Buying a PC for college

HitTheJim

HitTheJim

Member
I'm heading into my freshman year and I'm looking to get a PC. I'm not looking to spend too much. I've done some reading and it seems that RAM over 4 GB is unnecessary. I have a 1 TB external hard drive so hard drive size isnt too important. I'm not a gamer and I dont edit video or produce music or anything like that. Also i've heard really good things about ssd's. Anyone have good advice for me?

 
I'm not buying a mac, I think you're severely overpaying for the hardware. That's not the discussion for now though. I'm looking around 600 give or take
 
Don't buy a mac seriously over priced. Do you want a a laptop or a desktop. What are your main uses, is it to write essays mainly and do research. If so you can get a basic laptop for less then 500 bucks and it will be more then enough.
 
I don't plan on getting a mac. I'm looking to get a laptop to replace the one that I've had since 8th grade. I'll likely use my new laptop in much the same way that I've used my current one. I use word, excel, powerpoint, teh interwebz, spotify, and itunes often. It's not rare for me to be downloading music while I listen to stuff on spotify and browse the internet. Essentially I tend to multitask

 
Then yeah I fairly basic one will be fine. If you can get a i3 processor with 4-6gb of memory you will be fine. You don't need a separate graphics card. A ssd will be faster but for what you need not needed, it will just make the cost higher. Look for ones with decent cooling, go read some reviews and find some which are within budget for you, but like I say you don't need to spend much for what you need
 
for that price you're going to be hard-pressed to find one with a SSD installed. I highly recommend an SSD in ALL laptops.

so if you order a 500 laptop, and a $100 SSD what's your plan for installing windows on the SSD?
 
I'm not too opposed to upping my budget in order to get what i feel is the right computer. My sister graduated 2 years before me and she got a macbook pro for her graduation present so my parents are giving me the same amount of money to spend and the difference will be deposited in my bank account. How do you feel about this one right here? http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Lenovo+-+IdeaPad+Ultrabook+13.3%22+Laptop+-+4GB+Memory+-+500GB+Hard+Drive+%2B+32GB+SSD+-+Graphite+Gray/5599223.p?id=1218670779100&skuId=5599223#tab=specifications
 
i still need to look more into the windows 8 and how much i wiuld prefer it, if at all, to windows 7. How much knowledge do you have of SSDs?
 
You can get a decent ultrabook for $600, bestbuy has about 100 computers < $600 just head there and pick out something that feels good.
 
I'd say skip the ssd, I just built a new 2000$ system and it only really affects the boot times. I did some testing for gaming load times and my wd black is only like 3-5 seconds slower on average. They're expensive and not that important to a system for what you're going to pay.

Make sure you get a haswell cpu for an ultrabook. Much better power consumption and better onboard graphics. It's pretty much a must have for a new laptop.
 
DO NOT BUY A MAC.

I bought an MBP 15" for college and wish I would've gone PC for $1000 less for the same exact specs.

And if you're doing any sort of engineering, a PC simply makes more sense for the sake of the programming software you will use (matlab mostly, and once you get to higher levels of math, they have you use computer programs as well).

 
Buy an asus if you're looking 600 ish. That'll do the best for you. I'm using a K53E as a daily driver.

Honestly, I'd take a mac any day.

Just my opinion
 
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