Should I get a good(expensive) laptop for school

[Sir Balbador]

I am (re)starting post secondary in September and don't currently have a laptop. I do not have a lot of money and am wondering If I shouldn't just buy a super low end laptop and just use it to tunnel into my desktop while at school for heavier tasks. (compiling code and such). Other than that I only need to take notes. I am looking for something smaller (under 13 inches)

I have not used a rdc before and am wondering if it would be worth my time
Has anyone else done this/thought about it for school/programming?

 

EDIT:

After all the help I went with a thinkpad w550. It has a true 4c8t I7, 12GB RAM, and a 1080p screen plus the one I got came with the extended battery. It was just under 600CAD after shipping.I am very happy with it.

[Droidbot]

seriously just get something like a used x230 or hp 2570p - they're old business laptops that pack a serious punch

rdc feels slow from school > home, ive used it before

[Princess Luna]

I use a very cheap but very reliable Acer Aspire ES 15, it features an i5 6200u, 4gb of ram and I put a SanDisk SSD Plus 120gb on it, I can literally do all my job work (I'm an export manager so lots and lots of Microsoft Office applications, excel, outlook so on), at college I am learning programming as well, all the common languages C, C++, HTML+CSS Javascript and so on... at home I use it for web browsing and media...

 

Frankly it does all of it with no slow downs what so ever, I think that over spending on a notebook for desktop usage is pointless, get the cheapest decent laptop you can find with at least an i5 and 4 or 8gb of ram, slap a SSD on it if it doesn't come with one and you're done.

 

Still got the high end desktop at home for gaming, and content creation any ways.

[Sir Balbador]

Another problem I have come across in laptops is that the letters at the end of the processor matter way more than weather its an i5/i7. There are 2 core i7s and 4 core i5s depending on if I get a U vs HQ vs M. My program guide also strongly recommends 32gb of ram (pretty sure someone is just making stuff up. I am not sure how much cpu power I even need.

I like the idea of going with used/refurbished. 

 

[Ryujin2003]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

Another problem I have come across in laptops is that the letters at the end of the processor matter way more than weather its an i5/i7. There are 2 core i7s and 4 core i5s depending on if I get a U vs HQ vs M. My program guide also strongly recommends 32gb of ram (pretty sure someone is just making stuff up. I am not sure how much cpu power I even need.

I like the idea of going with used/refurbished. 

 

For the RAM.... I have a higher end MSI laptop, with 16GB RAM. I program and am beginning game development.. I run virtual machines. Haven't had a need for more than 16 yet, so I doubt you would.

 

I got my laptop last September because I didn't have one for school and wanted to have one to last me 3 years easily.

 

If I had to do it again, I'd wait for Ryzen now. Why? Because my desktop Ryzen 1700x handles virtual much better than my laptop, and multitasks better. So, for running eMacs, Visual Studio, Virtual box, Adobe Reader, and a web browser, I think 6 to 8 core Ryzen laptop would be worth more than the quad core i7 you'd get for top dollar.

 

Otherwise, and old Enterprise machine will do great. The IdeaPad/Thinkpad series is also pretty good. Or if you really want to save some money, you can get an old top of the line Sony Vaio pretty cheap now. They still run great.

[ScottP]

10 minutes ago, Sir Balbador said:

My program guide also strongly recommends 32gb of ram (pretty sure someone is just making stuff up)

 

 

Holy crap, how completely unreasonable.  I wouldn't trust any other specs they recommend if they think any student needs that.

[Sir Balbador]

3 minutes ago, Ryujin2003 said:

If I had to do it again, I'd wait for Ryzen now.

That's what I kind of want to do, but when are they coming? And how many Canadian Pesos will I have to spend?

 

I am pretty sure I will go with an older business model if I can find one at a good price.

[Ryujin2003]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

That's what I kind of want to do, but when are they coming? And how many Canadian Pesos will I have to spend?

 

I am pretty sure I will go with an older business model if I can find one at a good price.

Asus had one at Computex, so I'm hoping sometime soon. I think it'd be Intel out of the water. Possibly better thermals at higher freq. Better multitasking support.

 

Not sure on price, but I'd bet a bit cheaper since the AMD is cheaper than Intel. But that all comes down to manufacturer.

[Droidbot]

8 hours ago, Sir Balbador said:

Another problem I have come across in laptops is that the letters at the end of the processor matter way more than weather its an i5/i7. There are 2 core i7s and 4 core i5s depending on if I get a U vs HQ vs M. My program guide also strongly recommends 32gb of ram (pretty sure someone is just making stuff up. I am not sure how much cpu power I even need.

I like the idea of going with used/refurbished. 

 

Take a look at HP Zbook line, Lenovo T430, and Dell Precision M4700/M4800

 

All are really good workstation laptops with quad-core i7s, a fuckton of RAM, and Quadro GPUs, as well as external GPU support.

[Sir Balbador]

13 hours ago, Droidbot said:

Take a look at HP Zbook line, Lenovo T430, and Dell Precision M4700/M4800

 

All are really good workstation laptops with quad-core i7s, a fuckton of RAM, and Quadro GPUs, as well as external GPU support.

https://www.amazon.com/Precision-M4700-15-6-LED-Notebook/dp/B00BF7PM64

so this one would work great?

I have an ssd already to replace the drive. I would also put windows 10 on anything I get to (hopefully) mitigate any compatibility issues with school programs

[Droidbot]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

https://www.amazon.com/Precision-M4700-15-6-LED-Notebook/dp/B00BF7PM64

so this one would work great?

I have an ssd already to replace the drive. I would also put windows 10 on anything I get to (hopefully) mitigate any compatibility issues with school programs

get a unit off ebay, not amazon. paypal buyer protection is good shit, and prices are insanely cheap

[Sir Balbador]

only problem is the 9.2lb

[Droidbot]

Just now, Sir Balbador said:

only problem is the 9.2lb

yeah, it's quite heavy - if you're willing to forgo a GPU picking up a E6430 with the 3740QM or E6440 with the 4700MQ

[Sir Balbador]

15 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

yeah, it's quite heavy - if you're willing to forgo a GPU picking up a E6430 with the 3740QM or E6440 with the 4700MQ

that is a much better 5.5lb And yes I am willing to forgo the gpu

[networkdown]

I use this as my home laptop. Acer Aspire e-15. Has 7gen i5 7200U chip. 8 gigs ddr4, m.2 storage flash as main storage and has a dedicated graphics card MX 940 2 gigs.  Also the battery is killer 12 hrs or battery for surfing the net. 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-E5-575G-57D4-15-6-Inches-Notebook-i5-7200U/dp/B01LD4MGY4/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1497016409&sr=1-2&keywords=acer+aspire+e15

Oh Its sub $600.00 Too

[System Error Message]

when it comes to code compilations you'd want some amount of ram but most importantly you'd want a good CPU. Ofcourse work can be done on low powered machines but if you've ever worked with things like llvm than you'd know why having a powerful CPU can be very helpful. Than its just a matter of picking one that has the featureset you want for things you want to do with it. If you dont game or do GPU programming you dont need a dedicated GPU. As a software developer you'd want a laptop that does 2 things, Have a good CPU and a long battery life. So for compiling code a fast CPU helps, for just working on things rather than compiling and running you'd want a long battery life.

 

Business grade laptops like lenovo thinkpads and dell lattitudes are very good too however i preferred past lenovo thinkpads for their flexibility having expresscard and a dvd slot that you can hot swap for many things including a battery and a 9 cell battery for main however their CPUs are quite outdated now but were compatible with the dock 2503 that had a pcie slot allowing you to have a total of 2 eGPUs at 1 lane each. Back than i used to play batman on a thinkpad with a gtx 580 connected with its own screen but i also used it for university.