Why are students buying 500 Euro laptops?

AlmightyCushion

Teutorix wrote: »

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:

It'll be another while yet I imagine seeing as 6 core processors only got release months ago. When amd released their 6 core cpus they started off at about €200-300 so not exactly arm and a leg price. Hopefully it will be the same for the 8 core cpus.

Teutorix

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

It'll be another while yet I imagine seeing as 6 core processors only got release months ago. When amd released their 6 core cpus they started off at about €200-300 so not exactly arm and a leg price. Hopefully it will be the same for the 8 core cpus.

At this rate I'll be using a 56 core PC by the time im 40, the chips can only get so much smaller they are already near the atomic scale. so PCs are probably going to get alot bigger.

marco_polo

Teutorix wrote: »

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:

The upcoming year is very exciting one for nerds.

http://www.geek.com/articles/chips/amd-unveils-three-new-chips-8-core-bulldozer-atom-busting-bobcat-and-llano-soc-20100824/

AlmightyCushion

Teutorix wrote: »

At this rate I'll be using a 56 core PC by the time im 40, the chips can only get so much smaller they are already near the atomic scale. so PCs are probably going to get alot bigger.

I think intel are at 40nm and moving to 32nm and amd are at 65nm and moving to 40nm. I could be wrong though. Apparently, intel see no real problems getting it down to 11nm so we have some die shrinks left to keep us going for a few years. After 11nm I don't know what will happen. One way or another we'll figure out a way to keep processor performance increasing.

Copper23

I agree OP.

When i was in college myself I worked a massive amount of hours of top of college work to be able to afford such things. If someone is and has that amount of money to spare then fair play I guess for putting in such hard work.

Having said that I never bought a laptop for college in all my time there. My college had what felt like 3 million computers and most colleges are going to be the same so I never understand the "college work" arguement.

If Anything college work would constitute only the most basic of laptop on the market. Low specs, a word processor and internet connectivity is standard and requires very little back end power.

It's not just students though. I've read similar threads of people who use it just to stalk facebook and crap and buying computers amounting to almost 2 grand, especially when you'd think they'd have other bills and responsibilities which would require the money much more. Fair play to them to be able to afford it but I'd probably shudder if I knew where the money actually comes from (government benefits spongers thread this way -->)

In fairness, if you'd much a life anyway I don't see what you'd need a 2k computer for unless you are a serious technical researcher or something. Other than that give me a break. Just snobbery.

Teutorix

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

I think intel are at 40nm and moving to 32nm and amd are at 65nm and moving to 40nm. I could be wrong though. Apparently, intel see no real problems getting it down to 11nm so we have some die shrinks left to keep us going for a few years. After 11nm I don't know what will happen. One way or another we'll figure out a way to keep processor performance increasing.

We will have to create mini atoms to build anything much smaller

starlit

Teutorix wrote: »

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

AlmightyCushion wrote: »

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).

I understand what you mean that atom might be slightly slower than other processors but I find it speedy enough on my netbook! Now in all fairness the pentium series are by far the best really for laptops and PC's.

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 am basing this on my sloooow-www Dell Inspiron laptop with AMD Mobile Sempron processor which has windows vista! Catch my drift!

Teutorix

snuggles285 wrote: »

I understand what you mean that atom might be slightly slower than other processors but I find it speedy enough on my netbook! Now in all fairness the pentium series are by far the best really for laptops and PC's.




I am basing this on my sloooow-www Dell Inspiron laptop with AMD Mobile Sempron processor which has windows vista!

Pentium? im sure they were discontinued a while ago, I7 is the top of the range processor for consumers these days. Also semperon CPUs are gick.

AlmightyCushion

snuggles285 wrote: »

I understand what you mean that atom might be slightly slower than other processors but I find it speedy enough on my netbook! Now in all fairness the pentium series are by far the best really for laptops and PC's.

Well the pentiums have actually been relegated to the lower end processors (celeron and atom would still be below it). With intel the core i3, core i5 and core i7s would be the mid to higher end processors in that order.

snuggles285 wrote: »

I am basing this on my sloooow-www Dell Inspiron laptop with AMD Mobile Sempron processor which has windows vista!

The older semprons were a dog of a processor. If it had xp it wouldn't be too bad but not vista.

yoyo

snuggles285 wrote: »

I am basing this on my sloooow-www Dell Inspiron laptop with AMD Mobile Sempron processor which has windows vista! Catch my drift!

Intels Celerons are not much of an improvement

Nick

starlit

Teutorix wrote: »

Pentium? im sure they were discontinued a while ago, I7 is the top of the range processor for consumers these days. Also semperon CPUs are gick.

My PC is 6 years old it has pentium 4. I just find any of the intel ones are fairly good. Semperon CPU's are gick which is?

starlit

Mac or PC that is the question?!


Most powerful processor in this world is?

Teutorix

snuggles285 wrote: »

My PC is 6 years old it has pentium 4. I just find any of the intel ones are fairly good. Semperon CPU's are gick which is?

Gick = shít

snuggles285 wrote: »

Mac or PC that is the question?!


Most powerful processor in this world is?

Cray XT5, will probably cost you a few billion euro though, and you will need a warehouse to put it in.

stepbar

My first laptop cost me 500 pounds 10 years ago. Probably dodgy as hell. But I didn't ask too many questions. I think I made a small loss on it 4 years later. I sold it to a well enough known writer and dj who knew no different. The second one cost me 1600 eur 6 years ago. I still have the piece of ****. How did I afford both? I saved for it like most people would. On both occasions I was a student and all. I didn't get a hand out either. 1600 at the time as a massive amount of money. 500 eur is pittance compared to 1600 eur. I don't see what the problem is.

stovelid

Mine cost 700. And I tipped the girl 50 cos I'm a flash bastard, me.

Lemsiper

Teutorix wrote: »

Because people are fecking idiots.

If all you need it for is facebook and college work you could buy one for €50

You can build a gaming PC for €500 for gods sake.

Any chance you could price up a gaming laptop for €500? As that's what the subject is on.

Kimono-Girl

stovelid wrote: »

Mine cost 700. And I tipped the girl 50 cos I'm a flash bastard, me.

mine cost €1,149 (cause it was a mac;)) And I tipped the girl €100 cos I'm a flash bastard*, too


*and she was a penniless student!

Bottle_of_Smoke

Bought a laptop for 1100 in 2005 from dell. could have got one for about 900 but i used to play games. still working well but def think id go for a 300eoro option when replacing. good point about the fee protesting op

phasers

I built my laptop with paperclips, newspaper and bubblegum, does me fine.

Kids these days are spoilt.

ptwitb

Open your eyes guys they're getting the grant only half of the maintenance grant is needed for rent/food/transport everyone knows that! And in this recesion the government is still giving out free money :mad:

flash1080

From my experience as an Engineering student,

1. You do not need a laptop for a college course, they have computers in college

2. If you decide to get a laptop you don't need to spend a lot of money. I know someone who ran 3D CAD programs on a cheap netbook without any problems.



Maybe other colleges are different and have no computers for their students, I doubt it.

Teutorix

flash1080 wrote: »

Maybe other colleges are different and have no computers for their students, I doubt it.

The universities all have plenty of computers from what I know. Im sure the ITs and other colleges have too.

OutlawPete

I battered my laptop last night as I thought it was fcuked.

Cursed it from a height I did, as when pressed some of the letter keys ..

.. I got got symbols and numbers instead, turns out the number lock key was on!

Boy did I laugh and the laptop laughed too .. we're friends again now.

AlmightyCushion

In my college they have lots of computers but getting one that was free during the day was impossible. After 6 it was grand though. Still having access to your own computer is very handy.

starlit

flash1080 wrote: »

From my experience as an Engineering student,

1. You do not need a laptop for a college course, they have computers in college

2. If you decide to get a laptop you don't need to spend a lot of money. I know someone who ran 3D CAD programs on a cheap netbook without any problems.



Maybe other colleges are different and have no computers for their students, I doubt it.

Open your eyes man, what if the computers in the college keep breaking down, what if the timetabled hours for labs are used up and students have to go into them especially at ungoddly hours and outrageous hours just to get into the labs cause they are free at a certain time! Some students like the comfort and convenience of having their own laptop to be able to do their college work in their own time, they don't have to excuse themselves during the weekend to just pop into college to do college work, the stress of it is hard enough, at least you can take breaks when you are in your own home to do the college work.

I was fit the tear my hair out when I had to be stuck doing college work on the college computers. I was fit to be tide now of course you get your work done when in college say but don't feel the need to do it when you get home fair enough but I was the opposite no matter what kind of work I got done on the college laptops I still felt the need to do more work when I got home whether I lived away from home or not and even when I had to commute or not! Have experienced both, the joy of being able to spend the time at home to do the work for as long as you like as late as you like was a joy than the stress of doing it in the college where there was strict times when the labs opened and closed!

Scuid Mhór

ILA wrote: »

Every time I come on Boards and look in the computer related forums, there's college students looking for advice on laptops to buy for "college work" and surfing the internet. Every thread posted they're looking for €500+ laptops

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.

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?

Is there someone giving free money out again? I thought Anglo had stopped lending!

hey guys, maybe we should start a petition to rename this guy 'mr. jealous'.

Scuid Mhór

snuggles285 wrote: »

Open your eyes man, what if the computers in the college keep breaking down, what if the timetabled hours for labs are used up and students have to go into them especially at ungoddly hours and outrageous hours just to get into the labs cause they are free at a certain time!

OPEN YOUR EYES MAN

hahahahaha aw snuggles you best keep it real.

Long Term Louth

Where is the evidence to support the calims students are paying €500 +, I would imagine its a minority, I attend University and there are very few laptops visible. Students tend to use the computers on site.

ILA

ILA wrote: »

€300 is the most I've spent in life for any item so far, and that was for a netbook last week.

You have never spent over 300 euro? What about holidays? Fees for education? etc?

Teutorix

Deleted User wrote: »

You have never spent over 300 euro? What about holidays? Fees for education? etc?

''item'' would be the key word, i assume he isnt counting services.

Mark200

flash1080 wrote: »

From my experience as an Engineering student,

1. You do not need a laptop for a college course, they have computers in college

2. If you decide to get a laptop you don't need to spend a lot of money. I know someone who ran 3D CAD programs on a cheap netbook without any problems.



Maybe other colleges are different and have no computers for their students, I doubt it.

My college has computers but it's far far easier to have a laptop.

phasers

ptwitb wrote: »

Open your eyes guys they're getting the grant only half of the maintenance grant is needed for rent/food/transport everyone knows that! And in this recesion the government is still giving out free money :mad:

You think €1300 is enough money for rent/food/transport?

flash1080

snuggles285 wrote: »

Open your eyes man, what if the computers in the college keep breaking down, what if the timetabled hours for labs are used up and students have to go into them especially at ungoddly hours and outrageous hours just to get into the labs cause they are free at a certain time! Some students like the comfort and convenience of having their own laptop to be able to do their college work in their own time, they don't have to excuse themselves during the weekend to just pop into college to do college work, the stress of it is hard enough, at least you can take breaks when you are in your own home to do the college work.

I was fit the tear my hair out when I had to be stuck doing college work on the college computers. I was fit to be tide now of course you get your work done when in college say but don't feel the need to do it when you get home fair enough but I was the opposite no matter what kind of work I got done on the college laptops I still felt the need to do more work when I got home whether I lived away from home or not and even when I had to commute or not! Have experienced both, the joy of being able to spend the time at home to do the work for as long as you like as late as you like was a joy than the stress of doing it in the college where there was strict times when the labs opened and closed!

My eyes are wide open. The computers in my college work just fine, we've got brand new computers and monitors now even though the old ones worked fine. We have 3 comp labs in my department, plus open access, plus we could go to another department if we were really stuck (although we've never needed to do that). If you get your work done during the week you don't have to go in at the weekend, but there's plenty of college work that you don't need a laptop for. Don't be getting so stressed out over it.

Scuid Mhór wrote: »

hey guys, maybe we should start a petition to rename this guy 'mr. jealous'.

He's simply pointing out how some people waste money.

flash1080

Mark200 wrote: »

My college has computers but it's far far easier to have a laptop.

I prefer going to the comp labs in my department. The computers there have all the software I could possibly need installed on them.

Copper23

Wow.... That was pretty condescending.

tman

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?

This might just be me, but I wouldn't consider any laptop that only costs €500 to be "high end"
Can you even get one with an i3/i5 processor for that much? Even then it would be an entry level processor.

Students can be stupid ****ers considering they're supposed to be clever! For the majority of course work, a €300 laptop would do the job nicely.

Mark200

flash1080 wrote: »

I prefer going to the comp labs in my department. The computers there have all the software I could possibly need installed on them.

Ok, but a huge amount of people don't. Especially when it's far easier to get work done in a quiet environment than a noisy computer room.

Wagon

Teutorix wrote: »

You can build a gaming PC for €500 for gods sake.

Yeah but it'd be shíte.

kirving

I wouldnt say €500+ is much to spend on a laptop at all, it's definatly high end territory at all! (Sure my home computer without any peripherals was 1200, and thats getting towards high-end)

And a netbook running 3D CAD? Not a chance I'd have the patience, SolidWorks/SolidEdge is slow enough on the college computers.

I hate all laptops though, except about 5.(XPS 13'', HP 14'', Current Alienware 15'' to name a few...)
Instead of spending my money on a crap laptop and crap PC as a lot of people do, I got a lovely Dell XPS :-)

Setun

ILA wrote: »

I'm there right now.

Well best of luck with the netbook then

Noodleworm

I for know a lot about computers , you'll want a good one.
Ill admit, facebook and typing assignments only needs a cheap laptop.

I've spent most my savings on computers but I can justify it. I built my desktop myself and intent to be using it for the next 5-6 years as Ive put the money into it so It won't become outdated any time soon.
I want it to be able to game, but also sound/video editing require a good pc, as does 3d work, image editing, etc. All of which I do in my college course and intent to do as a career choice.

I bought a mac for both its battery, long life as I type all my notes and compatibility with certain software I use for college. It can also run games fine despite my old laptop with the same specs not having anything even close to playable.

I bought a cheap laptop when I started college and I wish I hadn't and had gone for a mac back then. Ive since given my old laptop to my parents, who are fine with its for simple internet use.

Teutorix

Wagon wrote: »

Yeah but it'd be shíte.

No it wouldn't, you would be surprised at how much value for money you get when you buy the parts yourself.

RoadKillTs

Back in my day ya would be lucky if ya could afford a few bob for a calculator!!

titan18

€500 ain't that much for a laptop.Sure, you could get a netbook, but a lot of people hate netbooks.I certainly couldn't code on a screen that size anyway.I paid €900 for mine 2 years ago and I wouldn't exactly say it was high-end at the time.

marco_polo

Wagon wrote: »

Yeah but it'd be shíte.

He did say build not buy.

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=68390706&postcount=589

MIN2511

Hmm..... I don't see the huff... In first year of college a decent laptop for an IT student was at least €1000!

Stupidly Naked

Because your gonna need to dole out that money to meet the Starcraft 2 specs!!!!

Kimono-Girl

MIN2511 wrote: »

Hmm..... I don't see the huff... In first year of college a decent laptop for an IT student was at least €1000!

BUT if they are an IT student shouldn't they be able to build a better computer for cheaper?

Teutorix

candlelover wrote: »

BUT if they are an IT student shouldn't they be able to build a better computer for cheaper?

Most people who go to college doing IT/computer science are pretty clueless about computers. Explains the high dropout rates.

Nulty

I'm one of those people who posted in the laptops forum and yes, I need a very good laptop because:

a) It will be future proof to an extent

b) I eventually (6 months fingers crossed) plan to move out of my house and need a PC

c) I'm in a Web Technologies course and will become a web developer


i.e. I need an expensive laptop.

I can't afford it right now but with the help of the aforementioned "theory of saving" I will be able to afford it eventually.