Laptop for College

[B-29 Bomber]

I need a laptop for college and some light gaming and when I mean light I mean light. At best I'll only have Age of Empires III and Civ 3 on said laptop. My budget is $300-$350. I know that does leave much to be desired but there are reasons. Important reasons.

Spoiler :

Like I'm poor

Here is Laptop that fits my budget:

Link

 

[Maniacal]

Why do you need a laptop for college? I RARELY ever used mine,

 

[GenMarshall]

Why do you need a laptop for college? I RARELY ever used mine,

This, the only thing that I have used recently is a tablet computer. I don't see much use of carrying around a laptop.

 

[B-29 Bomber]

I'm getting into computer programing and everyone I've asked and every article on the web I've read said getting a laptop for college is a smart thing to do. Not only that but the point of this thread is not to decide on if the merits of having a laptop for college out weigh the cons: I have already decided on that. The point of this thread is to decide on what laptop is best for this purpose. And good god don't give me a link to a netbook. In my opinion they're extremely over rated. What is their main purpose? Internet and e-mail. You might as well get a smartphone and it'll save a bunch of space. And hey you'll also have the additional bonus of an actual phone.

Sorry if I seemed rude, I didn't make myself perfectly clear in the opening post and that was my bad. I do tend to get carried away sometimes. I've been on other forums and if you aren't firm then they'll eat you alive!

I looked at Apple laptops earlier today for the above linked laptop's opposite number. Oh my god! They wanted nearly 3 times the price for one! It was also refurbished! And that was on the cheap side. So.............. no Macs. They're not very cost effective! Maybe that's why most people own PCs and not Macs. and the ones who do own Macs own them because they almost religiously follow Steve Jobs' every beck and call. Or are schools and corporations who can afford to by in bulk and therefore get a discount. The latter are Apple's biggest customers because of that.

 

[Maniacal]

Don't worry, you can be as pants on head here as you want to be and anyone who tries to bug you for it will get tackled by a moderator.

Anyway, yeah Macs are very overpriced, if you want a cheap laptop don't get a mac. With your price range you probably;y won't get a real graphics card, just an intel one. I don't know how well that runs games like AoEIII but it should run most older games (results vary).

 

[Quintillus]

That's about as good as you can expect at that price range. Most manufacturers start laptops at around $400 new, so the pickings at this point are slim. Good idea to look at refurbished.

I did find a couple new Acer laptops in your price range: 15.6 inch and 14 inch, for $328/$330, respectively. They're pretty much identical except the screen size and weight. They have better graphics, but the processors are roughly half the speed of the Toshiba's processor. They should use less power, though, so the battery life is probably better. And you'd get a one year warranty instead of 90 days, which could be useful as the reliability in this price range isn't very good. Acer's a bit worse than Toshiba in reliability, but I reckon four times the warranty cancels that out.

You won't be able to find an Apple, Sony, or Lenovo in that price range unless it's several years old and used, so I wouldn't bother looking for them. The Dell Outlet occasionally has laptops in that price range; what I found there tonight was not as good a deal spec-wise as the Toshiba you found, but on the other hand they give 1 year warranty on their refurbs instead of 90 days. There may be something else out there, too, but I can't think of any more likely models off the top of my head.

 

[Narnia]

Sorry if I seemed rude, I didn't make myself perfectly clear in the opening post and that was my bad. I do tend to get carried away sometimes. I've been on other forums and if you aren't firm then they'll eat you alive!

We here are generally very polite. You don't have to worry about that.

 

[reddishrecue]

You call AOEIII light gaming? My P4 back then couldnt take an AOEIII before but the newer models could probably take AOEIII now since then since AOEIII is concidered light. They got smaller laptop models at the local shops and that AMD model link you got seems like a good choice.

 

[civ_king]

I need a laptop for college and some light gaming and when I mean light I mean light. At best I'll only have Age of Empires III and Civ 3 on said laptop. My budget is $300-$350. I know that does leave much to be desired but there are reasons. Important reasons.

Spoiler :

Like I'm poor

Here is Laptop that fits my budget:

Link

Get something with Brazos, it is designed for netbookish computers but the graphics pwn Atom

 

[B-29 Bomber]

We here are generally very polite. You don't have to worry about that.

Yeah it's pretty much habit. Sadly, while in general your right, I have run into some rude people here. So yeah habit is a real pain...

 

[B-29 Bomber]

That's about as good as you can expect at that price range. Most manufacturers start laptops at around $400 new, so the pickings at this point are slim. Good idea to look at refurbished.

I did find a couple new Acer laptops in your price range: 15.6 inch and 14 inch, for $328/$330, respectively. They're pretty much identical except the screen size and weight. They have better graphics, but the processors are roughly half the speed of the Toshiba's processor. They should use less power, though, so the battery life is probably better. And you'd get a one year warranty instead of 90 days, which could be useful as the reliability in this price range isn't very good. Acer's a bit worse than Toshiba in reliability, but I reckon four times the warranty cancels that out.

You won't be able to find an Apple, Sony, or Lenovo in that price range unless it's several years old and used, so I wouldn't bother looking for them. The Dell Outlet occasionally has laptops in that price range; what I found there tonight was not as good a deal spec-wise as the Toshiba you found, but on the other hand they give 1 year warranty on their refurbs instead of 90 days. There may be something else out there, too, but I can't think of any more likely models off the top of my head.

Sadly I have a 4gb RAM and 320gb HDD minimum. I have gone on that website and I've determined that they're not worth my time and money. I do have one announcement: I've gotten a budget increase! now I'm up to $300-450!

 

[civ_king]

Sadly I have a 4gb RAM and 320gb HDD minimum. I have gone on that website and I've determined that they're not worth my time and money. I do have one announcement: I've gotten a budget increase! now I'm up to $300-450!

Can you squeeze to $480?

4GB DDR3
500GB
A4-3300M 1.9GHz
15.6"

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834101253

 

[GoodGame]

I need a laptop for college and some light gaming and when I mean light I mean light. At best I'll only have Age of Empires III and Civ 3 on said laptop. My budget is $300-$350. I know that does leave much to be desired but there are reasons. Important reasons.

Spoiler :

Like I'm poor

Here is Laptop that fits my budget:

Link

3 hours battery life is pretty poopie.

A notepad could be useful in class, but in general it's pretty easy to find a computer at a well stocked college. A desktop for the room might be better, and could give you more bang for the buck if you built it yourself.

 

[B-29 Bomber]

3 hours battery life is pretty poopie.

A notepad could be useful in class, but in general it's pretty easy to find a computer at a well stocked college. A desktop for the room might be better, and could give you more bang for the buck if you built it yourself.

First, I've used communal computers before and they suck. Secondly, I'm planning on living at home. Thirdly, I prefer the mobility of Laptops. Fourthly I'll be going to a community college. Odds on they wont be 'well stocked'. And Lastly, and I'll make it nice and big: HAVE YOU BEEN READING THIS WHOLE THREAD! I'VE MADE PERFECTLY CLEAR THAT THE ISSUE OF WETHER OR NOT I SHOULD GET A LAPTOP IS SETTLED! THIS IS NOT WHAT THE THREAD IS ABOUT! NOW GOOD DAY TO YOU, SIR! *wipes forehead with towel* No offense meant Goodgame.

Oh and @Civ_King, yes I might be able to squeeze $480 in.

Oh and sorry in advance to any mod.

Edit: Also GoodGame it doesn't seem worth it to build a computer from scratch(which is extremely difficult in any case by the way especially when your near computer illiterate like I am) for one to two years at a thousand dollars, assuming of course that the parts you buy aren't faulty or incompatible with other parts you've bought, for a two year college education. When instead I could buy a 3-500 dollar laptop and receive it in 7 to 10 business days. I think I'll take the laptop.

 

[mdwh]

Why do you need a laptop for college? I RARELY ever used mine,

I used a computer loads at University. Seems an odd question to ask - you evidently use a computer in your life now, don't you?

I used a desktop, but if nothing else, it was a right pain lugging it back and forth to college each term. That was over 10 years ago - with laptops so cheap, it seems a much more sensible choice. Even for people staying at home and no particular need for travelling, laptops are popular...

(I presume he's not talking about simply for lectures, given him talking about playing games too.)

A tablet doesn't really offer much above a phone, won't play the games he wants, and can't be used to program on AFAIK. For something bigger than a phone, but cheap and portable, and an actual computer, I'd prefer a netbook. Though you can get more powerful laptops that are only slightly larger and slightly more expensive.

 

[B-29 Bomber]

I used a computer loads at University. Seems an odd question to ask - you evidently use a computer in your life now, don't you?

I used a desktop, but if nothing else, it was a right pain lugging it back and forth to college each term. That was over 10 years ago - with laptops so cheap, it seems a much more sensible choice. Even for people staying at home and no particular need for travelling, laptops are popular...

(I presume he's not talking about simply for lectures, given him talking about playing games too.)

A tablet doesn't really offer much above a phone, won't play the games he wants, and can't be used to program on AFAIK. For something bigger than a phone, but cheap and portable, and an actual computer, I'd prefer a netbook. Though you can get more powerful laptops that are only slightly larger and slightly more expensive.

The problem with netbooks are that they are pretty much for net-centric computing(Surfing the web, e-mail). Not only that but since there's no DVD-ROM and the video card(a guess but probably a spot on guess) is probably grabage gaming is out. And what I've heard you can't use microsoft office on them(watch How to: Notebook vs Netbook on youtube, it's on the tigerdirect channel). So netbooks are out.

 

[EnglishCrusader]

3 hours battery life is pretty poopie.

3 hours is good. I'd be lucky to get 1 hour out of my laptop at the lowest power settings and the lowest brightness I can set it to.

 

[civ_king]

Don't worry, you can be as pants on head here as you want to be and anyone who tries to bug you for it will get tackled by a moderator.

Anyway, yeah Macs are very overpriced, if you want a cheap laptop don't get a mac. With your price range you probably;y won't get a real graphics card, just an intel one. I don't know how well that runs games like AoEIII but it should run most older games (results vary).

Actually Macs are a good deal if your time is valuable. If your time is worth $25/hour and Windows makes you lose an hour a month that's $300/year and $900/3 years. Suddenly that extra $500 isn't a bad deal

The problem with netbooks are that they are pretty much for net-centric computing(Surfing the web, e-mail). Not only that but since there's no DVD-ROM and the video card(a guess but probably a spot on guess) is probably grabage gaming is out. And what I've heard you can't use microsoft office on them(watch How to: Notebook vs Netbook on youtube, it's on the tigerdirect channel). So netbooks are out.

Atom with Atom IGP sucks hard, Brazos and the APUs are decent

 

[B-29 Bomber]

Actually Macs are a good deal if your time is valuable. If your time is worth $25/hour and Windows makes you lose an hour a month that's $300/year and $900/3 years. Suddenly that extra $500 isn't a bad deal


Atom with Atom IGP sucks hard, Brazos and the APUs are decent

Well the thing is my time is worth $0/hour so... Oh and how do you recommend I get that extra $500? At best a job is a month away, by the way. All the money I have to spend on a laptop is from graduation gifts and at best my parents can fork over $100. That's how I got to the $450 maximum budget. So yeah Macs are out of the question...

Also you can't tell me with a straight face that Brazos and APUs can handle AoE I let alone AoEIII can you. Add the fact that there's no DVD drive for these "Netbooks" they are out. They're in essence glorified smartphones without the "phone" part. So: NO NETBOOKS!!!!!!

 

[civ_king]

Well the thing is my time is worth $0/hour so... Oh and how do you recommend I get that extra $500? At best a job is a month away, by the way. All the money I have to spend on a laptop is from graduation gifts and at best my parents can fork over $100. That's how I got to the $450 maximum budget. So yeah Macs are out of the question...

Also you can't tell me with a straight face that Brazos and APUs can handle AoE I let alone AoEIII can you. Add the fact that there's no DVD drive for these "Netbooks" they are out. They're in essence glorified smartphones without the "phone" part. So: NO NETBOOKS!!!!!!

I was talking to Scamp not you about netbooks.



The Gateway I linked has an A4-3300M which is not a netbook processor and can handle AOEIII and it can handle Civ III, also it has a DVD drive.