- Dec 30, 2012
- 2
- 0
- 10,510
I'm going to be heading into college soon and figured now would be a good time to buy a new laptop. Of course, as a college student my budget is going to be very tight so I need the best I can get for under $500.
I'll mainly use it for college work, streaming videos and music, making chiptunes, and f'n around with house music, which is my favorite hobby so it'll need to run FL Studio and/or Cubase with minimal clipping.
As for specs:
CPU: Intel i3 or above or any AMD equivalent (Though I prefer Intel)
Screen size: Around 15" but a bit smaller is fine as long as it isn't under 12".
Resolution: Not important
Battery Life: It'll probably stay plugged in at my dorm or apartment until I have enough for a proper desktop, so battery life isn't a major concern. Still, anything that'll last more than an hour is fine.
Sound Card: Kind of important given my hobbies, though as long as it isn't anything by Monster it's fine. Actually, an integrated HD card would be fine. I won't have to run a USB, Firewire, or MIDI interface since most everything will be done on VSTi's.
Storage (HDD): As long as it has more than 128 GB it's perfectly fine.
RAM: 2-4GB
Optical drive: DVD is fine.
Graphics: Anything Nvidia but since most of my gaming will be done on my Xbox (and the only games I'll be interested in playing on the desktop I plan on building later will be Skyrim, Sim City 4, Minecraft, and Spore) graphics performance is none too important.
Brands: Any brand is fine, and as long as it's reputable, I don't care where I buy it from either, though I do prefer Newegg and Amazon.
When do I need it by: I'm in no rush to get one soon but it would be nice to have it sooner rather than later.
I'll mainly use it for college work, streaming videos and music, making chiptunes, and f'n around with house music, which is my favorite hobby so it'll need to run FL Studio and/or Cubase with minimal clipping.
As for specs:
CPU: Intel i3 or above or any AMD equivalent (Though I prefer Intel)
Screen size: Around 15" but a bit smaller is fine as long as it isn't under 12".
Resolution: Not important
Battery Life: It'll probably stay plugged in at my dorm or apartment until I have enough for a proper desktop, so battery life isn't a major concern. Still, anything that'll last more than an hour is fine.
Sound Card: Kind of important given my hobbies, though as long as it isn't anything by Monster it's fine. Actually, an integrated HD card would be fine. I won't have to run a USB, Firewire, or MIDI interface since most everything will be done on VSTi's.
Storage (HDD): As long as it has more than 128 GB it's perfectly fine.
RAM: 2-4GB
Optical drive: DVD is fine.
Graphics: Anything Nvidia but since most of my gaming will be done on my Xbox (and the only games I'll be interested in playing on the desktop I plan on building later will be Skyrim, Sim City 4, Minecraft, and Spore) graphics performance is none too important.
Brands: Any brand is fine, and as long as it's reputable, I don't care where I buy it from either, though I do prefer Newegg and Amazon.
When do I need it by: I'm in no rush to get one soon but it would be nice to have it sooner rather than later.
/www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100006740%204020%20600165139&IsNodeId=1&name=AMD%20A-Series
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