Need to find a laptop for my sons graduation...

338375

338375

Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Messages
19,374
My son Travis is graduating from High School next Friday, and will soon be starting college. We decided to get him a new laptop for one of his graduation presents, but we don't know much about them, and don't want to ask him lol...

The wife said he needs Office and Power Point based on suggestions from others who started out in college, but we aren't sure what else he may need, or if there are better programs for school use. So I'm looking to find out what brands and models are good, and which to avoid.

Thanks

Mike
 
Some universities, including the one I work at, supply students with laptops and software. Better check with the college he plans to attend.
 
pvicenzi said:
Some universities, including the one I work at, supply students with laptops and software. Better check with the college he plans to attend.
Click to expand...


Good call. And even if they don't provide them, they still may have specific requirements for him depending on his major.
 
1. Check with the University. What are new students required to have. Most have a student purchase price for software like Microsoft Office and other necessary programs so don't buy software right away.
2. What is he planning on studying? The demands of his program will help determine what he needs. Business and Engineering = Windows PC, Art, graphic design, and video production may call for a MacBook Pro.
3. You may want to rethink telling him or discussing with him. He may have his own opinion or needs that you don't know about.

We bought my son a MacBook Pro based on the above 3 when he headed to college last year.
 
If he is a gamer, MSI makes killer top of the line laptops. They are pricey though. I bought a MSI GS60 Ghost last winter for $1300, it has a Core i7 2.5ghz, 12gb ddr3, Geforce GTX 860m, 128gb SSD, 1TB 7200rpm hdd and its a 15" screen. I know that won't mean much to you Original Poster but other people will pick up on it. It's ungodly fast.

So anyways, if he games... Check out MSI and ASUS. They make great gaming laptops. You should ask him what he wants in a laptop though, because some come with a disc drive and some don't and they're much thinner.

If he doesn't game or do any type of video editing or performance hogging work, then the specs aren't really all that important as long as you get something new that isn't too cheap. All I can say is try to get something that has a solid state drive. Referred to as a SSD. It will come in either 128gb or 256gb typically with laptops. It is basically a new type of hard drive and it's incredibly fast. It comes in addition to the laptops storage hard drive which will just be a standard harddrive. It adds to the price but it is WELL worth it!

Also look for something that has at least an Intel Core i5 processor and at least 8gb of memory.

Honestly it would help a lot if you could give us a price limit and let us know if he is a Pc gamer or not. I could give you specific links to different machines if you can find that out. Otherwise it's just general suggestion.
 
The biggest things are:
-Budget
-what will he be studying
-what does he like to do

I got an engineering degree, and macs and PC's were well used and effective so the platform doesn't really matter. It's more personal preference.

The how powerful of a computer and it's features are mostly dependent on your budget. You don't need the latest and greatest core i7 with 16 gb of ram to go to college. Most people get by on sub $500 laptops.

It really comes down to battery life and weight. You want a computer that will last 5+ hrs on a charge. If you see a computer advertised with 8+ hr battery life, that was probably done on economy mode at 30% brightness only running the processor at 10% load. Take the advertised battery life, and cut it in half, that will be the realist battery life.

If he games, he'll be lugging around a 14 lb monster of a laptop. Lenovo Y500 gaming laptops are the best sub $1000 laptops. I have one. I love it. 1080P screen, 1 TB harddrive with 16 gb SSD, 8 gb ram, 2 graphics cards for under $800 OTD. Best laptop if he wants high end graphics capability and a strong processor. You could only game on it though if it was plugged in. It's advertised battery life is 5+ hrs. I get just under 3 hrs. I've stretched it to 5 hrs though. I play battlefield 4 on it with around 30 FPS on medium settings.

If he wants a productivity laptop, something for word processing, documents, straight up work, then I recommend a Surface Pro 3 Core i5 256 GB ram hardd rive. This is my work laptop as a project engineer. I run ASPEN, Super Pro, Pro II, Excel, word docs all day long on this and it's 100% awesome. So light, 7 hr battery life, but I usually get around 4 hrs on max brightness. It is a pretty penny though at $1600. This thing goes everywhere I go. I use it as a tablet to take quick notes, or docked at my work station extended across 3 29 inch monitors. I've also run android using Blue Stack Android Player on it if he wants to play on it like an android tablet and have all the apps from the Google Play store.

PM me if you want to discuss further.
 
I would get Asus over msi or lenovo.
Better built (especially keyboard!!)
Rear facing vents (who likes heated vent towards your hands?)
 
Thanks for the input everyone. The more I think about it, it does make more sense to ask him what he needs and wants, because we certainly don't know anything about them...
I will check to see if the school has a program for providing laptops, or even if they have discounts available too.

He does play games, and I really haven't put a budget on this. I would rather spend more money upfront, and get what he truly wants and needs.
 
What he majors in definately affects the choice. In our place, the art students get Macs because they are likely to be the computers used when they get a job. Everyone else gets a Thinkpad as they are more reasonably priced. As for software, we sometimes get licenses that allow all the students to use the software untill they graduate. The terms of the software licenses are negotiated, so the terms may vary. Just remember, the software folks want students to use their product, because when they graduate, they will most likely purchase the software that they are familiar with. This is why there are educational discounts for a lot of the software. Contact the IT people at the University.
 
pvicenzi said:
What he majors in definately affects the choice. In our place, the art students get Macs because they are likely to be the computers used when they get a job. Everyone else gets a Thinkpad as they are more reasonably priced. As for software, we sometimes get licenses that allow all the students to use the software untill they graduate. The terms of the software licenses are negotiated, so the terms may vary. Just remember, the software folks want students to use their product, because when they graduate, they will most likely purchase the software that they are familiar with. This is why there are educational discounts for a lot of the software. Contact the IT people at the University.
Click to expand...

Thanks. That makes sense. He hasn't decided on his major yet. He has his end goal fairly narrowed down to Mechanical engineering, or becoming an Orthodontist or Pediatrician. I don't care what he does as long as he doesn't drive truck lol...
 
If you want to order a laptop online, I suggest www.newegg.com. It is in my opinion the best computer retailer online, I've been using them for well over a decade. They even have credit options with preferred accounts available if you wanted to pay for the laptop over time.

I'll pick a few good ones out for you when I'm home later so you can check a few out. Also of course best buy always works, but newegg probably has a better price and a much better return policy thats for sure.
 
Converge said:
If you want to order a laptop online, I suggest www.newegg.com. It is in my opinion the best computer retailer online, I've been using them for well over a decade. They even have credit options with preferred accounts available if you wanted to pay for the laptop over time.

I'll pick a few good ones out for you when I'm home later so you can check a few out. Also of course best buy always works, but newegg probably has a better price and a much better return policy thats for sure.
Click to expand...

Sounds great. Thanks
 
Yep. Check with the college or university. They will recommend brands and software packages. Some software will be specific to certain majors of course. My parents bought their granddaughter (my niece) an all around laptop for college. Don't discount buying through the university either. They offered a high school grad/incoming freshman promo code + mail in rebate that ended up being cheaper then anything we could find online ie. best buy, newegg, tigerdirect, dell, etc.

Places like consumer reports, tomshardware, etc can offer some insight to which companies offer the better service and reliability.
 
My nephew started medical school this year, he has a degree in math and physics. He used nothing but a MacBook Pro his entire time in college. Macs run windows too, and the hardware is solid. Apple offers a student discount as well as the best support in the industry.
 
Heres a few I like. I agree though check with the school first.

These are pretty good for games, especially the first two. But if he's a gamer on a console like playstation or Xbox as opposed to PC games then you don't really need something like the top 4 here. Check out the 4th link down for something inbetween. If he does play PC games, they could be something worth lookin into. I have the first one here. I consider it getting into the realm of top of the line, but there are plenty of laptops out there that cost twice as much. Either way, I love it... The SSD really makes a difference, the speed And ease of use is greatly increased. It's hard to find a SSD on a laptop under $1k though that's at least 128gb.

Also, even though some laptops may be labeled "gaming" laptops, the only real difference is the color and a few programs that come installed. The prices are higher simply because the hardware is better and faster then your typical run of the mill laptop. So depending on your price range, even if he doesn't play many PC games it may still be worth getting a "gaming" laptop that has high end hardware. It will last and perform better in the long run, and won't require an upgrade as quick as some mid level laptops may down the road... Just a thought.


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-152-689&FM=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-152-711&FM=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-232-404&FM=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-318-428&FM=1

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=34-232-376&FM=1

Also remember a lot of laptops now don't have cd drives. I prefer this, it makes the laptop much thinner. Also discs are being phased out, and you can simply buy an external portable cd drive. They are very small, about the size of a CD case and only run you $25 or so. They connect with UsB.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=27-106-104&FM=1
 
Last edited:
It depends on what sort of program he is doing.

If all they are doing is rehashing old material and pumping out essays then a 13 inch ultrabook is the way to go. Most college programs fit this category as far as I know.

For a good generalist computer check out one of the following...
- Lenovo yoga pro
- Macbook pro 13
- macbook air
- Surface pro (not really a great stand alone device all things considered, but some people like them)
- sony vaio pro
- dell xps 13
- asus zenbook.
Make sure the retailer isn't trying to unload old merchandise on you (many of these laptops have gone through multiple generations of improvements). Also make sure it has an SSD!!!, at least a current generation i5 processor, and at least 8gb of memory.

If the workload is PDF heavy (going through volumes and volumes of digitized research papers and case studies) you'll want to pair the laptop with at least a 24 inch non reflective screen.

If he needs to run more complicated 3d design software (engineering, architecture, design etc) he might need a desktop computer and likely he will have a better idea of how to spec it for his needs.

Finally check if the college has a decent computer lab. If it does he's probably better off using their equipment. That way someone else has to buy, maintain and support all the course specific software.
 
Last edited:
Don't pick a laptop for him, let him pick one. He knows better than anybody what he needs in a computer.
 
dynamicmoves said:
Don't pick a laptop for him, let him pick one. He knows better than anybody what he needs in a computer.
Click to expand...

Definitely the best advice so far

You could still surprise him with the news and maybe s card or something... And take him to go pick one out together. Also I don't know how good best buys return policy is, but newegg I believe has a 30 day money back gaurantee if you don't like it. I'm 90% sure on that but I'll double check. You could always go in store to check something out, then buy it online if you wanted to. I do that a lot with many different products
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top