Laptop spec for university?

mrs_scrooge

Would this be a good enough processor for laptop for university student? Not required for gaming.

Intel Core 2 Duo T5500 1.66Ghz 667 FSB 2MB L2 Cache

Is it worth going for a better processor if you can afford it or is it uneccessary? Also is it better to have 2GB RAM or is 1GB enough? I was reckoning that 80GB hard drive is plenty although many give 120GB.

Thanks

Reluctant_spender

What operating system will you be running xp or vista. If vista the more ram the better

custardy

regardless of xp or vista the CPU is fine.as said 2gb is better if you can afford it.
things to consider are wifi given you may be able to access it on campus.
also dont pay loads for laptop hard drives when usb back up drives are relativly cheap per GB

mrs_scrooge

Thanks for that. The laptop is for my daughter and she wants vista.

colin79666

If Vista is a must go with 2GB of ram - 1GB is fine for XP but Vista is more memory hungry.
Lookout for weight - 3KG sounds light but not once you have been carrying it around all day!
My best tip: invest in a good laptop backpack (not a shoulder strap one).

epz_2

mrs_scrooge wrote: »

Thanks for that. The laptop is for my daughter and she wants vista.

why, its an utter flop, plenty of apps, drivers etc dont work with it and when i tried it i was not at all impressed.

that said the comments are true about ram, 2 gigs is what to aim for, the less stuff loading off disk the better. cpu wise, unless they are planning of doing some serious code writing a pentium m will honestly be fine and this is comming from a quad cpu guy in the p3 days .

my main advice would be get a lower spec brand name in stead of something flimsy like a hp or dell, they last a lot longer and while office might load a nano second faster who cares when the case cracks or the mobo contacts short out once its just out of warranty. toshiba are pretty sweet, i would have said ibm in the past but am not awair what the quality is like now, they used to be immortal.

ckerrd

epz wrote: »

why, its an utter flop, plenty of apps, drivers etc dont work with it and when i tried it i was not at all impressed.

that said the comments are true about ram, 2 gigs is what to aim for, the less stuff loading off disk the better. cpu wise, unless they are planning of doing some serious code writing a pentium m will honestly be fine and this is comming from a quad cpu guy in the p3 days .

my main advice would be get a lower spec brand name in stead of something flimsy like a hp or dell, they last a lot longer and while office might load a nano second faster who cares when the case cracks or the mobo contacts short out once its just out of warranty. toshiba are pretty sweet, i would have said ibm in the past but am not awair what the quality is like now, they used to be immortal.

No it isn't. It may as yet not do all the things you want but for working with spreadsheets, email, documents, photos, videos, music and the Internet it is just fine.

Carl.

I don't know what your budget is like but at the moment Staples have a machine on offer which is the HP G6010EM.

It has Vista Home Premium, comes with MS Works 8.5 the other specs are:-

120GB Harddrive
1GB Ram
Intel Pentium Dual Core 1.86GHz processor
Integrated Intel Graphics Card
17inch widescreen display
Dual layer DVD burner
3 USB Ports
6cell battery (2hrs battery with full brightness 3hrs with half-brightness)

I have found it to be an extremely quick machine in terms of using it, more than sufficient for a student. I have used it for video editing, video playback, audio editing, surfing, emails, ftp, spreadsheets, word processing, video conversion, audio conversion, cd and dvd burning and ripping, playing Football manager, instant messaging, voip and graphics work.

At £399 I personally think it is a steal!

mrs_scrooge

Thanks for the comments, this site is just so useful.

I'd been looking at an Acer package which had the above mentioned CPU but a couple of her friends had said that it wasn't good enough so its really helpful to get other opinions. Got the impression from reading on here that Acer is a good brand. We started looking at Dell but read on here that they are better for desktops.

Re Vista I have no experience at all, we are on XP at home. Think she has seen it in a shop, liked it and wants to go with it as its the newest.

Carl - couldn't see the HP package on Staples website?

Carl.

It might well be called a G 6000 on the website, or it might not be on there yet. They have been in the shops for around a week, (arrived a week last Friday). Give a local store a call and they'll be able to advise you as to stock levels.

b33r

I personally think the following laptop is more of a steal than the Staples one as I would put Acer above HP any day:

http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_5710WLMi_LX.AHB0X.093/version.asp

You can also up the warranty to 3 years (ooo the whole time she's at uni) and get a laptop bag and mouse for 59 quids if you goto recommended accessories tab, which I don't think is half bad considering you can nearly pay that for a bag and mouse alone. However I would agree with the earlier post about a laptop backpack over a shoulder one, they are certainly better if she's gonna be travelling a lot (train etc.)

If she isn't going to be playing games then I think 1Gig of Ram will be perfectly fine, i doubt her ram usage would ever even come close to that nevermind 2gig.