Laptop for College

[zhopia 71]

I'm going off to college soon so I'm thinking I'll probably need a laptop. Any recommendations or do you guys have any personal experience? I'm not looking to game as much as I currently am. CSGO doesn't use that many resources so I'd like to be able to still play the game with at least 30 fps on low settings. Other than that, I'm going to be using the laptop for mostly note-taking and such. I'm an engineering major but I've heard that most programs you remote desktop or run of the college's servers.

[Piero 2272]

Dude, if you're not using it for games, I would totally go for a surface. It's so nice being able to draw your notes and having access to them everywhere.

[badbie 191]

Honestly if you can I would really suggest keeping the gaming and school work to two different computers. Being here on the forums I'm guessing you play now? Are you not able to take your current pc? That would be the best situation. Take a desktop for the forum and get like a small note taker for classes. That's what I do. I have an Asus transformer (touchscreen tablet and keyboard combo) 

[zhopia 71]

34 minutes ago, Piero said:

Dude, if you're not using it for games, I would totally go for a surface. It's so nice being able to draw your notes and having access to them everywhere.

What do you mean by access them everywhere? Don't you need a subscription to onedrive for that? What do you think of taking notes on a screen vs. traditional pencil and paper?

A surface definitely looks interesting but the price tag makes me wanna make extra sure that it's the right option.

2 minutes ago, badbie said:

Honestly if you can I would really suggest keeping the gaming and school work to two different computers. Being here on the forums I'm guessing you play now? Are you not able to take your current pc? That would be the best situation. Take a desktop for the forum and get like a small note taker for classes. That's what I do. I have an Asus transformer (touchscreen tablet and keyboard combo) 

I don't really wanna lug my PC and monitor all the way to college. I'll definitely keep that in mind though. Why would you advise gaming and school on different devices? Are your research papers typed on your Asus as well? Do you usually write or type your notes?

[Piero 2272]

you dont need a subscrition

[VEGEMITEKILLER 259]

Get a laptop that'll handle dropbox (which is basically any laptops you can find today). Also, get a thumb drive to back everything up! I had my raid 0 fuck up in my laptop, but drop box saved my sorry ass, my thumb drive also came in handy. I personally use a gaming laptop for both school and gaming (Aorus X3 plus) b/c I don't really have space for a desktop back at home. Google doc is also a great alternative to back things up in the cloud. As long as you have internet connection. If you are getting a cheap ass laptop, say you spend around $300 for the laptop, invest in an SSD (256 GB going for around 80 bucks, 500GB for around $150). SSD's provide speed, durability and reliability (as long as you don't do raid 0 with 2 of them). 

[badbie 191]

Just now, zhopia said:

What do you mean by access them everywhere? Don't you need a subscription to onedrive for that? What do you think of taking notes on a screen vs. traditional pencil and paper?

A surface definitely looks interesting but the price tag makes me wanna make extra sure that it's the right option.

I don't really wanna lug my PC and monitor all the way to college. I'll definitely keep that in mind though. Why would you advise gaming and school on different devices? Are your research papers typed on your Asus as well? Do you usually write or type your notes?

 

It's hard to game on the go so having games like cs go anywhere out of your living space is kinda pointless in my opinion. I know some people do it but... idk lol it's best to focus your device on its main purpose. I do type all my papers on it, however having the touch screen I can jot some rq notes by hand out on it. For me being part of sG's mapping squad i'm constantly designing new maps. I use different sketch apps to do the first draft layout. I know that's kindof specific to me but there have been other times in school that being able to draw something out rq is useful, just something to consider.

 

Honestly one of my favorite things about this tablet for me is the size. It's not to small to make you feel like you're typing your papers on a cell phone (which I have done and is this worst) But smaller than normal laptops. I like this because I have lots of room for textbooks and shit on my desk, I can slouch in my chair and still see the teacher, and just being a smaller profile it is less distracting.

[zhopia 71]

How often do you find yourself typing without a hard surface? I know tablets struggle when you're forced to set the keyboard on your lap. The main reason I would get a laptop over a tablet is because I think a laptop can multitask better than a tablet. On the other hand, do you frequently draw graphs and such in class? Depending on the type of notetaking that seems more prevalent, I might get a tablet.

 

EDIT: This looks sexy af http://www.trustedreviews.com/asus-zenbook-ux305-review#tr-review-summary

[Ian 325]

Don't get a laptop, get a desktop plus a tablet. You don't need an Alienware war machine in your World History class.

[ThatOllieWhoDies 1177]

Don't get a laptop, get a desktop plus a tablet. You don't need an Alienware war machine in your World History class.

Thank you. Like where are you going to game? Lecture hall? Library? You play 90% inside your dorm

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[zhopia 71]

I currently have these 6 laptops in mind. Any suggestions or experience with any?

Lenovo Thinkpad 13

Lenovo Ideapad 500S

Lenovo Ideapad 300S

Lenovo U31

Asus UX305

Dell XPS 13

[Triv 79]

Honestly, for school I use a Macbook pro. 

 

A lot of access to applications that are awesome for school, I also have my hard drive partitioned so about 75% of my hardrive is my mac and the other 25% is Windows.

 

I only really use the windows side of my computer for office, when i have to either write papers or do excel spreadsheets. I also have all my games on my mac

 

 

Macs are great for school in general, easy to organize everything, there are apps that you can buy textbooks on and have all your textbooks on your computer which makes it super easy to search something up in the search bar instead of scanning through a hundred pages to find a single term. 

[zebra 178]

Don't know what kind of engineering program you're going into, but I have a lot of classmates in my EE program complain about software incompatibilities with Macs. You can't go wrong with any decent ultrabook like the XPS 13 or a Surface Book.

[Piero 2272]

don't buy dell or hp

[Sean 3760]

MacBook or Surface Pro

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[Ian 325]

5 hours ago, Piero said:

don't buy dell or hp

 

I had a laptop from Gateway and it lasted 7 years! I'm not even sure Gateway is still around but they made great computers. Throw it against the wall and it would still work.