======= Date Modified 17 Jul 2011 22:18:03 =======
Hello fellow postgrads, I've finally registered on this forum but have been visiting for several months. Actually I'm sure the good advice provided here on this site regarding PhD interviews partly explains why I am now looking forward to starting a PhD in the near future!

Having registered, I now see that I have chosen an inappropriately long user name, oh well, nevermind. I hope that I'll be able to provide support as well as receive some during the next 3+ years.

I am looking at buying a new laptop for the PhD and would like to know if anyone has any recommendations? I have been advised by my supervisor that I should definitely get a PC and not a Mac for the purposes of the software that I shall be required to install. I am doing a science PhD so I am going to need something that can handle large databases. I already saw a thread on here but it's a few years old now so I thought I would start a new one to see in the main players in notebook laptops have remained the same over the years or have changed.

The three brands that I keep coming back to are Toshiba, Dell and Lenovo. I've heard good things about all of them. Any input would be greatly appreciated.

Firstly - just to check, are you paying for this or your dept? Ideally it should be the latter if it is for PhD work - there *should* be money allocated for such things. If it is the latter you may have your choices limited by university procurement contracts. In my uni it is a choice between Macs or Dells. So check that out before you spend hours researching your options.

I've had good experiences with Dell, and I like the fact that you can custom build according to your needs. When you say 'large databases', how large is large? You may find that with very large datasets, a laptop won't rapidly be able to undertake some analyses, so you might want to enquire whether provision is made in your department for access to more powerful desktops. Or at least ensure that your laptop spec is optimised for that. I use a Dell desktop at work, so I can't make specific recommendations with regard to models I'm afraid.

======= Date Modified 18 Jul 2011 01:19:31 =======

I went with Dell and have been happy with it so far.  Hubby has a Dell and when he had an issue with the connectivity the helpdesk was excellent in fixing his problem over the phone. I would highly recommend an external hard-drive for backing up and storage to release the storage capacity of your laptop. Incidentally, when I got my laptop the uni had a discount scheme with Dell so I got some money off the purchase price, maybe worth checking if your uni has any such schemes running.

I have an ASUS laptop which has a intel core i5 according to the sticker on it :$ I think it was about £400 when I bought it and it has windows 7. It runs SPSS really well and I've been bootstrapping 10,000 samples and its yet to have any issues with that. I'm happy with it.

I wish I had gone for a mac. But its too late.

I have a Toshiba with i5 processor, 500gb and 4gb ram, and its working perfectly. I think I bought it for around £500 from PC World. Look out for the sale.

I got a Mac just before I started my MA, before that I had a PC. There is no way I will ever go back to a PC. All the programmes I need run on my Mac as well and it's just so much more user friendly than a PC.

So the important thing to know about laptops is that 1 in 10 breaks. That's way more than with desktop PCs.
Because of the high chance that you laptop breaks you want to buy a brand that has good/great support! And there is only two companies that provide this and that's Dell and Lenovo(formerly known as IBM).
Dell has the big name and you have to pay your price for having the name. Lenovo offers the same, but for a bit less money.

I was more on the geek side with computers years ago and I fix a lot of PCs for my friends. Funny enough when I talk to similiar computer-helper guys we also ended up finding out that the others also always recommend Lenovo ;)

So the important thing to know about laptops is that 1 in 10 breaks. That's way more than with desktop PCs.
Because of the high chance that you laptop breaks you want to buy a brand that has good/great support! And there is only two companies that provide this and that's Dell and Lenovo(formerly known as IBM).
Dell has the big name and you have to pay your price for having the name. Lenovo offers the same, but for a bit less money.

I was more on the geek side with computers years ago and I fix a lot of PCs for my friends. Funny enough when I talk to similiar computer-helper guys we also ended up finding out that the others also always recommend Lenovo ;)

From talking to other PhD students, I have learnt one thing. BACK UP EVERYTHING! Everyone has brands they prefer, I'm in a similar position to Manfred_symphony but I know that there already is a laptop waiting for me, but we are advised to use it as a home computer rather than a home-Uni-home computer. I am thinking of buying a netbook with good memory and light so I can 1)use it for my own document e.g. itunes, pictures, etc 2)I can work on the tube journey home.

I've heard to stay clear of Dell. I have just looked at a mini inspiron on the Dell website, and the so called "expert" was 100% sure that Dell don't sell netbooks/minilaptops anymore. In fact, she was 100% wrong! But everyone has a horror story about a particular brand of laptop, I know people who's laptops broke within a matter of weeks (that's where I was told to stay clear), my Sony Vaio has gone through 2 optical disk drives in the 3 years that I have had it (sony replaced both), but apart from that it's been a good computer!

Could you possibly wait until you start your PhD to determine what you actually need the computer for?

tbh, I reckon on having to buy a new laptop every 2 years really - to make sure its fast enough for me not to get too annoyed. I work out that if I spend about £300-£400 then it means I can buy 2-3 times more laptops (running windows) than macs in that same time.

I use dropbox and external hard drives to back up all my info. I am also sending all my final documents to my hotmail, just in case.

I've used a Mac for over 10 years, and just can't work on a PC (my Uni has PCs and they drive me mad, so I prefer to work from home, which fortunately is just across the road from my department). Macs are fast, user-friendly, and are generally non-hackable and a lot less clunky. However, there IS the software problem, but you can get over that by using parallel systems on a Mac. That said, Macs are seriously overpriced compared to PCs!

======= Date Modified 18 Jul 2011 22:55:46 =======
Thank you to everyone who has responded. I did check and I will be paying for this myself, however I found that I can get a discount by ordering hardware through Getech's Student Store using my university log-in. A 3 year warranty is offered on Toshiba and Samsung products purchased from this site. It's good to read your first-hand experiences with certain laptops... mixed reviews on Dell, still to hear something negative about Lenovo... thanks again for all the comments. I've got a lot of thinking to do...!

Edit: I know that I'll also have use of a desktop at my institution, so the laptop will be used for extra work at home during evenings/weekends. I could wait until I've started before buying one, but I'd also like to become familiar with it in advance of starting too. I've had some advice from my supervisor about particular specs that would be desirable, so that's also useful information to go on.

Good luck with buying ;)

Let us know what you ended up with!

as for me it does not matter what sort of lappy vendor u opt for, but it always matter that what is it configuration.
as u said u are a science student u; need to work with certain software like matlab, scilab, pearl, latex which need faster processor so go for i7.