Originally Posted by shawarama

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?

That sounds fine dawg. The most you gonna need is a microsoft office and an internet browser. Youre not gonna be doing any super stuff that a supercomputer is needed lol.
Brands: HP, toshiba, etc....don't get acer they are $hitty

hmm well, im not sure if you like to play a lot of games or not, but you gotta consider that too. If you download games or buy some, you have to consider their size. Movies aren't the only things that are big, some games are HUGE. I remember when i got prince of persia, sands of time, it took up a lot of space...my brother somehow found a way to compress it or something, and made it smaller. I'm reallllly bad with tech stuff like that, so if you're not very techy or don't have that many tech friends, i would watch the hard drive. In any case, 320 GB should be fine =)

Note #2: If you are "gaming" on a laptop, you are REALLY doing something wrong. Waste of money and time. You will get this heavy as shit, piece of shit battery, for quadruple the price you could pay to build a desktop with the same specs.

srsly people. let's get with the times here. laptops are not gaming machines. they were never supposed to be. its like buying into apple but worse. they get to jack up the price for mediocre specs and make sure that if you run it for >30 minutes, you might as well gone to hell itself.

I will state, once again: buy a netbook. Get the accessories needed to make it into a desktop if thats your kinda thing. if you want to game, build a desktop and stop fooling yourself.

Originally Posted by dmzz

Note #2: If you are "gaming" on a laptop, you are REALLY doing something wrong. Waste of money and time. You will get this heavy as shit, piece of shit battery, for quadruple the price you could pay to build a desktop with the same specs.

srsly people. let's get with the times here. laptops are not gaming machines. they were never supposed to be. its like buying into apple but worse. they get to jack up the price for mediocre specs and make sure that if you run it for >30 minutes, you might as well gone to hell itself.

I will state, once again: buy a netbook. Get the accessories needed to make it into a desktop if thats your kinda thing. if you want to game, build a desktop and stop fooling yourself.

It's also better to get a gaming desktop because you can upgrade it, which you will need to do in order to stay up to date with system requirements.

yeah, I'm sorry for what I said before. I agree with the other's decisions. If you're a gamer, then go for a desktop. I'm not sure how much room you'll have in res for one though...esp. if you're getting a fridge, a fan, etc etc...but then again, i wouldn't know, I live off campus =P

Originally Posted by Qadd

yeah, I'm sorry for what I said before. I agree with the other's decisions. If you're a gamer, then go for a desktop. I'm not sure how much room you'll have in res for one though...esp. if you're getting a fridge, a fan, etc etc...but then again, i wouldn't know, I live off campus =P

A fridge wouldn't take up table top space though, and you can put your fan on your fridge. I used my fridge as a night stand. I think you can fit a desktop in every room. But you might lack space to work, but that's what study rooms are for. You could also just move your keyboard and mouse out of the way.

I'm going into Life Science as well and getting a laptop.

I'm going to be spending about $600. Try and keep your computer nice and organized and personally I wouldn't put too much on it. You're going to want to make sure it stays running perfectly throughout the next couple of school years.

I'll basically be using a laptop for internet, music and Microsoft word.

thanks everyone for the tips and advice
but i still want a fast comp that's reliable.....just because i have had bad experiences with slow comps before and don't wanna get stuck wid one for the next couple of years at uni
soo i think i'm gonna go with an asus that has those specs =)

Originally Posted by shawarama

thanks everyone for the tips and advice
but i still want a fast comp that's reliable.....just because i have had bad experiences with slow comps before and don't wanna get stuck wid one for the next couple of years at uni
soo i think i'm gonna go with an asus that has those specs =)

Just so you know, you should take care of your laptop and be smart when using it. That's the only way you'll keep your laptop running fast. I've had my laptop for over a year and it still performs the same as the day I opened the box. I know a lot of people whose laptops are slow as hell now.

Netbook
Only thing is the battery is kind of crappy. Trying to see if I can get mine replaced. It's supposed to last 3 hrs when fully charged and only lasts 1 hr and this netbook I bought in January of this year.
But other than that, I like them for the fact that they're super portable (small size, light-weight) and they are pretty fast. And yes they're good for internet and word.
I've got an acer aspire one.