Laptop for College

[saxguy67]

I'm currently looking for a laptop to take to college. I would like to get one that can play games, but would also like to not have to carry around a behemoth of a laptop. The new 14 inch razer blade (2016) is one that I am very interested in. What is your opinion on this laptop, and do you guys have any further recommendations? 

[rtpb5642]

eurocom

[flibberdipper]

I'd personally go the new Razer Blade, or the XPS 13 if you can swing that.

 

Or, if you're a cheap bastard like me, grab a Latitude E4300 with the extended battery off eBay and an SSD (like the ADATA SP550) and 4GB of RAM. If you time it right, you can probably get that all done for 200 bucks or less.

[Mark77]

Gaming and a college laptop are generally two mutually exclusive things.  My suggestion would be to look at refurbished or almost-brand-new "business" laptops from Dell/Lenovo/HP, through their "Outlet" stores or reasonably high quality refurbishing outfits.  Buy a high quality external LCD and proprietary docking station for such as well.

 

For instance, a few weeks ago, I picked up, for roughly $450USD, an almost-brand-new, with 3 year onsite warranty, Dell Latitude E6440, Haswell i5-4310M, 1080p screen, 16gb of RAM, and 250gb SSD with Windows 10.  An excellent machine for most sorts of college uses, cheap replacement parts, and not much to carry around.

 

Gaming and college, IMHO, really don't mix too well together.  You'll inherently end up with a more expensive laptop with poorer battery life, and harder to find/replace components.  Plus you'll be wasting time gaming instead of studying, and socializing.  I know 17-year-olds pre-College might not understand the whole culture of college, but there's a lot of better things to do than to waste your expensive time in college infront of a computer screen playing games that will most certainly be there when you graduate.

 

I spent a number of years in college, and while I completed my course on-time, those who were into gaming mostly didn't.  A friend of mine is a professor at a tech college, and he flunks a few students each year simply because they are overly habituated to gaming.

[saxguy67]

1 hour ago, Mark77 said:

Gaming and a college laptop are generally two mutually exclusive things.  My suggestion would be to look at refurbished or almost-brand-new "business" laptops from Dell/Lenovo/HP, through their "Outlet" stores or reasonably high quality refurbishing outfits.  Buy a high quality external LCD and proprietary docking station for such as well.

 

For instance, a few weeks ago, I picked up, for roughly $450USD, an almost-brand-new, with 3 year onsite warranty, Dell Latitude E6440, Haswell i5-4310M, 1080p screen, 16gb of RAM, and 250gb SSD with Windows 10.  An excellent machine for most sorts of college uses, cheap replacement parts, and not much to carry around.

 

Gaming and college, IMHO, really don't mix too well together.  You'll inherently end up with a more expensive laptop with poorer battery life, and harder to find/replace components.  Plus you'll be wasting time gaming instead of studying, and socializing.  I know 17-year-olds pre-College might not understand the whole culture of college, but there's a lot of better things to do than to waste your expensive time in college infront of a computer screen playing games that will most certainly be there when you graduate.

 

I spent a number of years in college, and while I completed my course on-time, those who were into gaming mostly didn't.  A friend of mine is a professor at a tech college, and he flunks a few students each year simply because they are overly habituated to gaming.

Yeah that's understandable

 

Are there any laptops that you recommend? I've also looked at the hp spectre series and the xps series from dell

[Mark77]

3 minutes ago, saxguy67 said:

Yeah that's understandable

 

Are there any laptops that you recommend? I've also looked at the hp spectre series and the xps series from dell

 

If you can find a deal through one of the "Outlets" or through a good refurbisher, I'd suggest the Dell Latitude series (ie: E6440, E7250/E7450/E7270/E7470, 5570, etc.), the Lenovo T-Series (ie: T450, T460), or the business HP's (not sure what the model numbers are these days). 

 

Another thing you might want to consider is what will everyone else be using in the program?   If you're in a program where everyone's using a Mac, well, you probably should have one as well simply for commonality.  Have you done a campus visit?  What were the students using? 

 

The reason I suggest commonality is that, if something breaks in the middle of the night and you need to borrow a cable, or something to get something important done, you'll have a much better crack at it if others are using something similar to you. 

[don_svetlio]

6 hours ago, saxguy67 said:

I'm currently looking for a laptop to take to college. I would like to get one that can play games, but would also like to not have to carry around a behemoth of a laptop. The new 14 inch razer blade (2016) is one that I am very interested in. What is your opinion on this laptop, and do you guys have any further recommendations? 

Avoid the Blade 16 - the fans are absurdly loud - louder than ANY other PC fan available (60dB at max load) and the thermals are awful - it throttles, the bottom side gets scorching hot, the support is crap as if you complain about heat issues your posts get deleted.

[Ho0pz4sho]

7 hours ago, saxguy67 said:

I'm currently looking for a laptop to take to college. I would like to get one that can play games, but would also like to not have to carry around a behemoth of a laptop. The new 14 inch razer blade (2016) is one that I am very interested in. What is your opinion on this laptop, and do you guys have any further recommendations? 

The 2016 Razer has a pretty bad build for the money. The cooling system is off by a mile, so it'll shorten the laptop's lifespan by a lot.

Depending on your budget and location, you could go for the Dell 7559, Lenovo Y700/900, Asus or rebranded Clevos (Eurocom, Sager, XMG, etc). The latter have good cooling and specs for quite affordable prices.

[Ho0pz4sho]

6 hours ago, Mark77 said:

Gaming and a college laptop are generally two mutually exclusive things.  My suggestion would be to look at refurbished or almost-brand-new "business" laptops from Dell/Lenovo/HP, through their "Outlet" stores or reasonably high quality refurbishing outfits.  Buy a high quality external LCD and proprietary docking station for such as well.

 

For instance, a few weeks ago, I picked up, for roughly $450USD, an almost-brand-new, with 3 year onsite warranty, Dell Latitude E6440, Haswell i5-4310M, 1080p screen, 16gb of RAM, and 250gb SSD with Windows 10.  An excellent machine for most sorts of college uses, cheap replacement parts, and not much to carry around.

 

Gaming and college, IMHO, really don't mix too well together.  You'll inherently end up with a more expensive laptop with poorer battery life, and harder to find/replace components.  Plus you'll be wasting time gaming instead of studying, and socializing.  I know 17-year-olds pre-College might not understand the whole culture of college, but there's a lot of better things to do than to waste your expensive time in college infront of a computer screen playing games that will most certainly be there when you graduate.

 

I spent a number of years in college, and while I completed my course on-time, those who were into gaming mostly didn't.  A friend of mine is a professor at a tech college, and he flunks a few students each year simply because they are overly habituated to gaming.

You could play Solitaire on those solutions.

[aakopa]

Macbook Pro 13"

You can install Windows using Bootcamp if you want.

Games like Rocket League run fine on integrated graphics.

[Ho0pz4sho]

3 minutes ago, aakopa said:

Macbook Pro 13"

You can install Windows using Bootcamp if you want.

Games like Rocket League run fine on integrated graphics.

Wouldn't installing Windows on a MacBook kinda defeat the purpose of buying a MacBook in the first place?

[aakopa]

Just now, Ho0pz4sho said:

Wouldn't installing Windows on a MacBook kinda defeat the purpose of buying a MacBook in the first place?

Nah, you still could enjoy the amazing build quality and quite good battery life.

[Ho0pz4sho]

3 minutes ago, aakopa said:

Nah, you still could enjoy the amazing build quality and quite good battery life.

I guess. But I think the choice would really depend on what games OP wants to play. Because integrated graphics aren't that much of a big deal.

[saxguy67]

18 hours ago, Ho0pz4sho said:

The 2016 Razer has a pretty bad build for the money. The cooling system is off by a mile, so it'll shorten the laptop's lifespan by a lot.

Depending on your budget and location, you could go for the Dell 7559, Lenovo Y700/900, Asus or rebranded Clevos (Eurocom, Sager, XMG, etc). The latter have good cooling and specs for quite affordable prices.

Why do you think it has a bad build quality? Multiple sites say it's on par with macbooks, and if it gets too hot, thermal throttling would kick in to prevent damage...  

[Dackzy]

1 hour ago, saxguy67 said:

Why do you think it has a bad build quality? Multiple sites say it's on par with macbooks, and if it gets too hot, thermal throttling would kick in to prevent damage...  

Because razer have not heard of quality control. No it will not prevent damage, it will prevent it from dying, but not damage, when a cpu gets as hot as the blades cpu does it will damage the cpu and shorten the life time of the laptop. Do you really want a shitty pc that gets so hot that you can make food on it... It gets 94-96c under load with thermal throttleling, so all in all it is a laptop that are worth a trash can.

[Ho0pz4sho]

3 hours ago, saxguy67 said:

Why do you think it has a bad build quality? Multiple sites say it's on par with macbooks, and if it gets too hot, thermal throttling would kick in to prevent damage...  

If you need thermal throttling to reduce temperature, it's very bad. CPUs shouldn't operate at temperatures that require thermal throttling. That's a last resort event that is meant to reduce the effects of the already occurring damage. Every time the temperature gets too hot, it reduces the lifespan of the CPU/GPU. Shorter lifespan means your laptop won't probably last through the first year.

 

Also, the build quality of MacBooks is quiet shit. 

[Prysin]

@saxguy67

If you want a decent bridge between gaming and function, the AMD APU laptops, like the HP Elitebook 745 G3 with the A12 "Pro" 8800p or a A10 8700p is a damn fine choice. These APUs are MORE then adequate for 1080p 30-45 FPS in even Battlefield 4 if you get the settings right (i would expect medium to high, with AA at low or off).

 

If you can find a laptop with that weird ass 1366x768 resolution, then a AMD APU laptop with a FX 8800p or A12 "Pro" 8800p should hit 30-70 FPS depending on the title. That includes bonkers titles like The Witcher 3. CS:GO would easily get around 80-100 FPS or more on these laptops.

 

The Elitebook has pretty decent cooling.

 

If you want something more expensive, try a Lenovo Y700 or Y900, or a SAGER. These laptops has decent CPUs with GOOD cooling. This means a longer lifespan of the entire machine before it "slows down" too much.

[Prysin]

28 minutes ago, Ho0pz4sho said:

If you need thermal throttling to reduce temperature, it's very bad. CPUs shouldn't operate at temperatures that require thermal throttling. That's a last resort event that is meant to reduce the effects of the already occurring damage. Every time the temperature gets too hot, it reduces the lifespan of the CPU/GPU. Shorter lifespan means your laptop won't probably last through the first year.

 

Also, the build quality of MacBooks is quiet shit. 

Macbooks has excellent material quality, but the way its put together isnt exactly "quality". Cheap glue (not that glue in and of itself is cheap, but actually cheap glue),  screws made of softer alloys/not hardened thus threads break easily and poorly made plasic taps. Not to mention the idiotic design choice to only have ONE mother fucking port, meaning you have to spend a fucking fortune on adapters.

[Dackzy]

3 minutes ago, Prysin said:

Macbooks has excellent material quality, but the way its put together isnt exactly "quality". Cheap glue (not that glue in and of itself is cheap, but actually cheap glue),  screws made of softer alloys/not hardened thus threads break easily and poorly made plasic taps. Not to mention the idiotic design choice to only have ONE mother fucking port, meaning you have to spend a fucking fortune on adapters.

Not to mention the shitty cooling they have, it can't really get that much air, so it will just run hot all the time and the fan profile they use is also so shitty.

[Ho0pz4sho]

1 hour ago, Prysin said:

Macbooks has excellent material quality, but the way its put together isnt exactly "quality". Cheap glue (not that glue in and of itself is cheap, but actually cheap glue),  screws made of softer alloys/not hardened thus threads break easily and poorly made plasic taps. Not to mention the idiotic design choice to only have ONE mother fucking port, meaning you have to spend a fucking fortune on adapters.

Luckily material quality doesn't equal to build quality. That's why we're here, to advise against poor laptops.

[saxguy67]

20 hours ago, Prysin said:

@saxguy67

If you want a decent bridge between gaming and function, the AMD APU laptops, like the HP Elitebook 745 G3 with the A12 "Pro" 8800p or a A10 8700p is a damn fine choice. These APUs are MORE then adequate for 1080p 30-45 FPS in even Battlefield 4 if you get the settings right (i would expect medium to high, with AA at low or off).

 

If you can find a laptop with that weird ass 1366x768 resolution, then a AMD APU laptop with a FX 8800p or A12 "Pro" 8800p should hit 30-70 FPS depending on the title. That includes bonkers titles like The Witcher 3. CS:GO would easily get around 80-100 FPS or more on these laptops.

 

The Elitebook has pretty decent cooling.

 

If you want something more expensive, try a Lenovo Y700 or Y900, or a SAGER. These laptops has decent CPUs with GOOD cooling. This means a longer lifespan of the entire machine before it "slows down" too much.

What do you think about the xps 15 or the ux501vw (leaning more towards the asus...)? I have a really good desktop that I'm debating on taking, so I think I'm leaning more towards the route of high resolution with a slim design. I don't want a macbook either (unlike what others have said, in my 4 years of owning a macbook they are great computers and only get hot when under a heavy load. It served its purpose very well, but I want something different). Id prefer to stay under $2000, unless the laptop is really worth it. 

[Dackzy]

38 minutes ago, saxguy67 said:

What do you think about the xps 15 or the ux501vw (leaning more towards the asus...)? I have a really good desktop that I'm debating on taking, so I think I'm leaning more towards the route of high resolution with a slim design. I don't want a macbook either (unlike what others have said, in my 4 years of owning a macbook they are great computers and only get hot when under a heavy load. It served its purpose very well, but I want something different). Id prefer to stay under $2000, unless the laptop is really worth it. 

It is a Asus so build quality is meh, cooling is meh, support insanely bad. I think that it also gets pretty hot and has some heat problems if I remember correctly. Go look up some reviews on them both and see what seems more compelling, you might even be able to find a place where they compare the two.

remember this build materials=/= build quality.

[Prysin]

2 hours ago, saxguy67 said:

snip

i cannot stress enough what @Dackzysaid. Material quality does not equal BUILD quality.

 

XPS are relatively fine, but some of them get really hot. ASUS isnt really a good choice unless you go for higher end (read expensive) versions. Even then, ASUS compromises a bit too much in some areas where they shouldnt (build quality/cooling).

 

When it comes to laptops, realize this:
It is VERY easy for a OEM to cram a i7 and GTX 9xxm into their laptop and sell it at a premium. It is VERY easy to produce aluminium bodies and super slim packages. It is VERY easy to drop a 1440p or 4k IPS panel into the laptop too. 

 

But its HARD to cool these parts and get good battery life out of them.

 

Dont bother with 1440p screens for laptops, like with smartphones with 1440p screens. It is just a gimmic that hurts battery life. At 14-17" a 1080p screen has exceptionally high pixel density. Infact, a 17" 1080 screen has 130 pixels per inch, a 23" 1440p monitor has 127. A 27" 1440p monitor has 108 pixels per inch.

Pixel density = crispness in image. A small laptop is better off with a 1080p screen both for gaming performance (less pixels to push) and battery.

 

Laptops are a constant battle of compromises. But the essence of a laptop is portability and convenience. Having to run between the outlets is hardly something i consider "portable" nor "convenient".