[boylsie]

hey,
so hopefully this year i will be going to either Southampton or Surrey to do Aeronautical engineering. So i was wondering if i needed a laptop or i should just upgrade my desktop?
i know laptops are more expensive, but do i need the portability for the course?

thanks for the advice

[A.J10]

I say it depends on what you have and what you're going to use it for, I'm starting a computer science course in september and I'm taking my (rather old) desktop. I'm also thinking of getting a cheap laptop/notebook just so that I can type things on the go, and then do any major work on the desktop.

It depends on what you want to do with the computer, how much you're willing to spend and what your desktop is like. If you're just a "casual user" (I do not like that term) a laptop will suffice, and may be more convenient, but if you want to game and run heavier software and so on a desktop is probably better.

[boylsie]

i will be gaming on it yes, might upgrade my pc and maybe get a sub £200 laptop for on the go word processing, not sure, will wait on other peoples views

[formanmark]

Im going to university this yer aswel and i went with a laptop.

The problem with using a pc for gaming is the cost of upgrades as any computer you buy will be out of date for the latest games in 12months.

Im going to be studying full time so my thoughts were i carnt afford to keep upgrading my computer. So laptop for work and games console for games.




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[dj1015]

You don't need to majorly upgrade your computer every 12 months as a previous poster implied. I do mine once every 24 and spend 400 - 600. That is more than enough to keep me functioning at a level beyond the current requirements needed for gaming. Basically I can play games based on frostbite 2 in all ultra no probs, kinda makes console gaming seem pathetic.

I use my desktop system at uni, and stick to pen and paper when I am in uni. If I need a computer while on campus then I just go to a cluster.

[Sw3ensterFM]

The fact is that most games will run fine for a few years as they're tied down by the capabilities of consoles.

[A.J10]

(Original post by formanmark)
Im going to university this yer aswel and i went with a laptop.

The problem with using a pc for gaming is the cost of upgrades as any computer you buy will be out of date for the latest games in 12months.

Im going to be studying full time so my thoughts were i carnt afford to keep upgrading my computer. So laptop for work and games console for games.

This was posted from The Student Room's iPhone/iPad App

You don't need to update every year. I admit my pc is not the best, but it was £400 in 2006. Add in some extra RAM (from half a GiB to 2.75GiB) and a cheap graphics card in 2009 and I can still play a fair amount of games. Portal 2 runs fine, for example. It can't play a lot of new games, mainly due to the CPU (tried running shogun 2, it was... interesting), but if a 6 year old budget pc can run dead space with all the bells and whistles then I reckon you need to rethink your argument.

[boylsie]

I built my pc 4 years ago and the only component that cant run games is the processor, i just overclocked it and i can run all the games out now. so, i know if i build a decent pc now that i can last me throughout uni with barely any upgrades.
it seems as none of you use a laptop in your lectures so i might not even bother with a laptop.

[ahpadt]

With a laptop you'll be able to bring around, in case you're doing coursework or labs. You will obviously lose gaming performance, but I would make that sacrifice because university computers can be frustrating at times.

[formanmark]

Ok when you guys say you only need to spend £400 every 2 years that is alot for me lol. My uni course with my foundation year is 5 years and after bills and food i have £4.50 a week left over. So like said before will cost alot in upgrades lol

Get yourself an old super nintendo and enjoy the old school gaming had mine for 18years now i think and cost me £0 in upgrades BARGIN lol


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[A.J10]

(Original post by formanmark)
Ok when you guys say you only need to spend £400 every 2 years that is alot for me lol. My uni course with my foundation year is 5 years and after bills and food i have £4.50 a week left over. So like said before will cost alot in upgrades lol

Get yourself an old super nintendo and enjoy the old school gaming had mine for 18years now i think and cost me £0 in upgrades BARGIN lol


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£400 every 2 years is only if you want to keep at the high end of graphics. You can get console level graphics for much less.

[pheonix254]

It's up to you. In Southampton certainly, you can generally find computers around, though I must admit the department computers were a lot better than the ones in the general university computer labs/library.

Most people nowadays have laptops, I'd say, they were certainly useful as you can take them anywhere, and wireless internet is pretty much standard across campuses. Having said that, if you wanted to run autocad, whilst most laptops nowadays are up to it, nothing beats a twin screen desktop for heavy duty engineering or programming. They're also cheaper for gaming.

My laptop went with me to some lectures, the library once or twice in 4 years, it was used on the train home, and at weekends where we went away with societies - a cheap netbook would have sufficed though. I used my desktop more for engineering work - but even this wasn't very often - the software packages we needed were available quickly on department computers, and were generally set up correctly, so I used them, out of convenience.

You could theoretically manage your degree without a computer using university systems and resources, so just pick whatever suits you. A gaming (Skyrim - high, etc) laptop can be had brand new for £650, a gaming desktop is probably cheaper. It's up to you.

[boylsie]

(Original post by pheonix254)
It's up to you. In Southampton certainly, you can generally find computers around, though I must admit the department computers were a lot better than the ones in the general university computer labs/library.

Most people nowadays have laptops, I'd say, they were certainly useful as you can take them anywhere, and wireless internet is pretty much standard across campuses. Having said that, if you wanted to run autocad, whilst most laptops nowadays are up to it, nothing beats a twin screen desktop for heavy duty engineering or programming. They're also cheaper for gaming.

My laptop went with me to some lectures, the library once or twice in 4 years, it was used on the train home, and at weekends where we went away with societies - a cheap netbook would have sufficed though. I used my desktop more for engineering work - but even this wasn't very often - the software packages we needed were available quickly on department computers, and were generally set up correctly, so I used them, out of convenience.

You could theoretically manage your degree without a computer using university systems and resources, so just pick whatever suits you. A gaming (Skyrim - high, etc) laptop can be had brand new for £650, a gaming desktop is probably cheaper. It's up to you.

this is probably the most helpfull reply yet, ill go with a desktop.
thanks

[dom99]

Get a desktop but build it yourself

Case £50 or less
Motherboard £80 socket 1155
CPU £150 ivy bridge
RAM £30
GPU £150 HD 6950 or wait for GTX 660
PSU £60
HDD £50

Total for a top of the line computer = £570 without an OS

For me it's a no brainer, a laptop comes no where near it. Plus get a cheap notebook from currys/dabs eBay outlet for £150 ( just google it)

[pheonix254]

I've got an Acer Aspire Timeline M3 Ultra -
dual core i5, 6GB RAM, 15.6" screen + 500GB hybrid-SSD HDD, nVidia (Kepler) GeForce GT640M + Win 7 Home
Paid 630 quid for it. plays skyrim on high, + 5 hour (real, 8hr claimed) battery life and technically is an ultrabook (though it really stretches that definition to the limit)

Fantastic bit of kit - laptops have just about got to the point where they can actually compete with desktops in the gaming arena - I've been waiting long enough too.