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Laptop For College - Please Help..

post #1 of 12
9/23/04 at 6:37am
Thread Starter 
Hey

Right i have just started college and want a laptop. My budget will be 700 UK Pounds which works out around $1,257.63. I need the laptop to be able to run smoothly Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia products. Also run Visual Basic and C++. This laptop needs to last me two years as i will be there for that amount of time. The laptop needs to be not to heavy but does not need to be the lightest thing going. I have seen a few but not knowing about the different make ect i don't know which one to go for. I don't really want to go for a celeron Chipset as i don't think they are too fast. I also want around 3 hours battery life if possible. The Laptops i was looking at are:

Acer Aspire 1360
http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?InvtId=1362LCI-XPP

But i am not to sure about Acer as i have heard they are not to good build quality. And also are AMD chipsets anygood?
I have also looked at the HP range.

HP nx9105
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=37PZ

Fujitsu Amilo D 7850 P4 2.8GHz 512MB
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=3fyl

But the Fujitsu is out of my price range.

But i really have not got a clue which to go for as there is prob better one's for the money.

If anyone can help here that would be great.

RealM
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post #2 of 12
9/23/04 at 7:30am
They're all viable options, I can't see you having a lot of problems with Photoshop or Macromedia products. From the two you can afford I'd be inclined toward the Aspire simply because of the larger amount of RAM, as Photoshop hoovers memory up.

However, I'd strongly recommend you save a little longer and get the Amilo D. You''ll have no problems whatsoever running your programs on that, plus you've got all that extra power.
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post #3 of 12
9/23/04 at 10:51am
Thread Starter 
Cheers for the input mate ... I think i am better with that one also. But what is that laptop like? Is it a good laptop to buy? and is it lightweight?
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post #4 of 12
9/23/04 at 1:46pm
Look into getting an iBook. They're really nice and have a great price.
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post #5 of 12
9/23/04 at 1:48pm
ibooks cool for college work
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post #6 of 12
9/23/04 at 2:26pm
specs wise: I would go with the fujitsu because of the pentium 4 processor (much better than the sempron) and the ati mobility 9200 (a lot better than the unichrome stuff).

I dont know about the aesthetics of the laptops though.
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post #7 of 12
9/23/04 at 3:02pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by RealM
Cheers for the input mate ... I think i am better with that one also. But what is that laptop like? Is it a good laptop to buy? and is it lightweight?
Well, I can't be specific, but from what I remember it's not a particularly light machine. I seem to remember it being more of a desktop replacement thing than designed for portability.

However, don't let that put you off right away. It all depends on how you're going to use the laptop. If you're going to be lugging it around all day and every day at college you might consider something a tad lighter. However, speaking as a UK college student myself I know it's not a good idea to take a laptop to college every day - it's going to get stolen if you're not careful.

With regards to being a 'good' laptop, it's certainly powerful enough for what you want and more. I'm not sure what the battery life is on it, but I'm assuming you'll take the power adapter to college along with it.

My advice to you is to consider how you're actually going to use the notebook - You say you want Photoshop etc, but are you going to keep games on there as well? My bet is you are, and the Amilo is your best choice in that case - lots of extra wham at the expense of some extra weight.
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post #8 of 12
9/23/04 at 7:37pm
Thread Starter 
Hey.. Cheers for everyone's comments on this. I don't know what to do here really. I dont want a heavy laptop that is what is putting me off the Fujitsu Amilo D 7850 P4 2.8GHz 512MB but it sounds a really good notebook for the price and seem like it can handle a lot. I think i might want a more portable notebook rather than a heavy powerful one as i already have a 3.2 p4 at home. But i want it to be quite fast. I was looking at this one

Amilo Pro V2000 Centrino 1.5GHz 256MB 40GB Combo
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=3ggg

Now it is the same make but i think this might be light? I dont know.

I am not to keen on the ibooks as i don,t like using the apple interface as this notebook will be used for programming also and not just graphics.

Any other suggestions would be great

Cheers
RealM
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post #9 of 12
9/23/04 at 8:57pm
Quote:
I need the laptop to be able to run smoothly Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia products. Also run Visual Basic and C++.
Uh... those are programming languages. They can be 'run' on any computer that can process bits. You could 'run' a "Hello World" on a commodore system if you really wanted to. But you would have to have a modern computer to run FarCry. What 'level' of C++ are you actually talking about? (and since its linked with VB, I doubt its too high ... lol just jking...)
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post #10 of 12
9/24/04 at 12:35am
Quote:
Originally Posted by B Nietsnie
Uh... those are programming languages. They can be 'run' on any computer that can process bits. You could 'run' a "Hello World" on a commodore system if you really wanted to. But you would have to have a modern computer to run FarCry. What 'level' of C++ are you actually talking about? (and since its linked with VB, I doubt its too high ... lol just jking...)
yeah, programs run differently on different machines. You would have to program differently for an x86 machine vs a solaris box. Thats because the computer processes the bits differently.
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post #11 of 12
9/24/04 at 4:18am
Thread Starter 
I know i dont need a good machine to run these programs well not C++ anyway. I say i dont want to put games on but i know i will in the end.

So is this notebook anygood then??
Amilo Pro V2000 Centrino 1.5GHz 256MB 40GB Combo
http://www.dabs.com/uk/channels/hard...quicklinx=3ggg

If i uprated the ram to 512mb would be a lot better and i know this laptop only weighs 2.8k which is light yea? Also it says upto 4 hours bat life. So what you think? For £771.98 do you think i can get a better notebook?? With the same sort of requirements e.g. Light, Centrino chipset
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post #12 of 12
9/24/04 at 6:23am
yeah i think u need the 512 ram!!
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