Why are students buying 500 Euro laptops?

Irishchick

Id have been lucky to get away with buying a 500 euro laptop. I needed one for computer animation and it cost me 900.

I would never buy an Acer they are just too troublesome. If you buy a good laptop it will last years.

Saying that If you only have 300 go buy a cheaper one. It might get you through college until your working and can afford a better one. Only a might though.

NotInventedHere

Teutorix wrote: »

I do download alot of stuff, Im just not a plank that cant tell the difference between legit stuff and a virus. Also OSX has viruses too :rolleyes:

In 6 years I have never got one and I have a mac virus scanner

Teutorix

NotInventedHere wrote: »

In 6 years I have never got one and I have a mac virus scanner

in 6 years ive never gotten a windows one.

AlmightyCushion

NotInventedHere wrote: »

In 6 years I have never got one and I have a mac virus scanner

In the last 7 or 8 years I've only had a computer get one virus and that was one I deliberately installed to see what it would do (it was one of those ones that was doing the rounds on facebook) because I was going to format the pc to stick windows 7 on it. Common sense is more powerful than any piece of software.

28064212

ILA wrote: »

I suppose we could say that 2/10 have an iPhone, and maybe 150/4000 have a car

So nowhere even remotely close to "nearly every student" (and it's probably still over-estimated). And that's before you get to the fact that some of those with cars will be necessities (or at least, work out cheaper and easier than public transport). And the fact that many of the "luxuries" will be presents from other people that the student had no control over. And then you're left with a tiny, tiny number of students who have spent money on those things, and complain about living hand to mouth. So your argument actually applies to about 0.001% of students

Liamario

Teutorix wrote: »

My friends laptop cost €50 and has a 6 second boot time. :rolleyes:

€50 and a 6 second boot time.......
Bought from a reputable dealer no doubt.

Teutorix

Liamario wrote: »

€50 and a 6 second boot time.......
Bought from a reputable dealer no doubt.

Refurbished laptop from some company when they replaced all the company ones. Sold them off cheap.

starlit

Well hello! Duh! of course students should invest in a decent laptop. Just because the fees are hiked does not necessarily mean that a student should go without a decent laptop! No matter what course they are doing they need a laptop for general coursework. Obviously there are courses where students rely heavily on computers/laptops to complete their course/course work. Its probably going to be one of their biggest investment for a long term basis while they are in college. Why waste money on a cheap laptop where you can have spent a reasonable amount for a decent laptop that will last longer than a year and not have to undergo too many repairs says a lot about a laptop if you ask me!

I did the foolish thing and bought a Dell while I was in college yet pricey, it really broke my heart its so slow and has windows vista which made the laptop inoperateable! I am going to try and put windows 7 on it to see if it makes a difference but I know its the speed of the processor that is the real problem. If I were to decide on a laptop again I would go for a different model with a decent speedy processor or go with a mac due to security reasons. I currently have a netbook, and I found it great. I have had it a year and have had no trouble with it. Now it was a pain when I was trying to type code and stuff like that for course work but for the most part I enjoyed using it. The size was handy when traveling and when going in and out of college last year. The speed is great and working great now. I use it more than my laptop yet I still use the PC probably more sometimes. The netbook is excellent when it comes to browsing online and stuff like that and for general stuff too. I'd recommend it to anyone especially those who are commuting while working. The laptop would be a better investment for students though.

Wolfe Tone

snuggles285 wrote: »

Well hello! Duh! of course students should invest in a decent laptop. Just because the fees are hiked does not necessarily mean that a student should go without a decent laptop! No matter what course they are doing they need a laptop for general coursework. Obviously there are courses where students rely heavily on computers/laptops to complete their course/course work. Its probably going to be one of their biggest investment for a long term basis while they are in college. Why waste money on a cheap laptop where you can have spent a reasonable amount for a decent laptop that will last longer than a year and not have to undergo too many repairs says a lot about a laptop if you ask me!

I did the foolish thing and bought a Dell while I was in college yet pricey, it really broke my heart its so slow and has windows vista which made the laptop inoperateable! I am going to try and put windows 7 on it to see if it makes a difference but I know its the speed of the processor that is the real problem. If I were to decide on a laptop again I would go for a different model with a decent speedy processor or go with a mac due to security reasons. I currently have a netbook, and I found it great. I have had it a year and have had no trouble with it. Now it was a pain when I was trying to type code and stuff like that for course work but for the most part I enjoyed using it. The size was handy when traveling and when going in and out of college last year. The speed is great and working great now. I use it more than my laptop yet I still use the PC probably more sometimes. The netbook is excellent when it comes to browsing online and stuff like that and for general stuff too. I'd recommend it to anyone especially those who are commuting while working. The laptop would be a better investment for students though.

Windows 7 will improve it, it did for me. However my harddrive then broke, and when I got a new one I installed XP on it. Far superior.

Teutorix

snuggles285 wrote: »

I am going to try and put windows 7 on it to see if it makes a difference

Get XP, the only advantage 7 has is DX10 for gaming. XP will give you much better performance.

marco_polo

Liamario wrote: »

€50 and a 6 second boot time.......
Bought from a reputable dealer no doubt.

Considering a i7 Desktop, with a top of the range Solid state drive, costing the bones of a grand would need at least 15-20 Seconds to cold boot Windows 7, it sounds like some bargain alright.

novarock

ILA wrote: »

I recently got a new Acer Aspire One netbook for €300 Euro, over the option of a perfect refurbished laptop from a good supplier for €170 Euro which would more than do the work and leisure use they claim to want.

The Aspire one is not suitable for an awful lot of stuff that involves any processing power whatsoever. I have one myslef, its literally good for surfing the web, watching movies on etc.. Its too small to work on comfortably for any period of time. Also, 500 is not exactly 'high end' Its entry level for a laptop that would be capable of anything above what a netbook can do.

I bought my first laptop from a scholarship (not a grant) in 2003. It cost me the guts of 2,000 euro, but i wanted to make sure that it would last til the end of college. It did, it still works perfectly, and it is probably as fast as any netbook. There is nothing wrong with wanting to pay for quality to make sure that it lasts.

Also, that 6 second boot is just not true. With a SSD you would barely manage 25 seconds. The SSD alone would cost more than your netbook.

Fuhrer

ILA wrote: »

Often the same students protest against fees and claim they can't afford course materials, but where the hell are they getting €500+ for high end laptops?

They need those laptops to finish their course in Journalism and write for the Times

starlit

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Windows 7 will improve it, it did for me. However my harddrive then broke, and when I got a new one I installed XP on it. Far superior.

I have XP on my netbook and my PC and have found XP to be the best Windows operating system I have ever came across over my years of computer useage.

Teutorix wrote: »

Get XP, the only advantage 7 has is DX10 for gaming. XP will give you much better performance.

Unsure if I be able to downgrade to XP from Vista? Uncertain if they have any downloads for it or even allow me to download or get XP cause I think that operating system has expired? Read it somewhere that they stopped selling XP software last year after a certain date.

smash

OP you know a netbook is not a notebook don't you? They're pretty useless to actually work on!

Wolfe Tone

snuggles285 wrote: »

I have XP on my netbook and my PC and have found XP to be the best Windows operating system I have ever came across over my years of computer useage.



Unsure if I be able to downgrade to XP from Vista? Uncertain if they have any downloads for it or even allow me to download or get XP cause I think that operating system has expired? Read it somewhere that they stopped selling XP software last year after a certain date.

You cannot downgrade. If you are prepared to wipe your HD, or at least partition it, it is a doddle to install xp.

AlmightyCushion

snuggles285 wrote: »

I have XP on my netbook and my PC and have found XP to be the best Windows operating system I have ever came across over my years of computer useage.

When run on a computer with specs that will run them properly vista and 7 are brilliant operating systems. XP was great for it's time but 7 and vista are so much better. I hate going back to XP now.

Wolfe Tone

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

When run on a computer with specs that will run them properly vista and 7 are brilliant operating systems. XP was great for it's time but 7 and vista are so much better. I hate going back to XP now.

Vista! Great? Oh dear.


Windows 7 is good though.

smash

Vista is completely useless. Even with admin rights you have to agree to everything. It's always been a pain in the ass to use.

mike tv . sports

true colleges are full of computers- but there are certain things you're not allow to access in college:D

yoyo

Teutorix wrote: »

Get XP, the only advantage 7 has is DX10 for gaming. XP will give you much better performance.

Windows 7 is also more secure, stable (over XP for me anyways I've found), runs as fast as XP (actually faster) on my old crappy Dell and it has better support more than likely for the laptop if it is a upgrade from vista (usually these laptops that come with Vista dont have XP drivers so you will have to go off hunting & hope for the best), Windows 7 is superior to XP and I really cannot understand people suggesting loading XP on a new machine, also it would be more difficult (and probably more expensive) to get XP legally over 7 these days, as microsoft no longer ship it

Nick

AlmightyCushion

MUSSOLINI wrote: »

Vista! Great? Oh dear.


Windows 7 is good though.

When it was released it was put on crap computers that could barely run it, driver support was crap as well and it had some speed issues. The latter two problems were sorted over time (apart from creative being assholes and ****ing over all their customers who spent a lot of money on sound cards from them) and when put on a half decent pc it ran fine and brought some great features to the table.

Teutorix

snuggles285 wrote: »

I have XP on my netbook and my PC and have found XP to be the best Windows operating system I have ever came across over my years of computer useage.



Unsure if I be able to downgrade to XP from Vista? Uncertain if they have any downloads for it or even allow me to download or get XP cause I think that operating system has expired? Read it somewhere that they stopped selling XP software last year after a certain date.

You can download it illegally but i cant tell you where because boards dosent want to get sued

Also you would possibly need to install it on a clean partition, just back up your files first.

smash

yoyo wrote: »

also it would be more difficult (and probably more expensive) to get XP legally over 7 these days, as microsoft no longer ship it

Ebay - very cheap. I've bought a few Discs with licenses for as little as €10.

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

When it was released it was put on crap computers that could barely run it, driver support was crap as well and it had some speed issues.

4gb of ram, 1gb graphics card, 1bg physx card, 500gb HD, top of the range processor... That was the spec of my machine when I bought it a few years ago for 4k - Vista still didn't work on it.

Teutorix

steve06 wrote: »

Vista is completely useless. Even with admin rights you have to agree to everything. It's always been a pain in the ass to use.

To have full admin rights you need to enable the system admin account through command prompt.

Wolfe Tone

You can also download a completely stripped down version of XP, runs super quick.

smash

Teutorix wrote: »

To have full admin rights you need to enable the system admin account through command prompt.

Which was done.

yoyo

steve06 wrote: »

Ebay - very cheap. I've bought a few Discs with licenses for as little as €10.

As a rule of thumb I'd reccomend avoiding ebay for software licenses, some are MSDN subscriptions which are rendered useless once the MSDN sub their tied to is expired, also you cannot be sure they are legit except only if the holographic license sticker is shipped out to you, and in most cases this wont happen, I've heard of people getting stung using ebay for cheap software, theres usually a reason its that cheap

Nick

Teutorix

steve06 wrote: »

Which was done.

Really? i did it on my friends vista laptop and didnt have to confirm anything. There is a difference between administrator privileges on a normal account and the actual administrator account which is hidden from normal users.

smash

yoyo wrote: »

As a rule of thumb I'd reccomend avoiding ebay for software licenses, some are MSDN subscriptions which are rendered useless once the MSDN sub their tied to is expired, also you cannot be sure they are legit except only if the holographic license sticker is shipped out to you, and in most cases this wont happen, I've heard of people getting stung using ebay for cheap software, theres usually a reason its that cheap

Nick

I did get the holographic license stickers. I made sure of this before I bought them. They were being sold by a company who purchased PC's with XP, but had site licenses already.

Teutorix wrote: »

Really? i did it on my friends vista laptop and didnt have to confirm anything. There is a difference between administrator privileges on a normal account and the actual administrator account which is hidden from normal users.

I know that, but I had my account set as an admin account. But even apart from the admin stuff it was just an awful system to use.

KilOit

Teutorix wrote: »

My friends laptop cost €50 and has a 6 second boot time. :rolleyes:

Really love to know the specs on that because my PC has the latest SSD in it with windows 7 and it takes 15 seconds from the moment i hit the power button.

Will

€500 laptops are around midrange, any lower and you will be waiting until exam time for it to load, any faster and it will most likely be wasted on you unless you are using intensive programs for course work. Also porn looks better on big screens.

starlit

KilOit wrote: »

Really love to know the specs on that because my PC has the latest SSD in it with windows 7 and it takes 15 seconds from the moment i hit the power button.

cool!

Liamario

Teutorix wrote: »

Refurbished laptop from some company when they replaced all the company ones. Sold them off cheap.

That's fair enough, but it's not really an option for every student.

Teutorix

KilOit wrote: »

Really love to know the specs on that because my PC has the latest SSD in it with windows 7 and it takes 15 seconds from the moment i hit the power button.

Maybe he dosent know the difference between a boot up and waking it from sleep mode. Thats what he told me anyway. Its still a decently fast machine.

Will wrote: »

Also porn looks better on big screens.

Hardly, higher res = seeing all the imperfections

AlmightyCushion

steve06 wrote: »

4gb of ram, 1gb graphics card, 1bg physx card, 500gb HD, top of the range processor... That was the spec of my machine when I bought it a few years ago for 4k - Vista still didn't work on it.

It runs fine on my mums and my sisters laptop which had 2GBs, amd dual core (not sure of the exact model but it's about 3 years old), ati integrated graphics. Ran fine on my laptop as well which had a T7200 core 2 duo, 3GBs ram and 7900GT graphics as well.

yoyo

steve06 wrote: »

I did get the holographic license stickers. I made sure of this before I bought them. They were being sold by a company who purchased PC's with XP, but had site licenses already.


I know that, but I had my account set as an admin account.

Funnily enough I'd wonder the legalities of them selling you these, as I thought once a cd key on OEM software is installed on a machine its tied to that machine, regardless of whether a new install with a different OS/License is made, if the copies of XP that came with the pcs weren't factory installed, thats different

Nick

AlmightyCushion

steve06 wrote: »

I did get the holographic license stickers. I made sure of this before I bought them. They were being sold by a company who purchased PC's with XP, but had site licenses already.

The licenses that are used on those computers are usually tied to those computers. While you can sometimes move them to another computer it is a breach of the license agreement and it could stop working for you, holographic sticker or not.

Edit: yoyo bet me to it.

marco_polo

Teutorix wrote: »

Really? i did it on my friends vista laptop and didnt have to confirm anything. There is a difference between administrator privileges on a normal account and the actual administrator account which is hidden from normal users.

When UAC even Administrator accounts runs by default with standard privileges and prompt for elevated permissions, unless 'Admin Approval Mode' is disabled.

Same on Win 7 and Vista as I recall.

starlit

Once its an intel pentium, core or atom type of processor your sorted once its not AMD !

smash

There are also companies who buy a PC and upgrade the operating system on first boot. So the license has never actually been registered.

There's loads of Vista licenses and upgrades lying around the office here because everyone is on XP.

Teutorix

snuggles285 wrote: »

Once its an intel pentium, core or atom type of processor your sorted once its not AMD !

whys that? my 6 year old desktop is on an athlon 64 and runs beautifully.

AlmightyCushion

snuggles285 wrote: »

Once its an intel pentium, core or atom type of processor your sorted once its not AMD !

An atom would be much slower than the vast majority of amd processors on the market (not too sure how the atom compares to the amd neo, I think the neo performs better though).

yoyo

snuggles285 wrote: »

Once its an intel pentium, core or atom type of processor your sorted once its not AMD !

What you basing this on? There is nothing wrong with AMD chips in fact I was helping someone the other day buy a laptop and we went with the AMD Turion one as it was cheaper than the intel ones, The performance is as good from the AMD chips as the Intel ones, but if you want to avoid certain types of chips that would be Intels Celeron line or AMDs Sempron line, these are usually rubbish, regardless how cheap they are its better go with the pentium

Nick

Teutorix

yoyo wrote: »

What you basing this on? There is nothing wrong with AMD chips in fact I was helping someone the other day buy a laptop and we went with the AMD Turion one as it was cheaper than the intel ones, The performance is as good from the AMD chips as the Intel ones, but if you want to avoid certain types of chips that would be Intels Celeron line or AMDs Sempron line, these are usually rubbish, regardless how cheap they are its better go with the pentium

Nick

I was looking at CPUs and noticed all the AMD equivalents are much cheaper than intel ones. Am i looking in the wrong places or is this a global trend?

AlmightyCushion

Teutorix wrote: »

whys that? my 6 year old desktop is on an athlon 64 and runs beautifully.

The athlon 64s were beasts in their day. They blew anything intel had out of the water. The newer AMDs can't compete with intel in the uber high end but everywhere else they give great value for money.

yoyo

Teutorix wrote: »

I was looking at CPUs and noticed all the AMD equivalents are much cheaper than intel ones. Am i looking in the wrong places or is this a global trend?

They probably are cheaper, especially as this machine had a extra gig of ram than the intel pentium equivalent, 50 euro less and I tryed it the performance is fine, it scored high enough in the windows 7 performance indexing also, would suggest to me that AMD chips are grand and should not be avoided at all costs like the other poster said, also I build allot of PCs and always generally go Intel, not a AMD fanboy at all but making a point

Nick

AlmightyCushion

Teutorix wrote: »

I was looking at CPUs and noticed all the AMD equivalents are much cheaper than intel ones. Am i looking in the wrong places or is this a global trend?

It's a global trend as far as I know. If you want the best money can buy you'd be sticking with intel and paying about €1000 for it too (at least in the desktop chips). In every segment AMD operate in they usually offer great value for money. Their mobile chips have been lacking compared to intel in recent years but their latest mobile chips have improved a lot.

marco_polo

Teutorix wrote: »

I was looking at CPUs and noticed all the AMD equivalents are much cheaper than intel ones. Am i looking in the wrong places or is this a global trend?

While Intel tend to dominate the performance charts at the high end, usually AMD chip will offer better of value for money. (The i5 range would be a notable exception)

Teutorix

Any news on oct-core processors coming to the mainstream? those will probably cost an arm and a leg.

Also the nerd level in this thread is rapidly soaring :cool: