Help needed in a way but it has nothing to do with nexuiz

So i'm thinking of buying myself a laptop since i go to university next year. Sadly i dont know any good types that are also cheap. So thats my question to you guys, f any of you know a good but also cheap laptop. My budget lies between 0 and 800 euros atm ;s

vega

hmm....i have an acer v3-571g series and it works very good. price should be ~550-800 euros, depending on the specs you want
mine has an i5-3210m processor
4 gb of ram
nvidia gt630m 2gb (most games work on high/ultra)
15.6" HD screen
no errors until now. didn't have to get it to the service over 9000 times like i did with other products

Shouldn´t this topic be moved to "questions and help" ??

Apart from that - what do you need it for? Should it be a windows computer? Is it just for typing? In this case maybe a netbook or ultrabook, maybe with linux to save a few bucks, or even a chromebook might be an option? Or a pad with external keyboard?

If you want a windows notebook (and don´t need it for gaming) - it might be the easiest approach to pick one with lower specks (helps you to save energy, money and maybe even noise) with good user ratings (several!) at amazone or another source you trust. I personally would tend to a lenove ideapad ... but this is only a personal thing - there are many great notebooks - acer probably is a good option too - maybe you should also have a look at their p series. [edit] hey nex - just had a look at the acer v3 - sweet! [/edit] Our admin is a fan of fujitsu lifebooks, at work we got some hp elitebooks which are also nice.

If you really want to make the hazzle to find a "perfect" notebook for your needs I don´t have an answer but I´ll try to sum up some thoughts of mine in the next post [tomorrow]. Which the rest of the world can skip

http://www.notebookguru.de/

In my opinion the best side to buy a notebook:)

Lime

In my opinion the most important question is how you want to use it - so there is no universal answer!

Some things I would consider none the less - simply because it´s a notebook:

- portability - I really like them not larger than 15 inch ... you have to carry the thing around. Really cool option is to use it together with a larger monitor at home. If you need it for photo editing, an IPS panel might be interesting ... but once again I would use an external monitor for it, because it can be larger and is less expensive and will still be there even if your notebook is outdated.
- noise from fan, especially if you work at the library or in class a loud fan can be totally annoying. Notebook fans usually are very small, therefore have to rotate very fast, and if the get older they tend to become noisy because they wear out. Try to find a notebook which is known to be quiet, maybe with an easy to exchange fan, there are programs like "fan control" to reduce the noise/fan speed .. and I really would consider not taking a corei7 and the hottest graphics chip, because they tend to generate heat, which has to be fanned out. Or at least look for a notebook with a good enery saving mode / silent mode.
- Good battery life is really sweet
- robust, especially if you carry it around often (e.g. metal hinges for the attachment of the monitor, sturdy monitor cover)
- Easy to extend? E.g. for ssd or ram upgrade. Ssds are really nice for notebooks because they consume less energy, are silent, are robust because they have no moving parts and they improve the performance very much. Usually it´s cheaper to buy a notebook without ssd and modify it by yourself. But you should check if this is possible in an easy way and whether you void the warranty ...
- usb 3 / hdmi ports? E.g. my ssd only has 100 GB, therefore I use an truecrypt encrypted (!) external hard disk which i sync with unison wih my homecomputer ... so i always got my data with me, which also serves as a backup. USB3 can come handy therefore. But i don´t have it ... and in fact it´s no problem for me ... once when the initial sync is over ...after hours.

Maybe interesting to know: Notebooks usually come in different series - usually there are business/professional series from each vendor. Professional notebooks usually don´t come with better specs, but with less plastic and better components and are therefore more robust - which i personally like - but they are more expensive.

And hey - check out if there is a student program, some companys offer notebooks cheaper for students! Maybe also the university has information about such programs.

Apart from that - you got to do the digging for yourself My conclusion was the lenovo t410 with a core i5, which i got for only 650€ - but this was based on my needs ... also i didn´t find any such good deals for t series at the moment - sorry!

Oh - and try to avoid the urge to buy the most up to date technology ... I always get tempted when I read about new stuff ... but it´s usually outdated and much cheaper a few weeks later

Its funny that you mention the student thingy because i justfound out the university i wish to go to actually has a special action for notebooks from dell. Each year they get good deals for students so i will w8 for that before i buy one. The stupid part is that the action is always with Dell laptops/notebooks and i dont know f there are Dells with ssd.

Also i would like to use it for school but also since i'm going to rent a room in Gent (where i will study) it would be nice if it could also support a few games like nexuiz and minecraft.

I indeed am lookig for a compact notebook with a good battery because some people i know bought a notebook but the batteries suck :/ so i might have to look out for that.

Vega

There are also shops which offer student discounts, e.g. in Germany
http://www.campusdiscount.de/
and others. In theory they should resell special discounts from vendors for students.

Though the quality of the deals varies - sometimes they are really cheaper than ordinary shops, sometimes not
You should compare the prices with a comparison site you trust.

Ok thanks for all the fast replies guys i'll start comparing etc

Vega