hey everyone!

i've been lookin for a laptop to buy for 1st year life science, and am not really sure what i should get, and what brand to buy either? any suggestions
also are there any specific specs i should worry about having? as far as i've heard all 1st year life science students use basically word and internet

soo friends have told me to go for these specs:

4GB RAM
250 GB hard drive
2.4 GHZ i5 processor

do i really need these?

its a bit of overkill for what you're doing

well what would u recommend then?

well I mean its not like you're not gonna need anything super specific. but if you're gonna drop a good amount of money on a laptop then make sure the specs are good since you'll be wanting to use it for years, including personal usage outside of school

that depends how much are you willing to spend....cuz honestly you go just go with a base model of a macbook and you are good to go


I mean you could get a laptop with those specs and it will last you through most of uni

Base model of macbook is a waste of money compared to what better quality laptops you can get for the same price :\
I'm in life science and I just went for a 13. 3 inch toshiba, 4GBs of ram, 320 GB hdd, bluetooth, wifi and multitouch touchpad. all for just 649 at titles. it's called the t230 if you're interested.

Well for your program an i3 processor should be fine. 4GB ram is standard. Get a big hard drive if you are into movies and TV shows. a graphics card if you play games.

Originally Posted by KOKO

Well for your program an i3 processor should be fine. 4GB ram is standard. Get a big hard drive if you are into movies and TV shows. a graphics card if you play games.

You don't need a big hard drive unless you like re-watching. I personally delete all my tv shows once I watch them. As for the movies, I burn them since my family usually want to watch them too.

I never use more than 40GBs of hard drive space at any one point.

If you need more than enough space to store your OS and essential programs (browser, open office) then you are doing it wrong.

Laptops are the most unreliable things out there. Unless you have SSD for your hard drive, then you should expect that at any single point in time, your entire machine will crash.

Get a thumb drive, or a external drive (to leave at home) and store your shit on. You can easily do just fine with a 20 GB hard drive. Sync your files at the end of the night. Leave only the bare essentials on. This will not only make your laptop run 100X faster than anyone else's who has the same specs but is an idiot, but also protect you for when the inevitable happens.

Originally Posted by dmzz

If you need more than enough space to store your OS and essential programs (browser, open office) then you are doing it wrong.

Laptops are the most unreliable things out there. Unless you have SSD for your hard drive, then you should expect that at any single point in time, your entire machine will crash.

Get a thumb drive, or a external drive (to leave at home) and store your shit on. You can easily do just fine with a 20 GB hard drive. Sync your files at the end of the night. Leave only the bare essentials on. This will not only make your laptop run 100X faster than anyone else's who has the same specs but is an idiot, but also protect you for when the inevitable happens.

A thumb drive is also useful for putting portable applications in it. I put any programs I don't use everyday in my thumb drive. It makes the portable applications slower, but if you aren't using it everyday then a 2-3 seconds extra to boot the program doesn't mean much.

I also recommend when you get a new lappy, or a clean install, to ONLY install a program as you need it. Do not install anything than the absolute bear essentials.

I.e., first turn on. you install drivers. go on IE, download chrome or firefox. you are good to go. when you need it, download adobe flash. then, when needed, download a .pdf reader (non-adobe). you should be good to go from here. if you are insecure, download MSE (microsoft security essentials) and nothing else.

No bloaty programs, no crap. You will get the job done, just 100 X faster.

thanks guys for all the recommendations
by the sounds of it ...i don't need anything too fancy
but in terms of brands do u guys have any suggestions as to which one is more reliable? and what battery life would you recommend?

Brands don't mean much. There seems to be a rule that the more expensive you buy, the more reliable. I don't believe in that, but it should be mentioned. As for battery life, the average computer will be just fine. If you cannot find a place to charge in-between lectures (50 mins each), then there is a problem. A problem easily solved by buying a second battery for 50 bucks, and keeping it charged as a back up.

Or, just buy a netbook with 8 hours battery. It will do everything you need to do and more. Capitalist culture makes people think that you need the latest and greatest computer to do these simple rudimentary tasks like wordprocess and surf. You can go get a computer from over a decade ago which will do this absolutely fine.

Don't buy into the bullshit. Spend 300 bucks on a decent netbook, get a monitor, keyboard and mouse to plug into it when you're at home, and you effectively have a desktop.

http://eceplayground.com/2010/07/17/...are-some-tips/

any laptop is fine as you don't using any demanding programs in life science, just dont overspend and dont get a HP