<p>soo i'm planning on buying a laptop soon and im lost with so many different choices lol.
i was wondering wat type of laptop is the best at UCI for a biological sciences major and pre-med?
thanks for all ur replies in advance.</p>
<p>What do you mean by type of laptop? PC or Mac? Go with the PC! I’m not a bio major, but I believe there are some programs that need to be run that can only be run in windows, and not in Mac’s os, but I can’t say bc I don’t know much about macs…</p>
<p>I do know that you are paying for the name, when you buy a macbook.</p>
<p>For the most part. Higher numbers = better and more costly. Another thing to add to what junshik said about paying for the name, different companies style their keyboards, touchpads, and anything about the chassis (# of USB ports, VGA port, built in web-cam, microphone, charger, etc).</p>
<p>So if you’re not EECS or Comp Sci, you’re not going to need any of those heavy duty i7’s or mobile quad-cores. Dual core is becoming standard pretty much right now.</p>
<p>You want at least 3 hours battery life (you can plug in at tons of school outlets) maybe more (I would shoot for 5-6 hours).</p>
<p>For school, one most likely wants an integrated graphics card (this means low-end). Only reason you need an dedicated one is for gaming. Gaming on any laptop… is just painful but they have them for those people that need their fixes… The reason integrated cards are good is that they keep the price of the laptop down.</p>
<p>Weight, you’ll make yourself happy keeping it 5-6 pounds. This is pretty much directly correlated with screen size though… I would say 16" (measured on the diagonal) is the biggest you should consider. Desks in lecture halls I’m guessing are only about 12 inches wide…</p>
<p>HD size… that’s on you, 200GB+/5400-7200 rpms are standard… maybe a Solid State Drive (expensive stuff)…</p>
<p>Here’s a great deal for the light gamer:
[Newegg.com</a> - HP Pavilion dv4-2140us NoteBook AMD Turion II Dual-Core M520(2.3GHz) 14.1" Wide XGA 4GB Memory 320GB HDD 7200rpm DVD Super Multi ATI Radeon HD 4200](<a href=“Are you a human?”>Are you a human?)</p>
<p>Cheap, and a great buy in my opinion: 4gb ram, it may be a Turion dual-core, but it still holds its own against the core 2 duo. Reviews are generally good, 320 gb HD, (which is more than enough for the average college student), 14 in. display (perfect size for the college student), battery life will last more than 3 hours assuming you lower the brightness a bit and slow your processor down. And then you have the radeon hd 4200 which should suffice for the light casual gamer.</p>
<p>oh wow only 12 in wide desks /= lol ic.
and sorry i didnt specify but i guess im going with pc.
i was wondering what brand/company laptop u guys would recommend? hp, dell, toshiba, etc.<br>
i want it to last all 4 years if possible. and im hearing some bad stuff about hp laptops but im not sure if that applies to everyone…
thanks for the help!</p>
<p>We are on our second Toshiba laptop at home. Bought low end, short battery life, etc. The first one worked well for about 2 years before trouble started, it eventually died because the power connection no longer connects (and, at this point, it has numerous other little problems as well, but it’s now 5 years old and has been out of commission for 6 months).</p>
<p>Problems with the power cord made me feel better about my daughter’s decision to buy a Macbook Pro for college (I know all the computer savvy PC lovers will not be happy with me). My husband and I tried very hard to find a reason that Mac would not be good for her business classes but were not supported by input from her college so we let her spend all her grad money on the Mac. Hopefully the magnetic power cord and long battery life will make her happy.</p>
<p>OOPS I neglected to mention the fact that you can also simply rest the laptop… ON YOUR LAP. haha…</p>
<p>Um I had an Compaq laptop (HP) that lasted me 3 years and still running, it just got outdated and recently switched to Gateway.</p>
<p>A mac is a GREAT option for college especially for one thats not especially computer literate. </p>
<p>It does everything well instant boot up time from sleep and best of all . It offer protection against most Mal-ware which can slow down a computer. </p>
<p>Not turning this into a Mac vs Pc debate. The battery never heats up to super extreme levels while using on my lap and i gotta say before i got a Mac i thought the same thing. </p>
<p>Why overpay? for convenience and basically it does everything well from Itunes to managing photo to webcam chat. I gotta say i’ve had my mac quite a while a 2008 black macbook and the battery is still as good as new 4+ on one charge and run as well as it did when i first got it. Can’t say that about any desktop or Laptop i’ve had int he past.</p>
<p>Also if you need a program that is run only on windows you can install it via Bootcamp not say it’s the most convenient thing but it’s an option</p>
<p>I’m also not turning this into a PC vs Mac debate, as a thread already exists… but a PC is also able to run iTunes, webcam chat via OovOO/skype/etc, manage photos, thats with any computer. </p>
<p>With a pricetag of over $1,000, of course the MacBook isn’t going to skimp out on basic essentials in terms of specs (ram,processor, gpu, hd, etc.)</p>
<p>But the Macbook does have a great re-sell value, and their customer service is great.</p>
<p>As for PC laptop brands, not so much for the brand that is important, it is the MODEL that is equally as important… but since you asked for brands,</p>
<p>Lenovo Thinkpads, Sony Vaio’s, I can’t say about Toshiba… HP is up there, ASUS is also very reliable… some people just don’t know about ASUS.
You can’t go wrong with the Dell Studio or the XPS series neither.</p>
<p>generally with PCs the more you spend, the shorter the battery life… anything about 1k+ is usually approaching a 3 hour charge.</p>
<p>Some ASUS models come with a 1 year accidental warranty included with the laptop while typically being cheaper than a competition model with the same hardware. Id say go for ASUS if you are looking for a quality machine.</p>
<p>I am going to buy an i7 laptop, but I am waiting for the back-to-school sales for more competitive pricing.</p>
<p>Also you can save money by buying from an online retailer like Amazon. If you are spending 1k on a laptop you save yourself nearly 100 dollars in taxes and fees (California sales tax and California electronics recycling fee)</p>
<p>Putting everything Mac vs PC aside because we already had that disaster (haha), I just wanna say I guess I kind of took my battery life for granted, but it’s pretty awesome! My Mac can run for about 4-6 hours with the brightness setting on low and fully charged beforehand. I have the old, original version so I’m guessing it’s even better with newer versions! It’s been treating me really well this summer since I have a 2 hr bio lecture I would like to take notes for and record the lecture on my laptop. </p>
<p>So no matter what laptop you get, I highly recommend a longer battery life! It really helps when you’ve got a long class or you can’t get to a power outlet right away. The desks are small but if your laptop isn’t THAT big, it will still fit. You just have to be careful not to knock it over. It also gets tiring on the wrists sometimes so you’ll want to alternate it with putting it on your lap anyways.</p>
<p>And just a random tidbit, my friend has an HP and she dropped it hard, like 3 times and she’s still using it (with a slightly messed up screen of course…)! I just thought that was amazing, haha. I guess it’s durable.</p>
<p>get a pc, sometimes the bio powerpoints dont load right on mac formatting. I had an HP laptop and only lasted 2 years, same with my other friend (dont get an HP). </p>
<p>lenovo, toshiba, sony vaio, or dell laptops are okay.</p>
<p>Another question, I have a large laptop-one of those that have a 16.5 screen and weigh 500 pounds, and I was planning to use that as more of a desktop and then perhaps have a netbook with me in order to take notes, and do small things. Obiovusly I doubt ill need something so powerful while I am running from one class to the next, so does this whole scenario seem plausible?</p>
<p>^, yes why not? I actually did that, except I had a real desktop computer in my dorm, while I carried a netbook to class/library/etc.</p>
<p>I used an ASUS EEE, very nice.</p>
<p>Dude I’ve seen people carry those giant ones to class. It’s not uncommon.</p>
<p>Where are the outlets generally located in the lecture halls?</p>
<p>^ Not enough, trust me. There’s maybe like 2-4 in the entire lecture hall, and it depends on which lecture hall. They’re usually at the very back or at the sides, and that’s it.</p>
<p>i have a toshiba laptop, and i plan to carry that thing around. it’s 15.4" and the battery alsts about 2.5 hours. maybe 3 hours max. it’s pretty decent… but it’s kinda heavy.
i never owned a mac in my life, and they’re expensive, so i just decided to buy this laptop for a pretty cheap price. um. i really don’t think which one you carry around to school really matters…</p>
<p>Oh goodness. I thought that some of my questions would be answered through this thread but now I have more -0-X</p>
<p>truthfully it’s this simple. </p>
<p>Do you have small hand, can read small print, and want portability - get a netbook</p>
<p>Do computer you own slow down dramatically over time? ( ie after 1 year your computer takes 10 minutes to boot up) - get a mac</p>
<p>Do you like to play games on your laptop and/or enjoy windows? - get any laptop.</p>
<p>Are you willing to pay a premium for ease of use and Aesthetics - get a mac</p>
<p>do you like more processing power for editing movies or believe in getting the most for your money - get a desktop</p>