Going to grad school in the fall and needing a new laptop. Just

>>59551480
Why do you need a new laptop for simple docs?

>>59551480
>grad school
Alienware

>>59551480
kill yourself

>>59551495
My ancient HP finally kicked the bucket

>>59551480
Why are you unable to do googling yourself? You're not asking a question more specific than "Hey /g/, shop around for a laptop for me."

What kind of budget do you have? "Can't afford a Mac" isn't that useful since most base mac models are like what, 1000$? There's a shit ton of different laptops under that budget.

Why kind of video games do you play? Are these documents actually simple or do you just refer to Office Suite type programs and files as something "simple"?

How much multi-tasking do you do on your machine? How essential is it that you have Windows? Do you need it to be new? What is your country?

So many questions, and so little answers.

>>59551480
>grad school
used mac

x or t series thinkpad for low end, possibly with screen/ssd/ram upgrades, or retina macbook pro for high end. anything else is cancer.

>>59551579
Well, I walked around Best Buy the other day and saw a lot of laptops in the $300-400 range and couldn't help but think why not just get one of these? They're cheap and will probably do everything I need them to, which is word processing, internet browsing and run old vidya (I mainly play an RPG from last decade).

It just seemed too good to be true to get a laptop that does everything I need it to for that cheap. There has to be a catch. Hence why I wanted to inquire about recommendations here. I tried to keep it as general and non-specific as possible so as to make this thread as applicable to as many other people as possible.

I just don't get how Macs can be so much more expensive while not providing anything more for someone like me than these $300 laptops do.

>>59551676
Look to spend 500-750. In that range you can get a decent laptop without gimping features or specs too much

>>59551676
They provide a tighter integration with your iPhone, and seem to be easier to use for "normies" b/c of reasons I don't understand. I have used both PC and Mac, and they are both more or less equal to me.

If all you are doing is basic shit, then you like every young girl on my campus don't need a mac. If you did decide to go down that route because of some weird illogical reason, then all you literally need is the cheapest laptop they sell.

300-400$ Range is good and garbage. It depends. What you care about are specs. What resolution do you want the screen to be? What physical size do you want the screen to be? How important is battery life to you? How important is appearance to you?

>>59551480
How did you even get into grad school without the ability to perform basic research?

>>59551676
you can get an older laptop for about $200 that has better build quality, more features, etc, than a low end new one

look into thinkpads, elitebooks, latitudes

>I just don't get how Macs can be so much more expensive while not providing anything more for someone like me than these $300 laptops do.

fashion

most people don't buy items for their inherent utility, they buy them as part of a social status game, especially women

I don't care to stay awake longer to see your replies. Here's the very oversimplified cheat sheet.

CPU: Avoid AMD for laptops. They're almost always shit. Intel Atom and Intel Celeron are shit unless it's a Chromebook.

RAM: You need 4GB. You'd like 8GB. But you just need 4GB.

SSD/HDD: SSD is preferable, especially if you don't normally have that many files. Literally no reason to pick a 2TB HDD over a 128GB SSD if you're never going to use up the whole 128GB.

Screen Size: 1366x768 is better on smaller screens in terms of readability, but it's a garbage resolution. You'd be doing yourself a favor by buying a laptop with a screen res of 1920x1080. 1600x900 is much better than 1366x768, and anything under that is garbage.

If you're doing "some vidya" then just deal with the integrated graphics on whatever laptop you buy. Otherwise, the GTX 1050 Ti is a good GPU for people who aren't super serious about gaming and who are comfortable running everything at just 1080p.

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/productdetails/inspiron-15-7567-laptop

is pretty much overkill for what I imagine you do. You do not need a Quad-Core CPU at all though, and they suck battery life much harsher than Dual-Cores. So if there exists an i3, i5, or i7 CPU with pretty much ANY dedicated graphics card, you're fine.

Do your own research. Google your questions.

>>59551715
I know how to do research, but I look to /g/ as the preeminent authority on these things. I know I'll get the distilled-down redpill here.

>>59551802
I would add that the latest dual core i5 is great, since there's not much a difference compared to the i7 variant.

If you just want to light gaming, modern intel integrated gpus are great nowadays.

Just get a mac. I fell for the thinkpad meme freshman year and all i got were strange looks and giggling from other people. RRRREEEEEE

>>59551676
>>59551676
its runescape isnt it

>>59551676
>I just don't get how Macs can be so much more expensive while not providing anything more for someone like me than these $300 laptops do.

Just the M.2 hard drive in a Mac is $500 if purchased separately

the screens are higher resolution and the ram is faster

>why do better quality components cost more

gee i dont know

>>59551676
>I just don't get how Macs can be so much more expensive while not providing anything more for someone like me than these $300 laptops do.

you really can't figure it out by looking at the specs (drive type, ram type, screen resolution, battery life, processor, case material) and build quality?

really?

>>59551480
T H I N K P A D