<p>I'm planning to buy a new laptop this summer. Any recommendations? Does UChicago give discounts on certain computers?</p>
<p>Try the ipad?</p>
<p>I know that Apple will give you a discount on MacBooks if you show them that you’re enrolled in a college in the US. I have no experience in this area, but I’m guessing that a bunch of the letters you got from Chicago should be enough.</p>
<p>Wait until the summer, and Apple will probably have its usual MacBook/Macbook Pro(?) + iTouch promotion, with a special discount if you’re a college student.</p>
<p>I think the next batch of ipads will be worth it</p>
<p>Unless you really like Macs, I highly reccomend that you don’t buy something through the university. You can always find a better bargain online at sites like newegg or even the occasional sell at best buy and etc. </p>
<p>If your a techie or gamer, just compare online sites like dell, hp, amazon, tigerdirect, and newegg. </p>
<p>If not, then just go buy the cheapest laptop you can find that can surf the web and do word processing, or a mac.</p>
<p>UChicago has certain discounts on computers, but just buy through Newegg. I bought a second-hand Macbook on Amazon and it was super cheap.</p>
<p>I don’t think you’ll need a Mac though. A netbook will suffice unless you’re a zealous gamer or a perfectionist.</p>
<p>When my D was at UofC, it was a factory authorized repair site for Dell. So she never had to ship her Dell laptop to Dell for service, which she needed three times - none of them Dell’s fault. You might want to find out if they’re still a Dell service site. If so, you can save a lot of money on warranty repairs by buying mail in service and getting on site repair at UofC.</p>
<p>Yes, they are still an authorized Dell site. They also honor Dell service contracts on computers not purchased through UChicago. (The Chicago folks will bill back to Dell for non-Chicago contracts.) Just have a copy of that service contract! Scan the contract and have it in a gmail account or someplace you can access if your computer dies.</p>
<p>You can probably figure out why I know this…it has happened to S1 a couple of times.</p>
<p>where is the closest Apple store or other apple repair site to campus? Will probably get my non-techhie D a macbook and want to know if the “bring to the store” service option is worth it…</p>
<p>The closest Apple store is on the Michigan Ave (the downtown region). I believe you can just bring your new Macbook to the University’s NSIT (aka IT Service - its new name), so you don’t have to head to downtown.</p>
<p>I would recommend either a MacBook or a Lenovo. Also, I hear Sony is manageable.</p>
<p>Divine, thanks I assumed the campus IT people would handle it and there would be no need to get the applecare or whatever they call it service plan. Are most basic things the campus people do free? I assume she might need help in basic getting things to work, networking, random troubleshooting etc, not removing viruses nor other advanced repairs.</p>
<p>A few things to consider:</p>
<ol>
<li><p>The NSIT folks do very little to help users. Their charge is network integrity. So they make sure everyone who accesses the LAN has functioning antivirus software and can connect to the LAN. That’s about it. </p></li>
<li><p>College undergrads are tough on notebook computers. You should have a good handle on service options before you purchase a machine. Keep in mind that no company guarantees a time frame for mail in repair. My D recently had a case where it took almost 3 months before she had a functioning machine back. This is why several of us think on site repair is very important. </p></li>
<li><p>Data backups are critical. In the three month wait mentioned above, D was able to continue work on her thesis because she had a functioning online automatic backup service.</p></li>
<li><p>Test your backup. I’ve seen too many cases, both at work and elsewhere, where folks were regularly backing up, only to find in a time of need that the backups were not working.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>Does Uchicago have on site repair places for HP or Sony laptops? If not, would there be places in the city for on site repair?</p>
<p>On a somewhat related note, can a current student or a knowledgeable parent comment on </p>
<ol>
<li>The speed of the internet (a speed test would be nice)</li>
<li>How strict the network admins are with p2p filesharing</li>
<li>What does it take to connect to the network (Cisco Clean Access, etc)</li>
</ol>
<p>It would be much appreciated!</p>
<p>Just thought I’d mention that HP also offers student discounts, through “HP Academy.” I got my lovely laptop there for a pretty good price.</p>