Cheap laptop for school?

[Irenices]

I just began going to college again after a few years off and iv realized that i write much faster and get my thoughts on paper a lot easier by typing rather than writing. Im looking for a cheaper (maybe 300 or under though i could go higher) laptop/netbook now but i have absolutely no idea of where to start. I looked at the chromebook and it seemed nice but i dont know about the whole weird OS thing is has going on. So please shoot me some suggestions, i could even do a tablet with a keyboard plugged in if thats going to get me the best bang for my buck.

[lost_soul]

If I were you, I would try to get a laptop with an AMD APU. These machines are cheap and still can play some games. What about getting a last-gen APU laptop for a reasonable price? Watch out for some of the "deals" you can find online though. Just the other day, I saw somebody selling a model of laptop I used to have for around your price. They listed the condition as "good> When I read the details, it said the v key was hard to press and the screen goes white sometimes when you move the machine, requiring you to close/reopen the lid to fix it.

 

"good condition" my ***. I classify good as fully functional, with a bit of scratches/scuffs here and there.

Edited September 13, 2013 by lost_soul

[Bikerdude]

What LS said, where arw you located and what online shops do you use?

[Lux]

If you get an Asus netbook you're going to be in your price range, be able to run word processing apps (albeit slow), and have other connectivity options with a familiar (probably) though limited Windows 7 OS (Starter edition).

 

You can't change your wallpaper... ick. But there are third party apps that allow you to do that although at the expense of using more memory and CPU cycles and probably at some small cost.

 

Not sure how computer literate you are but it "feels" from your statement that you want something specifically for educational/paper writing/email correspondence activities. I would think a netbook would be ideal for you.

 

You're going to sacrifice performance. I would get something with 2GB of memory minimum and I'd shoot for 4GB if you want something usable in more circumstances that isn't limiting. The fastest processor you can get preferably dual-core, and an operating system that you're comfortable with.

 

Beyond that its all prices and brands. Some more suggestions/information on how you'll be using this device would be appreciated for recommendations.

 

Its a crowed market so you really can't go wrong if you take a reputable brand with decent customer support (there's always the web for answers if that's your thing), get a fast processor with multiple cores, enough memory, etc.

 

Most netbooks and many laptops are going to suffer from slow hard drive reads/writes because they use low power 5400rpm hard drives. This can be remedied with a solid state drive to give you a desktop like experience but we don't know your proficiency level so its hard to judge.

[Irenices]

Im in the US and i mostly use newegg for computer stuff.

My friend just suggest a "Asus F502CA-EB31 intel core i3 2367M" (i cant seem to copy paste here), if you google that newegg is the first result. He owns one and said good things about it. 360$ on sale at the moment which is very doable for me.

 

What do ya'll think about it? He said it runs pretty smooth (i cant stand using slow computers) and being windows i could throw on some other programs im familier with very easily.

Edited September 13, 2013 by Irenices

[Bikerdude]

- http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231073&Tpk=Asus%20F502CA-EB31%20intel%20core%20i3%202367M

 

The laptop itself looks pretty and at 4.4lbs its light enough, the cpu is an ivy-bridge part dual core with hyper-threading, 3M cache and HD3000 gpu. But thats where the romance ends, the GPU wont be capable of running TDM at anything beyond 800*600 without stuttering and the HDD is lickely to be a 5400rpm, which is painfully slow at best - best thing to do there is replace with a cheap refurbished SSD, which would raise the budget to $440.

[lost_soul]

Wow, nice and thin. I have nothing bad to say about ASUS machines. My ASUS netbook and laptop never gave me a bit of trouble.

[demagogue]

An Asus netbook is great for school. It's practically tablet/ipad sized & has a long battery life, so it's good to carry to class for notetaking. And you can net surf and write papers. Changing the background takes an app, yes, but it's free and not that much of a resource hog. If you can get the one with extra memory it's good. Even then it's still not for highend gaming, but you can play retrogames just fine (which was a good excuse for me to finish some classics) and you can even still map for TDM.

[Irenices]

- http://www.newegg.co...re%20i3%202367M

 

The laptop itself looks pretty and at 4.4lbs its light enough, the cpu is an ivy-bridge part dual core with hyper-threading, 3M cache and HD3000 gpu. But thats where the romance ends, the GPU wont be capable of running TDM at anything beyond 800*600 without stuttering and the HDD is lickely to be a 5400rpm, which is painfully slow at best - best thing to do there is replace with a cheap refurbished SSD, which would raise the budget to $440.

 

Im not to worried about gaming on it as i have my very nice desktop that im on right now, i just want something i can carry with me and write/research on wherever i am. Though i might toss dwarf fortress on it or something.

My friend made the same suggestion with a SSD which i will probably do a little later on, i dont think i can afford the SSD on top of the laptop currently.

Edited September 14, 2013 by Irenices

[Irenices]

I put in an order for that asus one, thank you all for feedback and suggestions.

[lost_soul]

If you get that laptop and you decide that the Windows 8 new/metro UI sucks, install this: http://www.classicshell.net/

 

Its free and gives you the *real* start menu back. You can even use the Win2k start menu if you like.

[Irenices]

Awsome, thanks lost. The windows 8 ui was one of the main things i was not looking forward to. I hear windows 8.1 is coming out in October which is going to have a option for a normal desktop as well?

[lost_soul]

Windows 8.1 is a free upgrade for Windows 8 users, so don't let that stop you from getting your laptop now.

 

It will have the start *button* back, but that start button will take you to the new UI. It will also contain the ability to boot directly to the traditional desktop. I'm 99% certain that Classic Shell already allows you to boot to the desktop by default anyway. I'm quite sure I was able to do this when I used CS on the Windows 8 preview.

Edited September 14, 2013 by lost_soul

[jaxa]

I'll take a look on Slickdeals and see what's out there. $300 is a pretty tight budget for a laptop though.

 

Nvm, didn't see you had ordered. Can't find anything anyway.

Edited September 14, 2013 by jaxa