Laptop for Uni

[witch]

I know there have been lots of threads about laptops - but none exactly like this recent enough to help.
My son is off to University this autumn (Engineering Geology and Geotechnics, since you ask) and he needs a good, ROBUST laptop.
I know quite a lot of you are fairly young and not long out of Uni -or indeed still there- so perhaps you have some words of wisdom to offer me.

I would like to get him a Dell but the cost is really a bit high. There are some nice looking Toshibas around but I don't know too much about them or HP or IBM come to that.

All advice gratefully received

[CyberNerd]

personally, I'd take a thinkpad (and put a proper Operating System on it)
dabs.com - Lenovo R61 Pentium Dual Core T2310 1GB 160GB DVDRW Vista Business (XP Pro disc included) (UV1DSUK)
£359 inc

[flashsnaps]

I don't think you can go wrong with HP - they are reasonably priced and I have had no problems with them.
Something like HP 530 Laptop Intel Celeron M 520 1x 1GB 120GB brightview 15.4" widescreen DVDRW WLAN Vista Home Basic (Office 07 Ready *Trial) - Ebuyer

I would prefer XP though.

[beeswax]

I got one of these for my daughter. Though the item here is "used" and the one I got her was new. She studies abroad and so it gets humped around quite a bit when she flies out and back again. She hasn't had a problem with it in just about a year. Went for the XP Pro version at the time (rather than Vista) which meant I got an extra Gb of memory for the same price.

[Pete10141748]

I had just the 1 Toshiba Satellite Pro laptop throughout my 4 years of University, never needed anything fixing hardware-wise, and of course having XP meant it was pretty solid OS-wise too

so my vote is for a Toshiba

[button_ripple]

Dell or HP all the way.

Make sure it has loads of hard drive space

[altecsole]

My choice would be to go for 2GB RAM, several apps open at the same time will soon use up 1GB.

[mac_shinobi]

Mac Book using bootcamp for windows ?

[Domino]

get hima desktop for in his room and a Eeepc for using/taking notes with in his lectures and on the move.

it's what I've set the girlfirend up with and loads of her mates have followed suit.

[Edu-IT]

Dell or HP all the way.

Make sure it has loads of hard drive space

Which he backs up regularly.

[witch]

He is going to get himself a BIG external drive.
I will float the idea of a desktop and eepc but I don't think he will have it, unfortunately.
I can't afford a mac either I'm afraid - I have to buy another for the next one next year and then the next 2 years after that (whether they go to Uni or not!)
Thanks for the thoughts
All advice gratefully received

[Edu-IT]

I've got a ThinkPad. It's pretty well built and quite lightweight. I didn't pay that much for it either, probably about £350. I've had it a couple of years now and it could probably do with some more RAM but other than that it's good.

[Dos_Box]

I have a Thinkpad T60 from ICT Direct - computer hardware for ict in education - primary, secondary, special needs schools and colleges and it's fantastic. Not everything they have in stock is on the site, so give them a ring and ask them what they've currently got in stock. Yes, it's second user but you do get 12 months warrenty with it.

[SteveMC]

I'll second the Toshiba vote - something like the Satellite Pro U300 or U400 with a small screen for portability, - you can always use a proper fullsize keyboard when in digs. It's small enough to take around in a back-pack without any issues, and has motion sensors to protect the hard drive against shocks.

Definitely XP though, - even with 2GB RAM Vista on laptops seems sluggish. You might want to see if you can get a copy of office through the uni, they often do deals with MS for student copies for (almost)free.

Stephen

[ninja-lewis]

If you can, wait until August/September for Back to School/Uni offers. Or even better, wait until your son reaches university as he may be able to buy through the university at a good discount (more likely if he's in an engineering/science department) or at least through one of the various external student stores. I bought a Toshiba M400 through Student Laptops, Notebooks and Computers | Student Store (no choice as that was the supplier specified on the DSA form). Just watch when buying through the university as they tend to have their favourites, perhaps because they get money back or because it's simpler for them to maintain the single make. This might not always suit you.

Likewise, software such as MS Office, maths packages, even anti-virus can be purchased through the Uni at a good discount, if not freely available through the department. For example, Microsoft ran a promotion in the past academic year : Office 2007 Ultimate for about £40. They now have a programme giving free design and development tools (including Server 2003, Visual Studio 2008 and Expression Studio to name a few) to any student regardless of whether they're doing a computer-related course or not.

I'm not a fan of Apple personally, but before you dismiss them as too costly have you checked the Apple Higher Education store? They normally have decent discounts for students there.

Best tip I can give you is to check out the uni's IT Department website to see what's available to him.