[Dilemma] College-provided laptop or other laptop?

[Careless]

So I've got this dilemma,

I'm attending to college in octobre and they're selling "cheap" *cough* laptops for the faculty I want to study.

I have more than basic computer knowledge but I'm not a real guru on graphic cards, nor CPU's etc.

My question is: is this buddy good enough to eventualy also be used as a gaming laptop? Or should I just buy a (tweaked or prebuilt) gaming-laptop myself that also could handle CAD and other 3D programs?

I'm talking about the HP EliteBook 8570p (note; this is a laptop chosen by the college for design, IT and game-developing things and they're supposedly way cheaper than if you buy them from a normal shop)

System features
Operating system: Windows? 8 Professional 64
Processor:Intel Core i5-3380M
Dimensions and weight
Weight: 3,6 kg
Memory, maximum: 8 GB installed (max: 32 GB) 1600 MHz DDR3 SDRAM
Memory slots: 2 SODIMM
Storage
Internal drive: 256 GB SSD (yes, only SSD wtfbbq.jpg)
Optical drive: DVD+/-RW SM

Graphics
Display:15.6" LED
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 7570M 1GB

tl;dr : is it worth getting it at a price of €1300,-?

[LITOralis.nMd]

That is a horrendous price.
You should join the student union and riot until the IT director who is taking kickbacks for this reselling program is fired and stripped of his/her pension.

Go buy your own.

[Careless]

That is a horrendous price.
You should join the student union and riot until the IT director who is taking kickbacks for this reselling program is fired and stripped of his/her pension.

Go buy your own.

That's the price for a laptop that can handle a fall from 75cm with ease, is resistant to wet keyboards, can work at temperatures of -20?C and is passed for 'Merican military!

HP Elitebook Commercial - YouTube

But I've been looking to benchmarks of the GPU, and apperently it sucks..
You're right, I should get one myself.

[LITOralis.nMd]

I know what Elitebook are, I have no idea why a Uni student would need one unless he's a geology, mining, field biologist, construction operations etc major doing field work.

Just how dangerous is your commute between the library and the student housing.

[LITOralis.nMd]

I still think buying a EliteBook is a waste of value on the chassis and not on hardware components.

If you baby that notebook, it will make it through your Uni career, which is the thinking behind the choice of EliteBook over the ProBooks or HP consumer model line of notebooks.

[Steeps]

My point to add here: Never, ever, ever buy an HP product. Especially laptops, it will most likely die of cheap hardware failure within two years. Personal experience at a physicians office I worked in. They bought 6 HP laptops and had a 100% failure rate within two years. Switched to Dell desktops and never had a problem since.

For laptops buy ASUS or Sony brands.

[PLODDITHANLEY]

Personally I've written of Sony because of:

Too much anticopy stuff because of Sony music

Overheating problems they had a few years back

But that's me Asus and MSI!

Most are clevo anyway, if not Asus Compal and MSI.

[Careless]

I know what Elitebook are, I have no idea why a Uni student would need one unless he's a geology, mining, field biologist, construction operations etc major doing field work.

Just how dangerous is your commute between the library and the student housing.

I won't have much field work, but I'll be spending much time in a studio with electronics, drawing material, etc.

I live 5 minutes from my college.

I never trusted HP either, so this time I was like; "wow, they must've improved over the years, since the college is providing me this at a low price"

You're right about starting a riot

[LITOralis.nMd]

I'll ask a friend who works in a large corporation about the corporate account price for HP Elitebooks, and I'll post back when I can. In the US, converting USD to Euros, a refurbished notebook of the same model and specs is about US$100 cheaper, with a note that I removed your Belgium VAT tax from the equation.

If you are getting the "corporate/government/educational facility" price and a good warranty, you are paying about 70 Euros for the warranty.

You can check the prices of refubrished HP EliteBooks here:
Refurbished business products

The discount for refurbished is usually close to the corporate/government pricing, but refurbished come with very short warranty.

HP has a Belgium Education HP Total Care One package here:
Care Pack Central > Care Pack Central

Total Education One Training
Care Pack Product Number Service Description Local List Price(EC)
UC818E HP Education Total One Service 100.00

listed for 100 Euros.
(Not sure if that includes VAT or not)

[Cossack]

My point to add here: Never, ever, ever buy an HP product. Especially laptops, it will most likely die of cheap hardware failure within two years. Personal experience at a physicians office I worked in. They bought 6 HP laptops and had a 100% failure rate within two years. Switched to Dell desktops and never had a problem since.

For laptops buy ASUS or Sony brands.

Hey... I own HP Pavilion DV6 7080se and its boss. And I a lot had more problem with Dell then any other laptop manufacturer.

Just say your bugdet and what laptops you can get. The looks of it are important as well, as you will use it daily. I really love my HP Pavilion, but if there would be at that price, what I got this one Lenovo, I would go with Lenovo.