Computer help please! Desperate

[ottawa]

I've been accepted to university!!! Yay!

However i need a laptop/computer etc. I spoke with the uni and asked for system requirements and they said i needed windows 10, adobe and the ability to downloaded ALOT of pdf's and that tablets are not supported by their software (?)
So my questions im hoping to get help with is does any1 with computer knowledge think any of this weeks notebooks would be sufficient? I know absolutely zilch and its such a big purchase, was hoping to use points to lower cost
Thank you soooooooo much for advice

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[Arjon]

Unfortunately, the item descriptions are pretty sparse, which limits how informed a suggestion anyone can offer. At a very basic level, more RAM and more HD capacity are better, but which CPU a given unit has is also very important. You might want to get more info by, for example, visiting a store that has them in stock. The full specs of each unit may or may not be on the boxes, but if you get the model numbers, you can look for more info online.

[ottawa]

Thank you so much

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[Anna Michele]

Make sure to buy on a 20x offer even if you are redeeming a portion you will earn 20x whatever money you pay out of pocket

Sent from my SM-J320W8 using Tapatalk

[Ciel]

I think you need a proper laptop, not a notebook. I realize you want a computer from Shoppers but notebooks don't come with many programs. At some point, you may regret not having MS Office suite etc.

[ottawa]

Thanks anna and ciel.
Thats what i was thinking, its such a huge expense so was hoping to cut costs but dont want to end up having to buy a laptop on top if it doesnt work out........*sigh* looks like im laptop shopping now
Thanks again everyone

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

[LunchLady]

I googled difference between note book and laptop and it said mainly the size. Check it out. I bought the HP 8 mg ($449 one) and don't regret it. If you use skype though, it can be slow. Hope this helps a bit.

[Arjon]

Thanks anna and ciel.
Thats what i was thinking, its such a huge expense so was hoping to cut costs but dont want to end up having to buy a laptop on top if it doesnt work out........*sigh* looks like im laptop shopping now

I'm generalizing, but you don't need a major amount of computing power to do school work and to video chat, not even after factoring in that you probably want to keep the unit for the next 3-4 years. **As a rule of thumb**, across any generation of CPUs, the ones toward the lower end of the range ought to fine for these purposes for that long. One key thing to avoid is buying a unit that's attractively priced because it has a CPU that has been or soon will be supplanted by a newer one. This is a major reason why I said finding out which CPUs various models use is important.

Alternatively, you can look for a good price on unit with a CPU that is at or nearing the end of its life cycle, but that has better specs because it was / is higher in the manufacturer's range of CPUs.

Unfortunately, I can't offer anything more specific since I no longer watch CPU generations like I once did for work-related reasons.

[dagney]

Also I know most universities give wicked deals to their students on computers.
Recently bought my daughter a shoppers computer and it was crap (sloooow). She ended up having it wiped clean and gave it to her 13 yr old stepson. She replaced it with a 2nd hand computer from a computer repair shop that zooms up older business computers.

Moral of the story even if computers are cheap at SDM using points - sometimes they are just not worth wasteing the points on them!!

[tjthemanto]

I've been accepted to university!!! Yay!

However i need a laptop/computer etc. I spoke with the uni and asked for system requirements and they said i needed windows 10, adobe and the ability to downloaded ALOT of pdf's and that tablets are not supported by their software (?)
So my questions im hoping to get help with is does any1 with computer knowledge think any of this weeks notebooks would be sufficient? I know absolutely zilch and its such a big purchase, was hoping to use points to lower cost
Thank you soooooooo much for advice

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk

1. Almost all the new laptops will come with Windows 10 pre-installed on it.

2. You just need Adobe Acrobat Reader which is a FREE download from Adobe to read, open and download PDF's.

Now if you want to edit or create PDF documents you will have to buy the whole Adobe Acrobat. It's very rarely required.

Plus there are lot of other free programs both online and offline which work just like Adobe Acrobat. Also MS Office will let you export word, excel files into PDF.

3. MS Office is expensive if you try to buy regular copy.

But for most Universities & Colleges they have the subsidised Student edition which is only $ 15. They will send a link to your university email for the download. So wait till university starts to buy MS Office for cheap.

---------------------

You can get a good quality lap top for $ 250 .

Check Dell Canada , Best Buy , The Source & Microsoft Canada Store website for good deals & also student discounts.

The $ 250 lap top is more than enough for work, school, internet & other purposes. Only for high end video game playing & high end graphic design you need some hi-fi very high specs expensive laptop.
Otherwise the $ 250 one is more than enough for students & working people.

[tjthemanto]

Also sometimes Loblaws & RCSS have good deals and NO tax events on electronics. So you can save 13 % HST tax on the laptop at these events.

I bought a pre-paid cell phone at Loblaws which was cheaper, plus NO tax event. That's the last place I thought I would buy a phone, but it was cheaper than other electronics stores like Best Buy etc and NO tax on it.

[Arjon]

Also I know most universities give wicked deals to their students on computers.
Recently bought my daughter a shoppers computer and it was crap (sloooow). She ended up having it wiped clean and gave it to her 13 yr old stepson. She replaced it with a 2nd hand computer from a computer repair shop that zooms up older business computers.

Moral of the story even if computers are cheap at SDM using points - sometimes they are just not worth wasteing the points on them!!

Second moral: don't buy a computer without enough information to understand what kind of performance you're going to get from it.

[Ciel]

If the university offers a computer rental service, maybe OP could visit and see what make/models are available for renting and then shop for similar laptop? Or visit the campus store to see what computer deals can be had.
I know Mohawk College's Tech bar rents laptops and students have to use their OneCard prepaid balance to pay the rental fee for the hours booked to borrow a computer on-campus.

[ottawa]

Thanks so much everyone. So many useful tips. Unfortunately my uni is out of province, course is only of its kind in canada so i cant access anything directly through the uni. I never would have thought of student discounts(hmmm what else can i milk from that?) Lol

Sent from my SM-G903W using Tapatalk