Is this worse than what tyres?

Son is about to go and study maths. His old laptop is …old so what to replace it with? I generally just buy whatever best spec I can find at a price from laptopsdirect or somewhere but can anyone (preferably with experience of a recent student in maths) suggest minimum spec/budget please?

Many thanks

unlike “back in the day” when one might have needed an old fashioned OS on which to install maths applications like MATLAB, all of the mian ones will now have online versions meaning the likes of chromebooks can be used without compromises. CBs are excellent vfm, secure, never risk losing your dissertation in a file error or theft, safe from viruses etc and always up to date. Long battery life and run cool. You can get excellent CBs for less than £300. With touch screen, flip screen and android runtime capabilities theyre very versatile.

Ah that’s helpful. So using cloud storage or external hard drives presumably?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/HP-Chromebook-11-v000na-11-6-inch-Laptop/dp/B01LZE0396/ref=as_li_ss_tl?tag=comparaboo09a-21&ascsubtag=590685936-311-925091794.1535614561&SubscriptionId=AKIAJO7E5OLQ67NVPFZA

That one seems to come with a drive subscription

The laptop spec will evolve as he progresses through the course, I’d begin with something simple as above

If complex CAD, tech drawing and rendering is needed for some modules then you might need to look at a more specific graphics card like the Quadro. Don’t be conned into a gaming-spec machine 🙂

From the limited amount I’ve seen during my daughter’s uni applications this year, they all seem very wedded to Word document format – personally I’d go for a Windows laptop with at least Excel and Word on it.

But you can use word online or an app on a CB no?

And does successful CB use require good internets?

I just use the google docs and then convert back to MS formats if needed, but if you really need MS Office:

https://support.office.com/en-us/article/how-to-install-and-run-microsoft-office-on-a-chromebook-32f14a23-2c1a-4579-b973-d4b1d78561ad

I teach geosciences at Uni, and all our students come armed with some sort of medium spec machine that they can write up report etc.  If we expect them to do any specific processing heavy work with specific software this will be accessed generally on the central University machines (we can’t expect students to have top of the range machines and afford specialist software licences).  Most Uni’s also provide remote access to cloud storage for students too (at Leeds everyone gets 1Tb of OneDrive space for example – which also results in everyone using Office applications).  So just go for a decent mid range laptop that your son can cope with carrying about in his bag all day (most students take them to lectures to type notes up these days).

Brilliant. Thanks all

Just gone through this actually with an upgrade for my 2nd year student kid. We went *down* to a smaller screen from the standard 15 and a bit screen to a Dell with SSD drive. Loads more portable and much quicker to access the hard drive. It’s hi res, so she can just squint a bit with her young eyes. Figured drive capacity was less important as so much is cloudy now. Most importantly, Netflix looks really good.

If you’re inclined PC World are doing £100 trade in (£200 in Macbooks). Oh and there’ll probably be a deal on a cheap/free Office License when he gets started.

Thanks Steve. That was my conclusion really. Specs don’t seem to have changed massively over the last 6 years or so. Do things just wear out or get clogged up?

Students get Office as part of the deal I think. He’s not fussed about Netflix (yet!).

Good to hear some real life experiences.

Specs don’t seem to have changed massively over the last 6 years or so. Do things just wear out or get clogged up?

The numbers have not gone up but they are a lot quicker at the main stuff.

Most things we do are not massively processor intensive these days, latest gen intel I-whatever chip will probably last a long time.

I’ve been getting 3-4 years out of decent £500 Dell laptops for business use, including loads of travel, with them retiring to personal use for another 3-4 after that. Just replaced the last one out of the dell outlet.

If a lot of typing, research to be done then a christmas gift of a 24″ screen and keyboard/mouse would be a good thing to add.

Speaking from experience of current maths uni student: “just a laptop”. Hers is a bog standard i3/4GB/1TB Lenovo and she says it’s been just fine, no need for any big number crunching on the laptop even in stats and big data modules. We’d likely go with an SSD as well as the hard drive if doing it now, (some Dells and Acers have this fairly cheap, look for M2 slot SSD availability) but nobody at uni seemed to be needing anything flash or struggling with standard kit.

something with a matt screen…

Chrome books are very small screens so that would be the biggest thing against them.

I’d get a laptop with a 15 or 17 inch screen with an SSD drive and at least 4gb ram.

I’d skip 17″ these days, wide 15’s are decent, if you need the 17 at home get a second screen and keyboard.

wrote my dissertation in open office – converted to word format , sent to printers .

Had a very stressful 2 nights reformatting it in a very hastily bought version of word and paying to have it printed out again as it came out as a bag of shit when converted.

not worth the agro just not to use the software that the university and printers use.

As a lecturer I’d recommend getting in touch with the department and asking if they have a recommended spec or OS. It is unlikely to be essential as all uni committees will likely run the required software but it may be helpful, particularly if remote working without Internet access is likely.

I’ve seen many decent spec i3 / 4-8Gb / SSD good laptops (Lenovo) pop up on Facebook Marketplace for £150 ish – would take Linux or Windows, cheap ass o365 sub off EBay and you’re set for more or less anything.

Students get MS Office free these days from the Uni.