Need help finding a laptop for college under 500

[katewhite7]

Hi,
I have been searching for laptop under 500 for college and have found this confusing video on youtube Best Laptops For College Students Under 500 Dollars in 2020 in which they are showing best under 500 laptops. Please suggest me which laptop is good for a student. Thanks

 

[captain-sensible]

well first ,do you have any experience with Linux ? if not probably stick to Windows. Now on what they call specification if you were a gamer, you might want super graphics and maybe massive ram. But for college if its mainly doing documents and power point then 2gig ram and even a CPU 1.8 GHZ will do, because your not in a hurry. If you were a film student storing loads of videos you might need massive hard drive. Again if its just docs etc then 250gig should be mofre thasn enough. I do php web development i'm i am only on circa 60 gig . You can always buy external hard drive for extra storeage later.

 

[katewhite7]

Thank you so much for your

well first ,do you have any experience with Linux ? if not probably stick to Windows. Now on what they call specification if you were a gamer, you might want super graphics and maybe massive ram. But for college if its mainly doing documents and power point then 2gig ram and even a CPU 1.8 GHZ will do, because your not in a hurry. If you were a film student storing loads of videos you might need massive hard drive. Again if its just docs etc then 250gig should be mofre thasn enough. I do php web development i'm i am only on circa 60 gig . You can always buy external hard drive for extra storeage later.

Thank you so much for your suggestions and feedback really appreciate it.

 

[captain-sensible]

if you want to know my laptop specs for comparison i can post it

 

[warlockk]

Hi,
I have been searching for laptop under 500 for college and have found this confusing video on youtube Best Laptops For College Students Under 500 Dollars in 2020 in which they are showing best under 500 laptops. Please suggest me which laptop is good for a student. Thanks

The 6 Best Laptops for Under $500

Acer, HP, Lenovo, and ASUS offer speedy, well-designed, and storage-friendly laptops for affordable prices.

www.lifewire.com

It helps you make your decision.

 

[Fancy]

Get something with 4 cores and 8 thread/processes, 8 GB RAM with the ability to expand to 16 or 32 GB, and at least a 256 GB SDD. Run Ubuntu or Mint on it until it's a year or two old, then try other distros once they've updated their drivers. Clock rate doesn't really matter these days, most laptops can go up to at least 2.4 GHz with boost and idle at 1.4 GHz. You can always upgrade the hard drive so that's not an issue.

If you're doing anything like graphic design, CGI, Autocad, mobile device app development, enterprise software development, database stuff, then you'll appreciate lots of cores and RAM more than clock rate. If you're gaming you'll need the clock rate.

If you are just a casual user or simply not a programmer I would avoid Linux if I were you.

 

[jglen490]

Get something with 4 cores and 8 thread/processes, 8 GB RAM with the ability to expand to 16 or 32 GB, and at least a 256 GB SDD. Run Ubuntu or Mint on it until it's a year or two old, then try other distros once they've updated their drivers. Clock rate doesn't really matter these days, most laptops can go up to at least 2.4 GHz with boost and idle at 1.4 GHz. You can always upgrade the hard drive so that's not an issue.

If you're doing anything like graphic design, CGI, Autocad, mobile device app development, enterprise software development, database stuff, then you'll appreciate lots of cores and RAM more than clock rate. If you're gaming you'll need the clock rate.

If you are just a casual user or simply not a programmer I would avoid Linux if I were you.

Not sure I understand your logic about not using Linux for "a casual user" or "not a programmer"? If one can do heavy computing processes in Linux, then one can also do more casual work in Linux. Or am I missing something?

 

[smooth_buddha]

i recommend one of these bad boy's! there a bargain and look and feel cool to use! 2009 refurbished apple macbook! really durable laptop- does the job well

Apple Laptops for sale | eBay

Buy Apple Laptops and get the best deals at the lowest prices on eBay! Great Savings & Free Delivery / Collection on many items

www.ebay.co.uk

I dual boot mine so i have macosx high siera and i also have linux mint on it!

best of both worlds!!! and at a fraction of the cost of a new macbook!

even thogh its older, with 8 gig ram its still a relevant decent working machine

 

[Emilie Robbins]

For low money I bought used laptop with windows. More cheap new laptops sell with installed Linux. If you use win software for education is the best choice. My Matlab does not work via Linux(

 

[Vrai]

Hi,
I have been searching for laptop under 500 for college and have found this confusing video on youtube Best Laptops For College Students Under 500 Dollars in 2020 in which they are showing best under 500 laptops. Please suggest me which laptop is good for a student. Thanks

It really depends on what your 'use case' is. Any idea on just what you may be using this machine for?

I have found some very good deals buying used laptops from students who just could not conform to the "Windows 10" way of doing things.

A lot of 'modern' hardware/laptops have plenty of power for 'most' common everyday uses. That's why I ask what it may be used for.

I have experience providing laptops and software for my children in college. Unfortunately - many of the instructors require a Windows platform or Windows applications for the course work.

 

[Eugor]

Call me dated, but I use thinkpad laptops for a variety of purposes dated from 2012-2014. They handle W10 and Linux OS alike very well, and perform for my purposes. Without specifying what the intended use is, I will classify that as, general.
I use an X220 as my daily driver and swap drives between Windows 10 and Linux mint depending on the task.
I also use T430, and T440p machines that have served me well. All of these can be had and set up well under the 500 mark. Most fit in the 250 zone.
Generally speaking