best laptop for college engineering major image
Tyler
I want a laptop for college, but I don't have the slightest idea what to buy. I don't want biased answers based on the operating system or any of that. I am (hopefully) going to be an engineering major so I need something that can handle all that I have to throw at it. I have a desktop computer that I built a while back that I will use for most of my computing while not in classes. I want something portable with a long battery life.
Answer
Well, lets take the logical route here, now you want long battery life but you want it to handle everything you can throw at it.
That crosses out pretty much any hardcore gaming laptop
That crosses out pretty much any laptop without a good GPU
that crosses out Dual core laptops
That crosses out ultra portable laptops.
Before I cross out Ultra books, ask yourself these questions:
Am I going to do any gaming, Graphics design or otherwise anything Graphics intensive?
If you are not going to do ANY thing graphics intensive, the by all means, you have your answer, the UltraBook is for you!
If you answered no, or most likely Im going to do something graphics intensive, then ultrabook style laptops are not for you.
Lets move on.
Now we are left with
AMD+ATi (Fusion)
Intel + ATi
Intel + Nvidia
Lets start with Intel + Nvidia
Intel + Nvidia will give you the most performance, an acceptable battery life of 4-6 hours and of course these computers, the ones I would consider as laptops, at about 800$ up to about 2500$
They tend to run games very well, and overall very good performance, but there are several downsides,
1.
Nvidia chips are faster, but they generate ALLOT of heat, they are known loved but also disliked mainly because people are usually not happy about 92c right on top of their private parts.
Intel is currently in the process of developing their own GPU, in effect they have barred ATi and Nvidia from integrating their chipsets onto intel compatible motherboards, the computer world thinks this is evil and frowns upon Intel (you should to) very dirty
the current result is an intel chipset, that does not give the appropriate priority to the chips these 2 companies have developed for well over 20 years each, Only to make their own crappy intel graphics look a little bit less crappy (its true)
2.
Intel+ATi
Costs about the same as Intel + Nvidia
ATi tends to run just a drop slower then Nvidia chips, but they use less power, run a LOT cooler and ATi tends to be the ones to have the innovations year after year, although, Nvidia still holds the number 1 spot for speed, no doubt about that.
The same goes for the problem with Intel, they will most likely try to hurt AMD owned ATi, as we have seen in the past (European court rulings against Intel)
AMD+ATi
they are not the fastest laptops, but the cost is about Half that for a comparable Intel+ATi/Nvidia and the speed difference is about 15% in terms of CPU power and 0% for Graphics abilities.
Personal friends of mines have displayed Great pleasure and no problems with their current generation Fusion laptops.
The cost runs from 350-900$.
Battery life is exceptionally high on these laptops, Review after review reports 6+ hours with normal
AMD Laptops offer Quadcore and Dual GPU laptops for as low as 600$ ! compared to Intel counterparts which start at 1600$ Just to match the performance.
usage, even for the highest specked quadcore models.
There are 2 kinds of Fusion
Fusion
Fusion 2GPU
What is Fusion
A processor chip with a Powerful Graphics chip built into it, Not to be confused with evil wannabees
Fusion 2 simply means there are 2 graphics chips built in, for example:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6755G2.57278.0.html
a single will not have a 2 behind the G, Example
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html
Your next question should be, This is my budget I want a laptop to do this and this and that.
Best of luck with collage.
Well, lets take the logical route here, now you want long battery life but you want it to handle everything you can throw at it.
That crosses out pretty much any hardcore gaming laptop
That crosses out pretty much any laptop without a good GPU
that crosses out Dual core laptops
That crosses out ultra portable laptops.
Before I cross out Ultra books, ask yourself these questions:
Am I going to do any gaming, Graphics design or otherwise anything Graphics intensive?
If you are not going to do ANY thing graphics intensive, the by all means, you have your answer, the UltraBook is for you!
If you answered no, or most likely Im going to do something graphics intensive, then ultrabook style laptops are not for you.
Lets move on.
Now we are left with
AMD+ATi (Fusion)
Intel + ATi
Intel + Nvidia
Lets start with Intel + Nvidia
Intel + Nvidia will give you the most performance, an acceptable battery life of 4-6 hours and of course these computers, the ones I would consider as laptops, at about 800$ up to about 2500$
They tend to run games very well, and overall very good performance, but there are several downsides,
1.
Nvidia chips are faster, but they generate ALLOT of heat, they are known loved but also disliked mainly because people are usually not happy about 92c right on top of their private parts.
Intel is currently in the process of developing their own GPU, in effect they have barred ATi and Nvidia from integrating their chipsets onto intel compatible motherboards, the computer world thinks this is evil and frowns upon Intel (you should to) very dirty
the current result is an intel chipset, that does not give the appropriate priority to the chips these 2 companies have developed for well over 20 years each, Only to make their own crappy intel graphics look a little bit less crappy (its true)
2.
Intel+ATi
Costs about the same as Intel + Nvidia
ATi tends to run just a drop slower then Nvidia chips, but they use less power, run a LOT cooler and ATi tends to be the ones to have the innovations year after year, although, Nvidia still holds the number 1 spot for speed, no doubt about that.
The same goes for the problem with Intel, they will most likely try to hurt AMD owned ATi, as we have seen in the past (European court rulings against Intel)
AMD+ATi
they are not the fastest laptops, but the cost is about Half that for a comparable Intel+ATi/Nvidia and the speed difference is about 15% in terms of CPU power and 0% for Graphics abilities.
Personal friends of mines have displayed Great pleasure and no problems with their current generation Fusion laptops.
The cost runs from 350-900$.
Battery life is exceptionally high on these laptops, Review after review reports 6+ hours with normal
AMD Laptops offer Quadcore and Dual GPU laptops for as low as 600$ ! compared to Intel counterparts which start at 1600$ Just to match the performance.
usage, even for the highest specked quadcore models.
There are 2 kinds of Fusion
Fusion
Fusion 2GPU
What is Fusion
A processor chip with a Powerful Graphics chip built into it, Not to be confused with evil wannabees
Fusion 2 simply means there are 2 graphics chips built in, for example:
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6755G2.57278.0.html
a single will not have a 2 behind the G, Example
http://www.notebookcheck.net/AMD-Radeon-HD-6520G.55734.0.html
Your next question should be, This is my budget I want a laptop to do this and this and that.
Best of luck with collage.
What is a good laptop for college?
one_king44
I need a laptop for college.
Basically I'd like it to have at least 80 GB or more hard drive. Be fast. and last a long time. Cheap is always nice.
I'm an engineering major by the way.
Also I'm not planning on playing any new games on it.
Answer
well if your planning on using autocad or something of that sort on it then u need a good graphics card. also if you get vista get at least 2gb 3 or 4 would be great. good luck. check out www.tigerdirect.com and some of their gateway's priced around $400 - $600 should be good. although they have an integrated video card.....it should handle it.
\/ your gonna want a better processor than that at bestbuy..... i'd recomend a core 2 duo or pentium D centrino is an old and slow processor. try to get above a 2.0ghz also.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722122716AAw0NtL&r=w
well if your planning on using autocad or something of that sort on it then u need a good graphics card. also if you get vista get at least 2gb 3 or 4 would be great. good luck. check out www.tigerdirect.com and some of their gateway's priced around $400 - $600 should be good. although they have an integrated video card.....it should handle it.
\/ your gonna want a better processor than that at bestbuy..... i'd recomend a core 2 duo or pentium D centrino is an old and slow processor. try to get above a 2.0ghz also.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080722122716AAw0NtL&r=w
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Title Post: What kind of laptop should I buy?
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Rating: 100% based on 9998 ratings. 5 user reviews.
Author: Unknown
Thanks For Coming To My Blog
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