be heavy.

It is true that the battery life is very important to me. It is also true that there are comparable laptops at much more reasonable prices, however i could get a student discount of $200, get an itouch and basically a free printer, if i do go for the macbook. The net worth would then be a bit more reasonable - about 200 for itouch and 100 for printer = $300 + $200 discount, which makes it seem like a much better deal.

I have also been considering an Asus UX laptop which should be coming out within the next few months which is a pretty good laptop, however the specs to the laptop are still based on rumors.

again, how inconvenient would it be to work around the applications that are not applicable to the mac os?

Is this computer worth ~500$?
Thinking about buying it... wanna know if its reliably fast, and can handle games. Is something like SC2 playable? On max settings?

Intel pentium p6100 processor
2.0ghz - 3mb l2 cache, dual core
4gb ddr3 640gb hdd
1gb nvidia geforce gt310m
15.6 widescreen lcd
dvd super-multi drive
wireless n
webcam
win 7, 5.81 lbs, 1 yr warrenty



I think its roughly similar to my old one, but not sure
Cheers!

Originally Posted by RyanC

Is this computer worth ~500$?
Thinking about buying it... wanna know if its reliably fast, and can handle games. Is something like SC2 playable? On max settings?

Intel pentium p6100 processor
2.0ghz - 3mb l2 cache, dual core
4gb ddr3 640gb hdd
1gb nvidia geforce gt310m
15.6 widescreen lcd
dvd super-multi drive
wireless n
webcam
win 7, 5.81 lbs, 1 yr warrenty



I think its roughly similar to my old one, but not sure
Cheers!

It certainly can't run SC2 on maximum settings.

Originally Posted by RyanC

Is this computer worth ~500$?
Thinking about buying it... wanna know if its reliably fast, and can handle games. Is something like SC2 playable? On max settings?

Intel pentium p6100 processor
2.0ghz - 3mb l2 cache, dual core
4gb ddr3 640gb hdd
1gb nvidia geforce gt310m
15.6 widescreen lcd
dvd super-multi drive
wireless n
webcam
win 7, 5.81 lbs, 1 yr warrenty



I think its roughly similar to my old one, but not sure
Cheers!

Thats a terrible choice for 500, the gt310 is a terrible integrated card. This is probably the best you could get at the price http://canadacomputers.com/product_i...em_id =039920. The card can max most games.

Originally Posted by Commie8507

Thats a terrible choice for 500, the gt310 is a terrible integrated card. This is probably the best you could get at the price http://canadacomputers.com/product_i...em_id =039920. The card can max most games.

I'm stuck with staples for my laptop purchase, unfortunately (probably) :(
(store credit)

You're gonna wanna get something that has long battery life. If you don't, you're gonna have a fun time looking for a place to charge your laptop come September.
Also, you aren't gonna have time to be playing computer games, so don't worry about getting a gaming laptop.