<p>I am planning to buy the Samsung NP-R580-JSB1US. I think its about a month old, its a great laptop, and I've pretty much made my choice.. my only concern is that if i buy it now, will it become outdated when i go to college in 4 (I start in Late August). Also, are there better laptops out there? My budget is around 1000</p>
<p>That pretty thing? Naw, you’re okay. Technology moves quickly, but not that quickly.</p>
<p>The PC will probably be outdated to be honest. Every electronic gets outdated a few months later.</p>
<p>Depends on your standards and definition of “outdated”. Sure, technological advancements, especially in computing, advance almost daily. But still, for a student, it’s got what he’d need. Intel i5 520M, 4GB of DDR3 RAM, GeForce GT 330 with 1GB of GFX memory, 500GB HDD…shoot, as a student, that’s about double what you’d NEED.</p>
<p>It’s best to wait until the absolute last minute to buy computers. It’s usually about 3 months before your computer becomes an outdated joke.</p>
<p>I almost always use my computers until they fall apart, then shop around and buy the most expensive, top of the line computer I can afford for as little money as possible, and run it into the ground again, then rinse and repeat. The top of the line computers will stay “current” for about a year before they become outdated. You spend a bit more money up front but you’ll probably end up spending less in the long run. People have trouble getting over the initial sticker shock which is why the sub-$500 market for computers actually exists.</p>
<p>Also: never buy the base model of anything. Ever. </p>
<p>That said, my next laptop will be a macbook pro that I plan to buy for law school in 2 years, and will have a SSD and probably minimum 8 to 16GB which will likely become standard by then, and a graphics processor that will blow anything currently on the market out of the water.</p>
<p>I’d think so. If I remember right, the i3 systems will be mainstreamed, and nVidia is supossed to launch a hybrid Ion-based (brand name, not the chemical term) technology that should increase graphics power over integrated graphics while increasing battery life.</p>
<p>In short: with the releases set this summer, I’d wait until July or August before buying. Technology doesn’t move this fast usually, it just so happens that a few important events are going to occur between Spring and Summer.</p>
<p>Nah. I think it should do justice for most of your college life.</p>
<p>Computers are always “outdated” the day they get released.</p>
<p>The question you should ask is not whether or not it’ll be outdated, but whether or not it’ll meet your requirements at a good value. That laptop is more than powerful enough for basic needs, and I think you’ll enjoy it for the next couple years.</p>
<p>If the discount is amazing, you can get it now and get used to it. Otherwise, prices will be lower in July/August. I have one caveat though, and that is when I ordered my laptop in early-August for my freshman year, the manufacturer had serious issues with order handling. It was not until mid-September until I received my laptop. I was lucky to have an old laptop to use in the mean time.</p>
<p>Don’t worry about it. It won’t have the latest technology, but it’ll be plenty good!</p>