chromebook or laptop for University

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minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#189362 26-Dec-2015 10:22

Son about to head off to Otago. He's taking his gaming computer which has all Word ? Excel etc stuff on it for assignments. But hes looking for something portable.

Given he has to find money for Halls he needs to be convinced to get something on a budget. Trouble with Student loan is he thinks purchase can just go on the loan - despite attempts at parental education!!!! His mates seem to have pretty high end tastes so I need some help in pointing him an alternative directions. Any suggestions on what might do the job. Hes starting with first year health science.

k1w1k1d

1530 posts

Uber Geek

#1457375 26-Dec-2015 13:19

Our daughter is doing the same course at Otago next year.

We bought her a 15.6" ASUS with a SSD and 12GB of RAM. Very fast boot up.
She "upgraded" it to W10 without any problems.
I have installed full office on it, so hopefully she is all set for her first year at Uni.

Might be a better idea if your son left the gaming laptop at home so that he can concentrate on his studies.
Health Sciences is a cut-throat year if you want to progress into your chosen field.

GeekRay

134 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

#1457379 26-Dec-2015 13:28

My understanding is that Chromebook's can do anything that's web based (excluding Java?) and what are available in Google Play store. That means any specific software required by his study won't be able to be installed on a Chromebook.

If all his assignments can be done with Google products or a web based solution, he should be fine with a budget Chromebook or a high quality one like Google Pixel.

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1457388 26-Dec-2015 13:59

k1w1k1d:

Might be a better idea if your son left the gaming laptop at home so that he can concentrate on his studies.
Health Sciences is a cut-throat year if you want to progress into your chosen field.

Good advice - have to work on that one as well!

Jase2985

13466 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Lifetime subscriber

#1457650 27-Dec-2015 09:22

get a windows based device

anything with 8GB of ran should be ok, SSD is desirable but not a necessity

scuwp

3888 posts

Uber Geek

#1457659 27-Dec-2015 09:40

Another vote for full Windows based, and to leave the gaming rig at home.

Lazy is such an ugly word, I prefer to call it selective participation

minimoke

750 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1701704 11-Jan-2017 21:31

As it turned out we ended up getting a Lenovo laptop with SSD and windows10. So that and the gaming computer went down with parental trepidation but time to cut apron strings and let him live by his decision. Thankfully the gaming computer didnt impact on plans, and didnt get much use during year. Though is getting a hammering now its back home.

k1w1k1d

1530 posts

Uber Geek

#1701755 11-Jan-2017 23:11

Good to hear that he got through last year. Hope he got into the course he wanted.

Daughter got into her selected course. She has been busy catching up on all the TV shows and movies she missed while studying.

Is he taking the gaming computer with him this year?

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jamesbrian

2 posts

Wannabe Geek

#1714778 3-Feb-2017 02:32

Chromebooks are designed primarily around internet use and apps, not really all-around computer use such as a one with a Windows OS. For student necessities, get a typical laptop. However, If I was buying a chromebook I would go with the acer one. It has more memory (4GB instead of 2GB). As long as all you want to do is write documents and do basic internet browsing you should be fine. if you want to play the occasional flash game you are probably still doing well, but anything more intense it will run slowly. If you decide to go with a netbook or cheap laptop the other thing I can recommend is that after you make a backup cd install a distribution of linux which is fast and easy to use (and possibly resembles windows). This will improve the performance of your laptop.