Looking For College Laptops

As college comes closer, I’m looking for a decent laptop that will last at least 5 years, can run most programs (including steam :3), and most importantly is below $1600. Now I barely have any knowledge about computers or what’s in or how much memory you should get or where to get the biggest bang for your buck. My friend gave me some recommendations, but two or more heads are better than one. Also, kinda meh on switching to Linux from Windows, but I’m open to anything.

Overall, what should I look for in a laptop for college and where should I look for for the best price?

 

for running most programs you should have atleast 8gb of ram and id recommend looking for atleast an i5 processor. and id recommend windows over linux since windows has the most support for programs and games

 

Thanks, could you quickly explain some of the major computer parts that I should pay attention to like the processor and the graphics card?

 

well when looking for a processor 4 cores with 4 threads is good and can run most things youd be doing smoothly. ram is also important for certain things like using chrome and playing game can eat up a good amount of ram so minimum should be 8gb. graphics card is more important for playing games that have pretty good graphics, but the problem with graphics cards right now is that the price has gone up a pretty good amount due to cryptocurrency mining. so finding a pretty good graphics card rn is pretty expensive

 

I’m not that big on graphics so I can spare some. What would you say is a low to mid quality graphics card and how much would it cost?

 

I personally use a gtx 1030 rn and it runs most things i play pretty smoothly for being a lower end graphics card. the price for one of these rn is around 100$

 

Ok, so say if I got that graphics card, a processor with 4 cores and 4 threads, and 8 GB of RAM on Windows 10 on a laptop, how much would it cost? Is there any big difference between manufacturers like Dell and HP?

 

I use a dell laptop and my sister uses hp, they seem to work pretty much the same.

 

Try something like an Asus ROG Strix GL502. Costs about $1100 or so on Newegg atm and should last a while. Just know that when you're looking for something that will last 5+ years you should get at least 16gb of DDR4 RAM, a newer i7 that is actually good and at least a GTX 1050 Ti since those will be the standards soon. The one I recommended has all of those (it has a GTX 1060 even, I think) and is at a decent price range imo.

 

What kind of college?
And what's the purpose of said laptop?
My friend is an engineering student, so he needed bunch of RAM to run all those simulations.
If you don't need something like that, any decent laptop is going to work honestly.

 

General purpose, can run most programs like Chrome and Steam decently. I got accepted to an engineering college, but I doubt if Ill need lots of RAM. This is more of a personal computer too.

 

Acer E5-576G-5762
15.6 inch 1920 * 1080
Intel Core i5-8250U
GeForce MX150 2GB DDR5 VRAM
8GB DDR4
256GB SSD
https://pc4u.org/best-gaming-laptop-under-600-dollars/

 

Ok what is this? You trying to pull something?

 

If you want to game and have that budget and it must be a laptop, get a gaming one such as Asus.

A dedicated graphics card is important too on top of the CPU and RAM. And whilst not necessarily important, you should easily be able to get a SSD + HDD for Windows on the SSD and games etc on the storage drive depending on their size.

Something like rxgefx mentioned. And you will need a decent system to run the software for your engineering work no doubt. I used to help my Father out with programs like AutoCAD for engineering plans and it ate the system if it's not a decent one.

 

Purdue’s website just said anything at least $400 and 4 GB, but I think it’s outdated bc another page said 8GB. I was thinking of getting the Windows 10 XPS. It has 8 GB, gtx 1050, and 4 cores

 

Is that Dell? I personally do not like them as they are overpriced but the support is alright.

And do you know a list of software you will use so we can get a general idea of requirements? All I know is that despite minimum requirements if it's something like AutoCAD it will thrash the system.

 

Yeah, it’s Dell. I found one on Amazon for 1300, but it’ll probably go down after the next generation of computers comes out this summer. No, not really. Purdue doesn’t give that info, and I just want to run most general programs like Chrome. Should I just get 16 GB then?

 

More RAM never hurts but there is also no need to just throw stuff in there you will not need. 16GB if not much difference in price wouldn't be bad for future future investment either since you plan to use it for many years.

 

True, just the 16 GB XPS costs a few hundred more dollars, and I could just upgrade the RAM if I really needed it.

 

This is what I meant by being overcharged (Their Alienware system for example) - just upgrade it yourself to yourself in the future. 16GB of better RAM is quite cheap no doubt if you need too.