Student Laptop Computers

In the past decade, note taking in classrooms has evolved from pen and paper to keyboard buttons. Laptop computers have become a must have for all students entering college level courses. The question most of you parents face isn’t whether or not you should buy a laptop for your student, but rather which one to buy. With all of the specifications, brand names and bells and whistles added to laptops it can be a daunting task to sort through it all and make sure that you’re getting the most for your dollar. Allow me to help clarify what’s important for your student and what’s not.

Student Laptop Computer

The most important specification to look for while shopping for your student is the amount of RAM the laptop has. Generally speaking, most laptops will come with 1 to 4 gigabytes (GB). The more GBs their computer has, the faster it will run. Laptops running on Windows Vista will require at least 2 GBs of RAM to run smoothly. For students who will use their laptop primarily for email, typing and surfing the internet, 2 GBs will be more than adequate. However, if your student needs to run more robust software that is often used for programming, engineering/architecture or media, 4GBs is usually recommended (also for these students, having a dedicated graphics card is helpful as well).

When it comes to processors don’t spend extra money on higher speeds, spend money on more processors. Simply put, the more processors a laptop has, the more efficient it can run multiple programs at the same time. Each extra processor shares the workload with the others, causing the programs to run more efficiently. A common term you may see while shopping is dual-core (two processors) or quad-core (four-processors). Once again, if your student is only using their laptop for email, typing and surfing, one processor will do.

Lastly don’t waste money on excessive hard drive storage. Although it may be impressive to see a laptop that has 500 GBs of hard drive space, the odds are you’ll never use it all up. The most likely items to use up storage on a student’s laptop are music and photos, and 160 GB is usually sufficient for these. Storage space is easy and cheap to buy later on if needed. In addition to cost, the larger the hard drive, the heavier and less portable laptops become.

Student Laptop Computers Guides

College Notebook
There are so many advantages to buying a notebook or laptop for college. They are portable, and usually extremely light weight. They are great for small dorm rooms due to their small size. You can even bring them home with you to complete assignments during school vacations. Having a laptop will make your whole college experience go much more smoothly.