Preferred computer style

[Smack]

The only laptop's I'd get now would be one of those nice Chromebooks to be honest. I don't need anything else in a laptop.

Getting the Samsung one after next payday, gonna' get £50 cashback and a shitty little smartphone that must be worth at least £30, not bad deal when I will only spend £299 on the netbook itself

Those be the ones I be looking at.

Can you split this thread off now? Kinda gone offtopic tbh.

[Butjam]

The only laptop's I'd get now would be one of those nice Chromebooks to be honest. I don't need anything else in a laptop.

Getting the Samsung one after next payday, gonna' get £50 cashback and a shitty little smartphone that must be worth at least £30, not bad deal when I will only spend £299 on the netbook itself

Those be the ones I be looking at.

Can you split this thread off now? Kinda gone offtopic tbh.

Yeah, will just split to generic "What sort of computer do you like?"

Alright done. Has anybody been having a look at those convertible Windows 8 tablets? My parents are getting one for my sister and have been asking me for advice. Told them to go for the Acer aspire p series with an i3 and separate graphics card but they ignored me and went for a Lenovo miix which is only on an Atom. Probably suitable now for what she needs, but she doesn't have a job like I did when I was her age so she needs hers to last, was only about £100 difference as well

[BaskB]

As most know I travel a lot so space and size is key. Laptops are great but usually bulky.

Desktops rule so for travel I built a mini desktop. Check out Asaka Cypher mini case. 20x18x5. Put in a AMD apu chip with 4Gb ram + SSD and a small fold in half travel keyboard. Easy and handy for games all I need is a monitor/TV in hotel or onboard

Power off a PC with gaming capability and small

As always everyone's application/needs are different

[Struggle Snuggles]

oh no, now this belongs in Technology subforum /anxiety

[Iain Keers]

When I was at uni I had a desktop and a laptop :p

Laptops are basically for Internet and office on the go, using one for gaming is kind of pointless. Get a good desktop and a passable laptop is my advice. A good gaming desktop can last six years (mine did). A good laptop is lucky to last 3 and costs more.

[Pfeiffer]

When I was at uni I had a desktop and a laptop :p

Laptops are basically for Internet and office on the go, using one for gaming is kind of pointless. Get a good desktop and a passable laptop is my advice. A good gaming desktop can last six years (mine did). A good laptop is lucky to last 3 and costs more.

I have been doing the laptop dance primarily because I do 70% of my computing outside of the house. Long weekends for scouts, late nights at work and school, etc. I probably do half of my gaming while I'm out as well.

It's situational, but in University yes...have a fucking boss tier desktop. Netbook will do you fine outside of that.

[Iain Keers]

When I'm out the house I'm not wanting to use a computer :p

[Pfeiffer]

When I'm out the house I'm not wanting to use a computer :p

Stuck on campus between work and class, killing time between meetings, coming early or staying late to avoid the worst of the traffic, not to mention all the times I use it during meetings/classes for notes or whatever.

Dead useful.

[Smack]

When I was at uni I had a desktop and a laptop :p

Laptops are basically for Internet and office on the go, using one for gaming is kind of pointless. Get a good desktop and a passable laptop is my advice. A good gaming desktop can last six years (mine did). A good laptop is lucky to last 3 and costs more.

I wish I'd done this the first time. Used my student loan in my first year to get a good laptop, since previously all my computers had been second hand, and just old. I could have so bought a desktop that was better and cheap back then.

[Sir Digby Chicken-Caesar]

I don't feel the need for a laptop at uni at all tbh. It seems like a better way to use a notepad and pen for lectures etc. and then afterwards type them up and add stuff back home on the computer -- not that I do that, I mostly just play Paradox games.

When exam revision comes around, though, I can go through notes and then have to reread them in order to digitise/whatever and also that's a good time to add in stuff.

But I'm a history student, so I do sod all work and the lecture notes rarely matter. It's probably entirely different for someone doing a proper degree that'll get them a job. 

[Lady Rainicorn]

I don't feel the need for a laptop at uni at all tbh. It seems like a better way to use a notepad and pen for lectures etc. and then afterwards type them up and add stuff back home on the computer -- not that I do that, I mostly just play Paradox games.

When exam revision comes around, though, I can go through notes and then have to reread them in order to digitise/whatever and also that's a good time to add in stuff.

But I'm a history student, so I do sod all work and the lecture notes rarely matter. It's probably entirely different for someone doing a proper degree that'll get them a job. 

History I had papers everywhere stuff into books and the like such a mess

A laptop was pretty awesome to have for Journalism as I could sit in the newsroom doing graphics and editing on the Mac while typing on the laptop that saved me so much time

[Iain Keers]

I never took a single note in 3 years. Every lecture I was at was boring meaningless drivel a casual perusal of the most basic textbook could have told me the same info: and did. I used to bring my book to lectures and sit in the back row to read. Then I'd go home afterwards and actually do the reading I needed for the course. Even then I never took any notes, I just remembered stuff. Idk if it's because I have an unusually good memory or what, but when I needed to reference something I'd read I could usually remember pretty much exactly where it was in which book.

Anyway these days I tend to get up at the crack of dawn, read the ol' economist over my breakfast, go to work, sit on computers all day, then either go home/out with friends/out to other jobs. I don't have any kind of downtime when I'm on the move. My phone is basically a computer and is probably my main way of accessing the internet these days. I actually do have a desktop/laptop/notebook/tablet as well, but it's mainly the big desktop and my phone that gets the use.

[Butjam]

You can't really get away with not doing notes on our course so you better be effective at taking them. Problem classes are a core component for us though, they basically drop you in at the deep end with problems/equations they don't expect you to be able to solve, and they won't give you any help until you can show what information you've used from your notes and built upon.

I guess the fact that it's an engineering course leads to this, all the materials science stuff can be revised a few days before an exam and you can wander in and sit it but we learn our skills like crystallography and manipulating thermodynamics through problem classes which rely on notes...

[jimbojoy]

You can't really get away with not doing notes on our course so you better be effective at taking them. Problem classes are a core component for us though, they basically drop you in at the deep end with problems/equations they don't expect you to be able to solve, and they won't give you any help until you can show what information you've used from your notes and built upon.

I guess the fact that it's an engineering course leads to this, all the materials science stuff can be revised a few days before an exam and you can wander in and sit it but we learn our skills like crystallography and manipulating thermodynamics through problem classes which rely on notes...

This. I had around 150 sheets of paper from my first year, same in digital pdf's and then 3 textbooks (two online.) taking notes on paper was great for maths, mechanics, physics and law, but used my CAD laptop to do design work. Having a high powered laptop is essential for getting a good engineering degree. I wouldn't feel comfortable using a machine with less than 8gb Ram, and 3.1Ghz processor - I went i7 and never regretted it.

[Butjam]

You can't really get away with not doing notes on our course so you better be effective at taking them. Problem classes are a core component for us though, they basically drop you in at the deep end with problems/equations they don't expect you to be able to solve, and they won't give you any help until you can show what information you've used from your notes and built upon.

I guess the fact that it's an engineering course leads to this, all the materials science stuff can be revised a few days before an exam and you can wander in and sit it but we learn our skills like crystallography and manipulating thermodynamics through problem classes which rely on notes...

This. I had around 150 sheets of paper from my first year, same in digital pdf's and then 3 textbooks (two online.) taking notes on paper was great for maths, mechanics, physics and law, but used my CAD laptop to do design work. Having a high powered laptop is essential for getting a good engineering degree. I wouldn't feel comfortable using a machine with less than 8gb Ram, and 3.1Ghz processor - I went i7 and never regretted it.

Fortunately the most intensive software I've had to use so far has been a materials selection chart that utilises and produces Ashby charts, nothing over the top. Being that I'm a materials scientist primarily, I think I should get away with the processing power of a chromebook, got a 2.4GHz, 8Gb RAM to fall back on though

[Lady Rainicorn]

You can't really get away with not doing notes on our course so you better be effective at taking them. Problem classes are a core component for us though, they basically drop you in at the deep end with problems/equations they don't expect you to be able to solve, and they won't give you any help until you can show what information you've used from your notes and built upon.

I guess the fact that it's an engineering course leads to this, all the materials science stuff can be revised a few days before an exam and you can wander in and sit it but we learn our skills like crystallography and manipulating thermodynamics through problem classes which rely on notes...

This. I had around 150 sheets of paper from my first year, same in digital pdf's and then 3 textbooks (two online.) taking notes on paper was great for maths, mechanics, physics and law, but used my CAD laptop to do design work. Having a high powered laptop is essential for getting a good engineering degree. I wouldn't feel comfortable using a machine with less than 8gb Ram, and 3.1Ghz processor - I went i7 and never regretted it.

Fortunately the most intensive software I've had to use so far has been a materials selection chart that utilises and produces Ashby charts, nothing over the top. Being that I'm a materials scientist primarily, I think I should get away with the processing power of a chromebook, got a 2.4GHz, 8Gb RAM to fall back on though

Please become a really shitty mad scientist with your degree

Like AHHHHHH! I'M GOING TO TURN YOU ALL INTO ALUMINUM SUPERFRIENDS!

[LongShotzZ]

DID YOU JUST PUT ALUMINUM, INSTEAD OF ALUMINIUM!!!!! 

[Diakun]

DID YOU JUST PUT ALUMINUM, INSTEAD OF ALUMINIUM!!!!! 

inorite

[Struggle Snuggles]

Burn the witch

[Carlini8]

Just can't take laptops to maths lectures. At least not more efficiently than paper. Don't take notes in an examples class, I believe butjam called it problems, then you quite simply fail.

Didn't take any notes in my Biology lectures. Barely went to the lectures. All the stuff online, outside reading around the online lectures notes in my own time (Not 9am on a Thursday :/) and got through that. Have to go to the labs, but that is about it.

From my experience, it really does depend on the subject.