As a new college student: Is this a good laptop?

Abberdabbe

I'm investing in a new laptop, and I was curious as to if this will get me through all four years of college. I'm looking at the HP Spectre 14t-3200 Ultrabook. As I'm customizing it, should I:

*Stick with the 4GB (1600MHz DDR3 System Memory), or pay an extra $100 for the 8GB?
*Stick with the 128GB (Solid State Drive Flash Module), or pay an extra $200 for the 256GB?
*Should I get the $98.99 Microsoft Office Home and Student 2013, or is there a cheaper way to get it?
*Should I even invest in theft protection? I'm going to a private school where thefts are uncommon, but it is college. It's Computrace LoJack Software and it ranges from 1 to 4 years and from $24 to $94.
*Should I get the secondary adapter? It's the HP 65W Slim Travel Power Adapter and it costs $67.49.
*I probably want a CD/DVD external drive. There's two choices: HP dvd600s USB External DVD Writer ($45.49) or the HP External USB DVD Drive (non lightscribe) ($51.99). Any suggestions?
*And finally, should I get any of these accessories?
Wireless Audio Accessory ($50)
HP HDMI to VGA Display Adapter ($50)
HP Notebook Slim Travel Power Adapter - 65W ($70)

Without any of the add-on's, the price of the laptop is $1100 with the rebate. I'm on a budget, but I'm also willing to invest since it will last me all of college, and hopefully beyond.

If it helps, I'm going to be a nursing student at a private college, Otterbein University (Go Cardinals!). I'm joining their Leadership Living Learning Community, but I don't know how much of a computer I'll need. I play games, but it's all an emulator on my flash drive. If you have any other questions about how much I use a computer and for what, let me know.

I'm sorry for such a long question. If you can only partially answer, that's alright. Thanks so much for everything!

Answer
ASUS laptop.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230987
Core i5 3230M(2.60GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1600 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 610M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230416
Core i5 3210M(2.50GHz) 14.1" 8GB Memory 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 620M

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230597
Core i7 3630QM(2.40GHz) 15.6" 8GB Memory 1TB HDD 5400rpm DVD±R/RW NVIDIA GeForce GT 635M

Two HP that can be customized to what you need

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/B5Y73AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ000046kL18cI;sid=9zDf3cQuLykz6ZWxCIeGSR0hwywaiPAyMmXy0Rex_etSdk9VLxt6fHwh?HP-ENVY-dv6z-7200-Notebook-PC

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-Pavilion/B6C46AV;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-Pavilion-g6z-2200-Notebook-PC Your choice of 5 colors

These are not customizable

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2K91UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-Sleekbook-6-1110us
HP SleekBook AMD Quad-Core A8-4555M APU AMD Radeon HD 7600G 4 GB DDR3 500 GB SATA (5400 rpm)

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/home-office/-/products/Laptops/HP-ENVY/C2N66UA;pgid=c7twGfjc0ptSRpIq7ZUcoGXQ0000ptFcn-Ce;sid=UfkUk5vYup7bi8p-xu5OB0LXZeXRxq_ElKxaT319WyKZOCFLk0_Q5UIX?HP-ENVY-dv7-7230us-Notebook-PC
17" DV7-7230US laptop AMD Quad-Core A8-4500M APU AMD Radeon HD 7640G 6 GB DDR3 750 GB SATA (5400 rpm)

Buying advice

Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.

Ultrabooks are the higher end of Wintel laptops but they have some of the same concerns as Apple. They make it next to impossible to change any hardware in them. Service of them will have to be done by the manufacturers. With most of them, you can not change your own battery or hard drive. They are designed to catch your eye but they are not any more special then other laptops except for the fact that they are slim or thin. Your paying for it being thin and slim. For the money your going to spend on it you can buy a much better laptop with more power.

Tablets are just toys to me. They can not handle the work load like Laptops and Desktops and do not have the storage capacity you will end up needing.

Hybrids are the worse of the worse. The flip or detachable touch screens are just a disaster waiting to happen.

Never buy an All In One. They are far worst then laptops of any kind to service and they have a higher failure rate. My experience with them are limited because the few I worked on made me think they were designed in such a way as it would take a blow torch and a jack hammer just to disassemble them.

Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them.

Companies like Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided at all cost because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install you can cripple the system.

Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. Low end system that are driving the race to the bottom.

Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.

Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name then product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.

Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap causing units to fail early leading to repairs that should not have been needed. For that reason I would avoid them.

ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it.

Choose wisely.

What's the best laptop for incoming college students?

Amanda

I'm going to be a freshman majoring in Nursing. Im also due for a new laptop. What would be the best laptop for me to get? I also need lots of space for my itunes.

Answer
This buying guide should help: http://johnlamansky.com/tech/laptops-for-college-students/

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