Son Started University-What Laptop?

Our son started third level recently. We need to get him a laptop. I know about hard disc memory, RAM etc. but would anyone recommend any particular model in particular? Do they come with Word and Excel as standard? I have a feeling that they don't.

Re MS Office....Generally they dont come with MS Office but I think there is a still a teacher/student MS Office available and can be used on up to 3 home PC/Laptops, sometimes you may this as part of a package.

Re Latop...not sure of the current best specs or what to look out for, last year I went for a Toshiba for my daughter and to date we've had no problems, touch wood.

One thing that someone else might know the answer --- most of the current crop of laptop might now have Windows 7, is this better than Vista or is it too early to know?

The advice we were given by an IT guy , was to stay away from celeron processors . We bought an athlon processor afterwards .He told us that that core-2-duo or dual core are the best processors )

Were also advised to buy either Sony , HP, Toshiba , or Compaq . Bought a Compaq .

Course times have changed a lot since last January , and there is now windows 7 to consider . Vista / Xp seem to be history .

And Microsoft Office 2007 seems to be the way forward .( not very user-friendly though )

We bought in pc world , and had no problems .

You will be offered many extra's when purchasing so only choose what you really need .

Our salesman wanted to sell us the following as extra at discounted prices , which we declined .

1. Anti-virus ( download avg for free )
2. MS Office 07 ( uploaded our own version of MS 03 instead )
3. Surge protector ( not really necessary for a laptop )
4. Carrier Bag € 40 - ( bought one in Tesco for € 10 )

Dont be fooled by hdmi and blue ray - your son should be able to live without them

Lex Foutish said:

Do they come with Word and Excel as standard? I have a feeling that they don't.

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Bought Microsoft Enterprise (includes word, excel, powerpoint etc 2007) from www.Software4students.ie last month. You can have it loaded on 2 pc's/laptops. There was a great price of 47ish euro then but it is over 100 euro now but still great value in comparison to buying at retail outlets.

If you don't want to shell out for the student price of MS office, you can download Openoffice for free from www.openoffice.org. I have been using it for the past few years and it is fine, compatible with MS office both ways. It is open source software.

Thanks, everyone. I saw an Acer laptop today with 3GB RAM and 150GB Memory. Around €650 with everything he needs loaded onto it, including antivirus. Strongly considering it at the moment.

Sorry for hijacking this a bit but was asked today about two laptops in Soundstore (Limerick).

1. 15.6" with a Sempron 2.0GHz processor for €329

2. 17" with an AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor for €399

Both are Toshibas with Windows 7

Prices are on offer if you sign up for eircom broadband

Question.....which processor would be the better of the two?

OP - They also sell MS Office for €99.99 when purchased with any laptop

Have a look in Aldi and Lidl. I picked up a laptop in Aldi last month for 399 euro. They come with a 3 year guarantee at a great price. Even brand snobs who inspect my laptop are impressed by its features and quality.

bullworth said:

Have a look in Aldi and Lidl. I picked up a laptop in Aldi last month for 399 euro. They come with a 3 year guarantee at a great price. Even brand snobs who inspect my laptop are impressed by its features and quality.

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My daughter bought a Medion Laptop in Aldi some 3-4 year ago and loves it. Never had a problem. I bought a Medion in June and love it too. My husband has a Fujitsu Siemens and hates it. He is envious of our Medions. I would definately recommend Aldi for the Medion Laptop.

Avoid Vista for laptop - too power and memory hungry and will slow it down.

I use XP on my laptop and its fast, but I read that Windows 7 is even smaller and so it will help lower powered laptops run faster.

Have you considered a netbook, these are taking over the laptop market - they are smaller, easier to carry, better on batteries and are powerful enough to just use for word/excel and general surfing. Could also listen to music without much hassle. Obviously would not be as capable as a higher powered laptop for gaming and multiple applications but thats probably above what your needs are.

Universities generally have a deal from someone like HP and Dell for students. I'd start with the specifications for this first and unless it is vastly more expensive than other machines I'd just buy the standard one. It is much easier to get support in the university for the standard setup and there are simple advantage like being able to borrow a charger from another student if you forget to bring it in.

ardmacha said:

Universities generally have a deal from someone like HP and Dell for students.

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I wont name the University but someone I know from the IT department in one of these Universities told me that the deals on offer are crap and all his colleagues agree with him.

ardmacha said:

and there are simple advantage like being able to borrow a charger from another student if you forget to bring it in.

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Most students dont seem to go for these deals so the laptops and hence chargers they have are very diverse.