Free Laptops are Here!

Lenovo ThinkPad - coming soon

Free laptops have arrived at last for our first year Animation & VFX students.  Everyone gets a brand new Lenovo ThinkPad T540P, with a 2.5Ghz i7 processor,  4Gb of Memory, and a 500Gb hard drive. It also has a full HD screen and a dedicated games card - very useful for high poly applications like Mudbox and ZBrush. These laptops should be well able to cope with pretty much anything our students throw at them for the next three years. It means our animators will be able to work from home, on the train, in the library - anywhere they find themselves wanting to get on with their studies.

The Big Deal - helping our students with unforseen expenses

Why the Lenovo?
We’ve focused on getting a powerful processor and good high resolution screen, as well as a games card that will work with sophisticated programs like Mudbox. Mudbox, for example, does not work well with basic laptops with onboard graphics cards. It's been a tricky process to balance priorities and get the best possible outcome.

What's it for?
Giving our students free laptops is all about making sure that our digital artists have access to the right equipment 24/7. We encourage our students to tackle small freelance jobs in their spare time; learning the ropes of digital creative media long before they leave university.



What if our students need extra memory?
You can upgrade memory and hard disks if you need to.

Will it do the job?
Co-course leader David Creighton has put a lot of time and effort into getting our students the highest possible specification for the budget we had to spend. We think it looks like a good laptop - so hopefully our students will enjoy using it.

Access the free stuff you need with ninite.com

How do you install the software you need?
There is plenty of free software available either for free or at greatly reduced rates for student use. A great website to start your software search is www.ninite.com - this site points you quickly to all the best free applications out there, so you can download at your leisure.

Avira - free anti-virus protection

But watch out! There is plenty of adware and malware out there - keep your laptop safe by downloading some free anti-virus protection first of all. Then when you install your free software, be careful not to click on the "standard installation" button. This can be a trojan horse for all kinds of adware which will slow down your workflow and make web-browsing a nightmare. Instead, install the software manually, only selecting the items you want to install, and keep your hard disk clean and protected.

For more on the experience of studying at Bucks New University, come and visit us at one of our Open Days,  take a virtual tour of one of our animation studios, check out what our students think of our course, and see why we're ranked in the top 12 creative universities in the UK. Find out why we're giving free laptops to all our students, and why we give all our students free access to videos at Lynda.com. Also, see what financial assistance might be available to you. Learn which is better for animation, a PC or a Mac? Get hold of a copy of a map so you can find your way around campus, and learn about motion capture at Bucks.