Uni and computers

[morsla]

So, uni starts in a week. I now have a timetable of classes running Mon-Thurs, generally finishing late into the evening. I've been looking through the online subject info and marvelling at just how much better the Deakin Online interface is compared to Melbourne's antiquated system... There's a customiseable information portal, with webmail/event calendar/uni announcements/subject websites, and everything from new Journal articles to traffic conditions around the uni.

I'm also amused at the novelty of having a student card that also works for building access, printing and copying, library borrowing and vending machines :)

I'm determined to avoid doing the "easy subjects" this time, as I know I'll need the less appealing ones later on. Sadly, the graphic design subject lost out over picking up some basic law... graphics I've studied before, while law is something entirely new to me. The subject list for semester one is:

Monday: ALW738 Editing
Tuesday: ALR731 Public Relations: Theory & Practice
Wednesday: ALJ724 Law and Ethics for Professional Communicators
Thursday: ALW729 Writing for Communications Media

It looks like the most productive way to travel to and from uni will be by tram, taking some work with me. It's the slowest way to get there (over an hour from Flinders St), but it means I have an hour of uninterrupted working time. To avoid double handling everything by writing it and typing it up later, I'd like to get a laptop to take with me...

I'm interested to hear advice & horror stories from the notebook users out there... I used to have a Twinhead, which managed to have problems with the battery (twice), power supply, and eventually a complete hard drive failure. Needless to say, I have no intention of dealing with that company again.

Are Asus any good? They seem to have more models in my price range than some of the larger brands. I've been looking at things like this so far.

Most of the time, I'll just be working on things in Word/Excel/Powerpoint etc, or looking at PDFs. I'm not sure whether to get a reconditioned laptop that will only handle current requirements, or whether to get something a bit better (link above) that I can get a bit more use out of.

Comments

[harkon.livejournal.com]

For laptops, I think Powerbooks are the way to go, though I have heard some not great things about the new Intel based chips.

From the thing you were looking at, I would try to get something with 512 ram. In terms the place you buy it from, I know Centrecom does a dent amount of notebook business and aren't as busy as MSY. The notebook sectino of their website is http://www.centrecom.com.au/catalog/default.php?cPath=100_56&sort=1a&ccsid=44d425ee5ed06506f1037a8fd5c62ece

[kitling.livejournal.com]

I own a toshi notebook and thats pretty good. However I would suggest to anyone to buy a Dell. They do decent hardware and have the best warrenty/support options out there. If buying a Dell - make sure you pay extra for the 3 year warrenty that will do things like if you are stupid enough to drive over your laptop accidently, will replace it.

Computers...

[submystical.livejournal.com]

As far as I know Asus are pretty good. As for being a "small" company that's not quite right as they are an OEM i.e. they make computer for the "big" companies. Of note are the Apple iBooks present and future all made by Asus. I believe some of the iPods were even made by Asus. They have only started producing barebone systems over the last couple years so that's probably why you haven't heard much about them. As harkon said you'd probably be better off getting 512Mb of ram. That said the place where you buy the thing will definately be able to put that ram in for you (or make any other modifications since as I said the laptop is actually a barebone which the shop would have put together i.e. added processor, ram, harddirve).

Also as kitling said Dell are really quite good. Quite competitively priced and have good service. You might want to talk to tarleon since he got a Dell not too long ago.

All this aside though if I personally were to get a laptop I'd probably get an AMD system (if you can find one). As far as performance and battery life for your money you really can't go past AMD. The Asus A6U or A6K would be very nice if you can find one. Maybe have a look at this one and this one. The second one is much more pricey but of course much better.

One more thing you may want to think about is that MS will bring out a new OS by the end of this year (Vista). Apparently they will be back porting the new API so that news software can run on Windows XP but if you do want to run the new OS then an older model (such as you'd get with a refurbished machine) will most likely not work. Even if it does run or even if the new programs run fine on XP, new programs will always generally need newer better equipment anyway. So I guess you have to work out how much you're willing to spend on a computer and how much you will want / need to run newer applications.

One more note: I wouldn't get a Macbook unless you can really do without Windows (and you don't plan on using all your existing software for your PC on it and want to replace everything you have costing the same price as the machine itself again). At this stage Windows XP can *not* be booted on the new macs even though they do use an Intel processor. You will have to wait until Vista is released. Also MS is still not sure whether it will make a Virtual PC version for the new macs so theres no installing a virtual machine either. And as with all Apple products they are sold at a premium so you should be able to find a much better machine for the same or cheaper price elsewhere. And if you ask me anyway Apple are greedy evil bastards that don't deserve your money ;)

That's my 2c :)

[futurelegend.livejournal.com]

even just 1-2 hours of course reading a day was incredibly useful. (and saves dealing with computers combined with public transport. And law always has a scadload o reading :/