University laptop

[XxHeatherxX]

I'm torn between buying a laptop from an electrical store or purchasing one from my university's laptop initiative. The one from the electrical store is so compact and stylish, it has an intel centrino core duo processor but the processor speed is only 1.67 ghz, whereas the one from uni is intel celeron 1.73 ghz. The uni laptop has a 1 GB memory, wheres the other one has a 2GB memory. The uni laptop is also an IBM think pad, whereas the one from the electrical store is an Hp Pavilion. I hate the look of the uni laptop, but on the otherhand the laptop is automatically configured to the uni's wireless network and there is an onsite warranty and help desk which is really handy. I really don't know what to do! Can someone please give me some advice!!

[vehelpfulguy]

Be careful of comparing speeds of processors.

The 1.67Ghz core duo is probably faster than the 1.73Ghz celeron.

Celeron are VERY slow processors due to lack of on board cache memory which will speed a processor up.

IBM sold their PC business to Lenovo a year or so back and their laptops are no longer badged with IBM but badged with Lenovo.

If it still says IBM then it is a VERY old laptop.

I used to work for IBM and their laptops were always over priced (so they could offer large discounts to big companies) so they were never a great buy for the individuals (although they probably offer large discounts to the university).

I will say one thing though, IBM / Lenovo laptops are generally well built (because they are used by large companies) and they have a great reliability record.

If you prefer the HP go for it. I am sure the IT staff at the uni will be able to configure it for the wireless network, after all you are not going to be the only one taking their own laptop.

If you can find the exact names of the CPUs in the two laptops then you can compare their performance here (and I bet the 1.67Ghz one is faster)

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/

[vehelpfulguy]

One other thing.

If you can give me exact name and the technical details of each of the laptops (CPU, memory, disk size, screen size, Windows version etc) and the PRICE, I will give you my opinion.

[ACtheTROLL]

bearing in mind you haven't given much info on either machine, the prices (or even if the case goes with your eys ;o)
it's not the easiest decision

of the two
the uni laptop is probably the better one to go for ....
simply because
as you go through your course you'll find the campus IT guys are generally quite generous and will provide lots of support relevant to your environment - esp network configs and access to the user groups and research sites which you'll need

this won't be the case with the electrical store.

When I was at uni a local PC company gave discounts which even then were very good (my cutting edge 8088 with a full 256Kb ram cost only �2150.00 - �400 less than the shops)

and the IT guys sold 5.25 floppys for 50p (a box of 10 retailed for �20.00)

probably the best thing is to leave it until you actually arrive .... see what's what ... buy then.

and be certain to get insurance ... the local toe-rags know that every fresher has one - laptops will be being stolen in their 100s (don't carry it round any more than you have to either)