My wife is going back to school (online college) to finish up her degree, and we are looking to purchase new desk top and laptop computers for her. We havent purchased either kind since 2009 so were not sure where to start. We both have Apple phones but shes on the fence about Apple computers due to possible compatibility options for programs she may need to run. Some of the key features were looking for..
Laptop:
Portability
Wifi capability (for use on the go away from home)
Bluetooth capability (for connecting to external devices)
Internal storage
Speed
Battery life

Desktop:
Internal storage
Speed
Size (were limited on space at our computer desk)

Any help would be great.

how come the need for both a desktop and laptop? if its just for schooling you can survive with only a laptop (depending on what she's going to school for)


Portability its a laptop so its portable if 15" or under. 17" or bigger is little difficult
Wifi capability (for use on the go away from home) every laptop has wifi now
Bluetooth capability almost all have Bluetooth now as well
Internal storage storage is cheap. 1.5gb will be $100
Speed be sure to get i7 and 16gb RAM on the minimum.
Battery life they suck, its part of laptop life though. get an extra battery or just constantly have it plugged in. most batteries will only last a couple hours. mine unplugged unused will only last 2 days at the most.


I've had an HP now for a couple of years and its been great. I built it for photo editing and has all the stuff you are looking for. I received a giant discount using a friends employee code so it was quite a bit cheaper. You can go on their site though and build one to suit your needs. A standard good quality one should only run you $750-1000 and last years. if you don't need drives (CD, USB) you could probably get away with even a tablet or one of those surface pros. Apple computers, you are going to pay the price. for a decent one you are looking at $2k+ and like you mentioned run in to compatibility issues.

I'd agree. Unless the education is specific to the need for both (maybe tech/art/etc etc) I would go with just a laptop and maybe a monitor/keyboard at home. My gf just graduated from nursing school and I bought her a MacBook Air when she started. She loved it. Not only was it very small and light, but plenty of power to do everything she needed it to do. And Apple (and I'm sure plenty of PC manufacturers do as well) offers a discount for students.

Not really sure the need for both a laptop and a desktop, I didnt actually ask when she mentioned it.

Yeah, I'd ask. These days the laptops have plenty of power to use as a desktop. Just get a monitor/keyboard/mouse and hook it all up to a USB hub. You can make it super simple to plug in and out of. I have a desktop computer as well as a spot to plug my laptop into a separate monitor spot. I find that I use my laptop setup far more than the stationary one.

Look for a lower end gaming laptop. Anything that will run games decent will run anything else fantastic.

Also if you can, get a Solid State Drive (SSD) as your primary storage (that the OS runs on.) Most laptops like that also have room for a second internal hard drive for bulk storage. The speed a hard drive runs is often the bottleneck in computing, the processor is fast, the RAM is fast, but read/writing the data on a plate drive is slow and holds things up.

I have a 15" Dell gaming laptop, not top of the line but it does normal computing super fast. When I ordered it I also ordered more RAM (Bumping it to 16GB, and a second disk drive to put in the expansion bay. Had the back panel off it before I had it an hour. It can boot up from a cold start faster than most lower end computers can wake up from sleep mode.

A higher speed i5 is not a bad processor for average use. The speed of having a SSD will make up for it. You will pay out the nose for an i7.

I have built PCs since 1984.

Over the past few years, while I still build my desktops, I have owned a few laptops. I have started buying refurbs and they sure do take a bite out of the depreciation.

The last I bought was a 12.5(13) ASUS refurb from NewEgg. It was "A" rated or whatever their high rating is. Just read the specs and they grade the refurb items. Find one that is "like new" or "A" or whatever system they use now.

I got a near $600 laptop for about $340. Does everything I need it to do including web, email, audio/video/photo editing, provided you don't try to go overboard.

Win 10 but at one time, I had Win 10 and a couple Linux distros running. Now it's just Win 10 ( with all the "let windows do this" stuff turned off. ) I let windows do all the updates though.

Works great, portable, cheap, looks like brand new still, sturdy... much more so than a laptop that would be $350 regular price.

In fact it has fared better than my previous very high dollar Acer laptop and my economy Acer laptop ($350).

Solve ^^ this issue before you go any further.

It is commonplace to find Apple strong in the Graphic Arts and Education industries. However when she goes to work in the real world, she will find the majority of business computers using Windows-based programs. For this reason alone, I'd suggest using a Windows machine.

I also agree on simply using a good laptop. Get a good carry case, and watch it like a hawk, they are theft-bait. Agree on the SSD. Learn and use back up procedure. I have a Lenovo, wife has a Dell - both have been good.

I lot depends on what she's going to school for. Answer that and we can better help you make an informed decision.

For example, an i7-7700HQ with 32GB RAM, m.2 pcie ssd for the OS and programs and a spinning hard disk for storage would kill it if she's doing CAD. It would be overkill for things like word docs and spreadsheets.

A laptop with a TN panel would be fine for CAD but would suck for photo or video editing.

I agree with some others about getting a laptop and a monitor for home use though. This years laptops releases can damn near keep up with everything but Octa core desktops.

Not a complete deal breaker as you can dual-boot Macs these days. I can't think of anything that she might need that would be Mac OS specific.

I recommend a professional opinion...

Are you a costco member? I'd consider their inventory if for no other reason than the extra year warranty and best return policy in existance.

I've got an XPS 15" w/ 4K screen and its great.
https://m.costco.com/Dell-XPS-15-Tou...100336088.html

I chose not to go the SSD route, I have a buddy who works in storage and said the failure rate is quite high on these. they only have X amount of boot ups available before failing. not sure if its true or not.

Your buddy is wrong. I would know.

Get an SSD. Its not 1995 anymore. The failure is far far far far lower than an HDD.

If you really are concerned about MTBF then you can easily buy an Intel Enterprise class SSD on Amazon with a 5 year warranty. It will last 20+ years. I wouldn't trust an HDD more than 5-6 years EVER.

I already have a newer laptop. I built one about a year back. I chose the HD route and partitioned it using one drive as start up and other for storage. when I am in the market for a new one I will go the SSD route.