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Joined: Aug 05 2008 Location: CA Posts: 867

So I need to buy a laptop for school, it's required for the last 2 years. You can buy one from the school for the budget price of $3,100 or you can opt out of the school laptop and get your own. I am hard pressed to find one with the the same specs as the school computer for more than $2,000 (Alienware’s top notebook). However, if you buy the school one you get Adobe Suite, Maya, 3D Studio Max and various SDKs and if it ever breaks you can turn it in for a new one. I am not sure what the better deal is.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Probable Muppet wrote:

So I need to buy a laptop for school, it's required for the last 2 years. You can buy one from the school for the budget price of $3,100 or you can opt out of the school laptop and get your own. I am hard pressed to find one with the the same specs as the school computer for more than $2,000 (Alienware’s top notebook). However, if you buy the school one you get Adobe Suite, Maya, 3D Studio Max and various SDKs and if it ever breaks you can turn it in for a new one. I am not sure what the better deal is.

Post the specs or no one can help.

Posted: Dec 02 2008 10:12 pm

I'm sure anything's at least better than my one gig ram piece of crap I'm currently on, that I've had for over two years now, and I'm probably using it for school too.

Banned Joined: Sep 13 2008 Posts: 3129

get the school one

the programs will be worth it

Posted: Dec 02 2008 11:10 pm

GPFontaine wrote:

Probable Muppet wrote:

So I need to buy a laptop for school, it's required for the last 2 years. You can buy one from the school for the budget price of $3,100 or you can opt out of the school laptop and get your own. I am hard pressed to find one with the the same specs as the school computer for more than $2,000 (Alienware’s top notebook). However, if you buy the school one you get Adobe Suite, Maya, 3D Studio Max and various SDKs and if it ever breaks you can turn it in for a new one. I am not sure what the better deal is.

Post the specs or no one can help.

Wrong. go with the school notebook. Maya and adobe CS are worth the price difference alone. Hell, I haven't looked it up in forever, but I think even with student pricing maya is like 500 bucks. Also, if it can run maya worth a damn, it's got some pretty good specs. Also can't beat a trade-in warranty like that.

EDIT: Of course, If you don't need that crap, go with something else, but I would have liked a deal like that when I was going through college. Not to mention it's an easy tax write-off too.

Joined: Aug 05 2008 Location: CA Posts: 867

Sorry was busy standing around in WoW doing nothing...

Specs for the school Laptop are:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 / 2.26 GHz Duel Core 64 bit
4 Gigs DDR3 SD RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 512MB VRAM
200 Gig Serial ATA 7200 RPM HD

Maya Student Edition runs around $200 Bucks, 3DSMAX is $500, Adobe CS4 Suite $600. Most of the SDK stuff is free (Directx SDK, Havok non licensed)

And yes the software is required too, it's a video game design program. However, I can get that software for free from places. Not sure how keen they are on illegal software though, they seem not to care too much.

If I get a laptop on my own, I could build it myself or make payments on one. If it broke though I would be pretty fucked.

Edit: I opted out of it already, I called and asked if I was able to opt back in, they said no problem. When I originally saw the price I said "fuck you!" and signed the form. Rolling Eyes

Also, tax write off either way so. I just recently spent a crap load on my home built desk top and bought a 24 inch monitor at best buy on credit (not that I need the monitor but it's damn nice Wink

)in preparation for this. I did not realize I needed the laptop, I honestly thought it was optional.

Joined: Dec 06 2007 Location: Connecticut Posts: 11244

Probable Muppet wrote:

Sorry was busy standing around in WoW doing nothing...

Specs for the school Laptop are:
Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 / 2.26 GHz Duel Core 64 bit
4 Gigs DDR3 SD RAM
NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS 512MB VRAM
200 Gig Serial ATA 7200 RPM HD

Maya Student Edition runs around $200 Bucks, 3DSMAX is $500, Adobe CS4 Suite $600. Most of the SDK stuff is free (Directx SDK, Havok non licensed)

And yes the software is required too, it's a video game design program. However, I can get that software for free from places. Not sure how keen they are on illegal software though, they seem not to care too much.

If I get a laptop on my own, I could build it myself or make payments on one. If it broke though I would be pretty fucked.

Edit: I opted out of it already, I called and asked if I was able to opt back in, they said no problem. When I originally saw the price I said "fuck you!" and signed the form. Rolling Eyes

Also, tax write off either way so. I just recently spent a crap load on my home built desk top and bought a 24 inch monitor at best buy on credit (not that I need the monitor but it's damn nice Wink

)in preparation for this. I did not realize I needed the laptop, I honestly thought it was optional.

The more I think about it, the more I realize that you should get the recommended system and software. Learning that shit is hard and you should be able to take the hardware out of the equation.

Consider the cost to be a part of the tuition.

Joined: Aug 05 2008 Location: CA Posts: 867

Yeah I went with the school one. I am happy as a clam, I am quiting my job too, which is refreshing. My boss is a racist, xenophobic ass hole with a TV in every room of his house and a gun collection that could supply a small militia. He is one of those guys that calls you into his office and then proceeds to pick up the phone every couple minutes in the middle of conversations. You can tell the nationality or race of the person on the other end of the line just by his body language and tone of voice. He will either be talking hunting/fishing/hockey with a person for 10 minutes at a time, or if it's a foreigner, he talks really load and slow and puts the phone down on his desk and shakes his head every few seconds.