QOTD: What's the Best Computer for a Student?

In my opinion for schoolwork I always buy any decent mid priced dual core laptop, with 3GB RAM, and a dedicated graphics card - dump windows and install debian, perfect for all student tasks!

I bought a good quality ASUS laptop, built for "home entertainment". 17" screen, 2.1Ghz Dual Intel, 3GB DDR2, GeForce 9500mGS, 250GB HDD.

Perfect for all student tasks. Even better with Win7 and Ubuntu on another partition.

Anything cheap with dual core and 4GB of RAM and long battery life... I would actually go for something along 10-12" screen...
Hmm... why are we talking about apples again?

A cheap one and some online back up so no work is lost if it gets stolen.
(Google docs is free use that).

If you're doing computer arts you'll need a fast monster of a machine. You could sit about waiting for a test render, but erhg... If the computer is your room you'll need a silent machine. I used to hate waiting for a job to render when I had the computer in the bedroom.

If you're doing coding you'll need two. The slowest one in the world to test your code (ok a bit of a dream). You know what type of machine you need!.

+ porn server + game server + mp3 server + film server, + Misc server.

Go for a Thinkpad or one of the corporate Dell or HP laptops. They look as boring a you like, but they aren't that expensive and they have a much better build quality than their consumer-level counterparts. Thinkpad keyboards are up there with the best of them and the 'access connections' software makes moving between different networks a doddle. The Dell Latitude D series are very solid machines too.

For most students they don't need anything high-spec, but on the other hand don't go for anything too cheap. For those who are doing lots of coding or any graphics work the W500 with a 1920 x 1200 screen, 8GB RAM, T9500 CPU and a couple of SSD's will do the job. Bundle in VMWare and a copy of Technet/MSDN if you are coding in the MS world. I've got one of these, it flies!

I think it very much depends on the degree you're doing and what you'll be using it for.

Nowadays I'd say it's better to have two, a small laptop to take to lectures, and a more serious machine/docking station + monitor, if you are going to be writing long essays. A laptop alone is really not suitable if you are going to be writing a 40k word dissitation.

I did Physics and although I couldn't afford it at the time I'd get a netbook for lectures and a dual boot Linux/Windows main machine.

Google docs is a really good suggestion as backing up your work really is a must.

I can't see many industries where using a Mac at uni is going to be a bonus, maybe music and design... Otherwise you'll be putting yourself at a major disadvantage as most employers I've made contact with specify experience with Microsoft products.

I'm an engineer so need something powerful for CAD yet something portable for lectures, taking to the library etc. So instead of having a compromise I made a cheap desktop with an Intel E5200 overclocked to 3.6GHz (very cheap) and an ATI 4830 (again cheap yet effective) and before term starts I'm going to buy an Eee PC. So all in all it costs less than a powerful laptop yet is more powerful and more portable and I got a 1920*1080 screen for £145 for those long pc sessions.

If buying a new laptop I would always buy the best I could afford, if students are buying those cheap and nasty netbooks they will be in for a shock, you get what you pay for, so a £300 netbook or £500 laptop will be slow low on disk space and the cheapest parts you can imagine, low quality plastics, buy the time 3 years has passed you will wish you had spent more upfront to get a decent laptop to begin with.

Is it so wrong to want a Desktop these days ?

How about an abacus and a slide rule?

Anythign around teh £399 price mark is more than enough to provide the college person with the tools to get there work done and in some case will allow the odd game to be played like World of Warcraft or low rez 1st person shooters. Buy it they want a bit more so they have a complete entertainment then about £699 will prvide TV, music, gaming and work machine. some even have remote controls now so that they can carry there entertainment with them. That all depends if they are at college to learn or get discounts at eh college bar.

well the logical choice for most students would be to spend in the 500 - 700 dollar bracket. That can get them a pretty good machine with a minimum of a 15 " screen. Think something like an Asus an Acer, maybe even a Toshiba. processors range from a 2.0 Ghz t4200 Pentium dual core or a 2.0 Ghz T6400 Core 2 Duo. The brands i would say stay away from are Compaq/HP, Dell, even sony's in this lower bracket. This type of computer will handle all the basic needs most students would need. If you really need longer battery life then say 2.5 hrs and are just going to be using it for writing papers and surfing the web then it makes even more sense to shift down to a netbook, something like a dell or an MSI wind type unit will give you 6 hrs of battery life. but you do lose out on screen size.

To the "average student" I'd recommend buying a mid-end ASUS, because of its stability and flexability.

I bought a good quality ASUS myself (model G71G 7T014K), but that was also partly for replacing my old stationary desktop PC.

I'd rather spend a little more money on a quality laptop, rather than buying a cheap HP or Acer that would make me want to jump off a cliff in anger every now and then ^^

I spend 4 years doing an engineering degree and didn't have a single need for a laptop. You get much more bang for your buck with a desktop. Then you can build your own and overclock. Laptops are not designed to type large essays, the screens aren't big enough to do anything graphical and they aren't powerful enough to do anything intensive. Not for small amounts of monies.

Desktop!