Hardware bods - Laptop for a Student
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
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I would actually recommend a Dell, but if the local Dell service contractor sucks then so does Dell. The specs sound good and are close to what I purchase for our company. Take a look at the Surface Pro (screen size is a little smaller) and Surface Book lines of equipment. Microsoft doesn't overload their equipment with crapware (unless you consider Office crapware :laugh: ). Also, spring for the accidental damage protection - it'll pay for itself.
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I second this choice. While I dislike much of the hp bloatware, I really like their recovery features from the BIOS, saved me and my data a few times already. And had no trouble with the HW so far, but for a few minor things after windows updates.
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She is as tech savvy as a fish, so I'll have to best guess. I have a 15" and she thinks it's a bit too big.
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Unless it's socketed which most thin and light laptops don't do anymore, I'd probably go with 16GB of ram. Maybe she'll never need it; but if she does buying it now will save a buying a new laptop in 2 or 3 years.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, weighing all things in the balance of reason? Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful? --Zachris Topelius
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
veni bibi saltavi
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
veni bibi saltavi
Consider adding a Dock to the list. I have a 13" Dell XPS, but at my desk I have a real keyboard, mouse and 3 monitors, one Portrait orientation. Staring at a small laptop screen and hunched over a tiny keyboard late at night not a good experience. Back in her dorm/study area, two screens and a good keyboard would be great. One should be portrait for reading scholarly papers, and one for writing assignments/videos. The elevated screens help prevent the dreaded "programmer's slouch" and back pain. The larger screen helps prevent the eye strain. Plus, if she is in a dorm, equipment locks.!! Also, since she is study languages, really good noise cancelling headphone might be a good splurge.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
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Consider adding a Dock to the list. I have a 13" Dell XPS, but at my desk I have a real keyboard, mouse and 3 monitors, one Portrait orientation. Staring at a small laptop screen and hunched over a tiny keyboard late at night not a good experience. Back in her dorm/study area, two screens and a good keyboard would be great. One should be portrait for reading scholarly papers, and one for writing assignments/videos. The elevated screens help prevent the dreaded "programmer's slouch" and back pain. The larger screen helps prevent the eye strain. Plus, if she is in a dorm, equipment locks.!! Also, since she is study languages, really good noise cancelling headphone might be a good splurge.
"Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana."
Matthew Dennis wrote:
Plus, if she is in a dorm, equipment locks.!!
:thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Another idea might be to stick a Bluetooth tracker on each unit (portable, screen, etc.). They are ideal as poor-man's theft tracking devices, but may have some privacy issues.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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I had a long search to find a laptop (price and functionality) but I found that ordering direct from HP was the way to go. It took a while because the build literally came from China but it was well worth the wait. I went with AMD chip, but they have Intel too if you're stuck on that. Here's the link to the laptop catalog: https://www.hp.com/us-en/shop/mdp/pavilion-15-344522--1#!&tab=vao[^] .
Quote:
HP Pavilion Laptop 15-eh0097nr (8) 2B4R7UA#ABA Part number: 2B4R7UA#ABA ENERGY STAR Windows 10 Home 64 AMD Ryzen™ 7 processor AMD Radeon™ Graphics 16 GB memory; 512 GB SSD storage Tech spec See all offers $799.99$699.99
I'd second most of these specs, with the exception of the screen size. A 13".3 screen is too small for prolonged typing, but a 15" screen is too heavy to lug around for a full day. The 14" screen is the happy medium. Even at my advanced age (57), I have no problems working on a screen of that size when on the go. Obviously, at home I connect the laptop to a larger screen.
Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows. -- 6079 Smith W.
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
veni bibi saltavi
Ignoring your remark about Dell :) : I can only remark that you need to avoid any computer that still uses SATA style SSDs. Look for a M.2 NVMe SSD. They are many times faster that the older SATA technology, since they do not connect to a serial bus, like SATA. They plug directly into the PCI bus.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
veni bibi saltavi
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Okay, Child 1 is due to go to university in October. She'll need a laptop for writing that student shizzle that they do. I'm thinking of a minimum spec of 8GB RAM, 512GB SSD, i5 processor and 14" screen. And light. She's reading History & French so doesn't need a dev machine and doesn't game or anything. Watches too much foreign art films though. So does that spec sound okay? Recommendations? **NOT** Dell, they're a pile of elephant and no one will ever persuade me differently. [OT: Yea, fine thanks. Double dosed of 5G today and Bill says hi!]
veni bibi saltavi
I've got a Surface Pro 7 (16GB RAM, 256GB SSD) and it's fine for carrying around. One nice thing about it is there's a micro SD slot behind the kickstand, so you can add additional removable storage space (maybe to hold movies?). I occasionally use mine to slice STL files for my 3D printer, when I'm away from my desktop. I got the Typecover, Arc mouse, pen and recently got the Surface headphones (version 1) from Woot for about $100. They're the best headphones I've ever had; I had to get another pair of them for my wife so I could get my pair back. The Typecover's OK for light typing, but nothing more than that. The pen's probably not worth it unless you're doing a lot of drawing; mine spends 99.999% of it's life sitting idle. With the power supply and all the accessories added to the bag I carry it around in, it's still lighter to lug around than the Dell Latitude laptop I've got from work.