<p>I'll be attending Case as a freshman in the coming fall, likely majoring in engineering. I want to purchase a laptop and I was looking at the laptops that may be purchased through the student premier dell site. Since I'm majoring in engineering I pretty much ruled out getting a mac. I'm not sure what the best choice would be: </p>
<p>Dell Latitude E6320- $1140
Dell Latitude E6420, -$1070
Dell Latitude E6520, -$1100
or Dell Latitude E5520 -$720</p>
<p>The first three are all of similar price and have similar specs, but the last one is the cheapest. Are these good deals, or would I be better off buying a laptop elsewhere? Is anyone familiar with any of these models? I'm not very computer-savvy and don't really know what any of these specifications mean..haha</p>
<p>I wouldn’t get any of the “recommended” bundles through the eStore. They are all seriously underpowered for the price and Case offers a lot of software for free that you can download. Think of it like the “offer” that was on your New Student Checklist about linens and bed things. The bundles were expensive just for convenience. If you’re going into engineering you need something better. Frankly that E5520 with only 2GB of RAM is a rip-off.</p>
<p>I’ve had three (3) Dell laptops over 10 years, and I’m very satisfied with their reliability. The one (1) HP I purchased died just after the warranty expired (12 months) and when I took it in for repair, the technician told me that HPs were the most unreliable laptops around.</p>
<p>If you are going to carry it to class often, you should consider a Lenovo thinkpad or HP Elitebook or some other business class machine. You will pay more for comparable specs. if you do go with a consumer notebook, make sure you keep it cool and don’t flex it too much.</p>