Best Laptop for College Student??

[archineer]

It's also pointless buying him a mac unless his degree is in a design field (pretty much all design fields these days), photography, music or film production. Apple is industry standard in these areas. Bear in mind however that you get what you pay for - a cheap laptop will most likely be unreliable.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by archineer

It's also pointless buying him a mac unless his degree is in a design field (pretty much all design fields these days), photography, music or film production. Apple is industry standard in these areas. Bear in mind however that you get what you pay for - a cheap laptop will most likely be unreliable.

Somewhat true. But the OP already mentioned what the young man is going to be using a laptop for, and that it seems that most other students at the school use Macs. It means that any laptop (PC or Mac) would be fine. I do agree with you in that going the cheap way may not be the best way in the long run. Regardless, if I were the OP I would buy a good quality laptop.

I have both PC and Mac laptops, and most of the maintenance time, including antivirus, trojan, and the rest, is on the PC laptops.

[RayinAK]

Originally Posted by Nomander

ALWAYS...

And if he doesn't like it, he can work a job to chip in the extra he needs.

Kids need to pull their collective heads out of their arses and realize their parents are "helping them", not giving them a pass to resort living.

I would say, "perhaps" instead of "always" for the following reasons, and after having four kids (now adults and independent):

a. While some of us help our kids financially (school), a great number of them also work hard to earn extra cash. I have a crew of 12 students working with me at school each summer. Maybe half of them are being helped by their parents and other relatives, but still work for extra cash.

b. If I am going to give one of my kids a laptop, as mentioned by the OP, I would at least ask my kid if he or she has a preference, and try to make those wishes come true to a point; the kid himself (or herself) may be able to pitch-in and go the rest of the way. The reason why I would do this is because there is a better chance that my kid would use his or her choice of computer to the fullest.

c. Thru the years I figured that it was cheaper for me to give my kids a good quality gift at least once every few years, instead of going cheap once or twice per year (Christmas, and birthdays). I also found this to be true with a lot of the gifs for myself. For example, buying several cheap fishing poles and reels (just an example), instead of spending some of this cash in a good fishing pole/reel combo.

[EscapeCalifornia]

Originally Posted by RayinAK

I have both PC and Mac laptops, and most of the maintenance time, including antivirus, trojan, and the rest, is on the PC laptops.

You're doing something wrong if you spend time doing that on a PC.

[beth98]

For what the OP described as her sons needs there is no reason he needs an expensive Mac or and expensive PC for that matter. PC do have more virus issues but with a little (free) reading online about how to protect your computer he should be able to get through school just fine on a $400-500 PC. As others have suggested get office suite from the campus store that should be the cheapest way to get it, unless you already own the software.

I'm using a $400 PC I purchased over 3 years ago, that works just fine. It's plenty fast enough. There isn't a noticeable difference in speed when using Word or browsing between this and my brand new $900 laptop work bought me (though I do more on it, so there is a reason for the extra money). I've had one major issue with it in that time, that I was able to solve myself with an online guide. I believe I bought it at microcenter. As a generally rule, the cheaper the laptop the more pre-loaded crap there will be on it, but you can (and should) remove all that junk.

[EscapeCalifornia]

If you're really concerned about malware, password protect the administrator account and only let your son log on as a limited user. Sure, he can get around it if he really wants to, but then he can deal with the consequences if he screws it up.

[jcgriff2]

I would suggest a laptop with this hardware configuration -

· 2nd Generation Intel Core i3 or Core i5 CPU
· comes with Intel HD graphics
· 15.6" display
· 4GB RAM
· 500GB hard drive
· Intel wifi
· Webcam
· Windows 7 x64 SP1 - no Macs!

Intel i3 - i3 PC Laptops - BestBuy
Intel i5 - i5 PC Laptops - BestBuy

Free Microsoft MSE will be fine for virus protection.

Regards. . .

jcgriff2

[laptops4college]

In my case I would prefer a laptop that has:
Intel i7 processor
8Gb RAM
NVIDIA graphics

This would be an excellent laptop good for gaming and 3D effects.