Going to university; best setup?

[Sidiox]

I'm going to university in a few months and a slight problem has occured.

 

I currently have a Surface RT which I used at highschool, a desktop which I will have to abandon and no laptop.

For my university I am required to have 1 portable computer x86 based, so my Surface RT is not good enough.

For my self I also want a decent desktop.

 

So the problem I have is, do I buy a laptop to bring to class, together with my trusty Surface RT (a laptop alone isn't portable enough)

And then how high end do I want this laptop to be since I also want a decent desktop.

My university offers a couple of laptops

http://www.campusshop.nl/catalog/zcs_01/0101/default.aspx

It is in Dutch but for the specs and price that hardly matters.

The ones I am looking at are:

 

HP EliteBook 840:

14", i7-4500U, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD, Touchscreen

999,00eu

 

HP ZBook 15 Cache

15.6" i7 4600MUQ, 8GB, 750Gb HDD, 32GB SSD Cache, NVIDIA Quadro K610M

1249eu

 

Lenovo IdeaPad Y40-70-00805NL

15.6", I7-4710 HQ, 16GB, 512GB SSD, GTX 860M

1349eu

 

Lenovo Flex 2 1500501

15,6", i7 4510U, 8Gb, 500GB SSHD, NVIDIA GT 840M, IPS touchscren

799eu

 

These are offered by my uni, but I might also consider a Surface Pro 3.

 

I am not looking for gaming on the go, I don't like that at all, I will be doing my gaming at a desktop.

The study I will be doing is chemisty, so I don't need a Quadro for rendering that much, although for my own projects, which do include rendering it might be handy.

 

I don't know if I will be able to take notes on a laptop since I will be needing to do quite a bit of drawing, my Surface RT might be okay, but I'm not sure.

 

So what do you guys recommend

Buy the best Laptop and then game on it at home (also hook a second monitor up since 1 isn't enough for me these days), make notes on paper

Or buy a lower spec one and go all out on the desktop, make notes on paper?

Or buy the Surface Pro 3, make digital notes and buy a decent desktop?

 

 

Budget: about 2-3k eu

 

Edit:

At my highschool I used my Surface RT to completely replace my pen and paper, with a rubber stylus, already worked quite okay.

[ShadowCaptain]

Personally, Surface Pro 3 and a desktop would be my personal choice

 

Or an ultrabook (macbook air style) and desktop

[ZetZet]

Yoga 2 Pro or Dell XPS 12.

[techswede]

Some reasonably specced laptop and a desktop is what i'll be using.

My G62 is enough for school work but im planning to switch to something a bit faster. 

But since it only needs to run a browser and a few office programs for studying it's fast enough.

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

Probably a Surface Pro 3 if you are only going to be gaming on your desktop. It's a really nice machine and I have used it.

[KamiKatze]

What courses require a laptop at chemistry? Anyways, i would recommend a small laptop, 13 or 15 inch with a SSD and an i5. And then of course a desktop.

 

Btw. good luck with chemistry, you must be mad!

[Sidiox]

Probably a Surface Pro 3 if you are only going to be gaming on your desktop. It's a really nice machine and I have used it.

How is the stylus? Good enough to replace pen and paper (as they showed in the stream)?

[APrettyCoolWalrus]

How is the stylus? Good enough to replace pen and paper (as they showed in the stream)?

No the stylus isn't exactly something to freak out over. I honestly didn't use the stylus as my friend doesn't care for it. But nothing is as good as a pen and paper. You can write as small or as large as you want and your pen placements will always be accurate.

[Sidiox]

What courses require a laptop at chemistry? Anyways, i would recommend a small laptop, 13 or 15 inch with a SSD and an i5. And then of course a desktop.

 

Btw. good luck with chemistry, you must be mad!

 

I think some simulation software and stuff, I've been using some of it at my highschool as well for some projects.

SSD isn't need in particulair, I won't be running Windows, expect for when I need to run schoolsoftware, I'd rather use a more battery friendly Linux Distro (Lubuntu or Mint perhaps)