Desktop or Laptop for College [POLL]

Carnival Forces

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would you choose a Desktop or a Laptop for college, and why?

I'm thinking Laptop so that I can take notes in my classes w/ it and i'll still be able to game on it, lightly.
 
Laptop.

But I doubt you will take notes on it in class anyways.

Nice so you can bring it home on breaks and be working on the same system all the time. Nice to bring to the library if you ever do any studying. Nice for when you travel to visit other people.

Unless you are really hard core into gaming, why not get a laptop?
 
Originally posted by darktiger
Gaming laptop.

I concur,
The Dell XPS looks pretty sweet.

Plus I like the fact that i can use the laptop and just look up at the TV if i want to.
 
If you don't game, laptop (although laptops now have some pretty good graphic chips in them).

I prefer the best of both worlds. I have the laptop and my desktop. Heck, I barely ever bring the laptop out; it's more of my coding/development machine. And plus, everyone who brings laptops to class from what I've seen are browsing the net instead of actually listening to the lecture anyways.
 
Originally posted by mobiux
I concur,
The Dell XPS looks pretty sweet.

I'd advise to stay away from Dell notebooks. Some have issues and other don't but I think IBM makes a much nicer laptop. I love my T30. My dad loves his T40. My sister loves her R40.
 
Originally posted by BillLeeLee
If you don't game, laptop (although laptops now have some pretty good graphic chips in them).

I prefer the best of both worlds. I have the laptop and my desktop. Heck, I barely ever bring the laptop out; it's more of my coding/development machine. And plus, everyone who brings laptops to class from what I've seen are browsing the net instead of actually listening to the lecture anyways.

Off Topic: My girlfriend and sister go to Holy Cross in Worcester.
 
i am a University student. and most students here dont bring their laptops to take notes, they use the good old paper and pencil, and yes the ones who bring their laptops use it to surf the net. go figure

i was considering a laptop myself, but since i am into gaming, i build a gaming desktop, bought two crt monitors (130 USD each) , one for the rented room i stay in, during weekdays and the other stays at my home for use during weekends,
so i only have to take the Case back and forth( which is a light CAse)

much cheaper than a gaming laptop
 
Originally posted by Aztlan
i am a University student. and most students here dont bring their laptops to take notes, they use the good old paper and pencil, and yes the ones who bring their laptops use it to surf the net. go figure

i was considering a laptop myself, but since i am into gaming, i build a gaming desktop, bought two crt monitors (130 USD each) , one for the rented room i stay in, during weekdays and the other stays at my home for use during weekends,
so i only have to take the Case back and forth( which is a light CAse)

much cheaper than a gaming laptop

IMO thats a hassle. Where do you go to school that you go home every weekend?
 
Originally posted by RemisGodly
IMO thats a hassle. Where do you go to school that you go home every weekend?

no it isnt.
if one researchs correctly. i bought those shuttle small factor pc's
so is not a pain to carry it, i have spare keyboard and mouse ( so i have keyboard and mouse in either place), so like said i only carry the little case.

and lets say, my home is 1 hour and 30 minute drive from the place i am renting,
 
Both. :p (If I can get the money)

I'm recommending that a friend of mine get a modest desktop (~$1200) and a modest notebook (~$1200), with emphasis on platform on the desktop—that way, he'll have a nice gaming/work machine for his dorm and a nice notebook for everywhere else.

As for myself, desktop and PDA for organizing assignments.
 
I'll chime in a little more. I live over an hour away from home, I have two midtowers with me and a 60 pound 19 inch monitor, not to mention a laser printer. I just can't live without a desktop and a huge monitor with me (thinking of getting a 17 inch LCD to go with it, bye bye food money).

Heck, one of my friend's roommates is from Cali, and he brought a full sized tower and huge monitor 3000 miles to school.

Laptops are good if you need portability, good power, gaming on the go, but just something about desktops I really like. Probably because carrying it around is the only exercise I get. :p

@ Stilleto One: $1200 can buy you one heck of a desktop these days. The one in my sig (with the P4 2.4) cost $1300, and only because $200 of it went into the case and PSU combined. $1200 can also buy you one heck of a notebook.

Off topic @ Remis: Holy Cross, that's about a mile away from here. Nice school, nice people, good looking girls. ;) (My school doesn't really have many females, tech school and all).
 
gaming desktop + non gaming notebook.

do yourself a favor and get a centrino based laptop
 
speaking from experience ... if you are going to get a laptop, get a used one that is LIGHT. especially if you are just going to take notes in class. Personally, i was an engineer, so there is no way i could take notes in class (too many diagrams).

security!! get a desktop ... or a BIG LOCK for your laptop ... more laptops walk off of college campuses every year, and it would suck to lose your ONLY computer, especially if you get a "gaming laptop" and blow close to $4000 on it ...

in the end, its up to you ... if you think you'll take notes on a laptop and you think thats best for you, then go for it, but be careful where you set your laptop down. Even your room isnt too safe. Otherwise, i'd say get a capable desktop, and a palm to take notes (with a pocket keyboard or something).


my $0.02USD

b
 
Originally posted by bschwarz6
Personally, i was an engineer, so there is no way i could take notes in class (too many diagrams).

yep, thats very true, i am studying for an engineering major, and there is no way to take notes with a laptop, teachers simply write too many diagrams on the board, thats why i decided to go with a desktop,

is up to the poster what he plans to do.
 
Unless you don't have/want/can't afford a gaming desktop, I see no reason to get a gaming laptop. They're usually EXPENSIVE, and with the high powered graphics chips, eat the power. I plan on going to a college less than 20 mins from my house, so I'm just going to commute. I might get a basic laptop just to take notes and work in the library on. Unless you really plan on gaming with the laptop, I wouldn't recommend getting it, but everyone's needs are different.
 
Originally posted by BillLeeLee
@ Stilleto One: $1200 can buy you one heck of a desktop these days. The one in my sig (with the P4 2.4) cost $1300, and only because $200 of it went into the case and PSU combined. $1200 can also buy you one heck of a notebook.
Seen all the specs threads I've posted in? Fully aware. :)

I dunno about the $1200 buying a super-duper-badass notebook, though. Nice battery power + nice specs can get real spendy, real fast. :(
 
Something like the Dell Latitude D505 would be good - decent price, huge screen, good battery life, solid performance. Definitely a laptop would be the way to go - one gets very limited with desktops. Also, check out www.oqo.com
 
Originally posted by omega-x
gaming desktop + non gaming notebook.

do yourself a favor and get a centrino based laptop

Yes, laptops own because I said so fuxor, dont look at me like that!

~Adam
 
at my university it is mandatory to have an IBM laptop and they have a way to rent them for the term but my rich ass texan aunt bought me one.
 
been there, done that. If you like upgrading your computer, then you should stay away from laptops.

Desktop for gaming.
You're going to realize that it's a hassle to tug a laptop around campus and you're going to take notes with paper anyways. Have you ever tried to study for a test staring at a monitor? doesn't work very well.
you're going to be up a creek trying to take notes in a calculus class or other math class where so many symbols are used and the professor moves along quickly.


computer programming or something like that may be the only reason for a laptop. but then you have to get the compilers and programs that you use in class on the laptop.

If you can afford a gaming notebook, get it. but also buy a separate keyboard/mouse for regular use.
 
BBGun ... why bother? what's wrong with pencil & paper ?
heck of a lot cheaper for those years of frugal living.
 
Originally posted by RemisGodly
I'd advise to stay away from Dell notebooks. Some have issues and other don't but I think IBM makes a much nicer laptop. I love my T30. My dad loves his T40. My sister loves her R40.

Im the complete opposite, my employer is all IBM and I installed at least 200 laptops and they are ok... thats if the hard drives keep working. These IBM's have horrible hard drive life. anything through the A,T,X,R series, all suck IMHO
 
as a four-year college student: desktop.

You NEVER end up using a laptop to take notes or anything like that; besides, in most classes you CAN'T take good notes on a laptop (let's see, I'll just type up that integral in Notepad...)

Desktops are more powerful and cheaper, harder to steal, and it really isn't THAT much harder to take your computer down a few flights of stairs and into your car for summer break. It's not like you have to move it every other week.

I have a 21" CRT and a Antec 1040 server case (steel baby:cool: ), and it really isn't that bad. Most colleges even have little carts you check out to move your stuff anyway.

Of course all this applies only if you live on campus.
 
I would say go with a laptop. Not w/ the intentions of taking the laptop to class an taking notes, but it's so much easier to transport then any sort of desktop whether your going home, taking the computer to the library, or entering the quad. There are plenty of reasons a laptop is easier for college life. Supose you go over to a buddies room to studay, you just grab your laptop w/ you and your off. If it was a desktop, you couldn't do that, and if you were too, it'd be much more of a hastle. I commute to college, but i have my nice desktop setup at home and then my Toshiba laptop for work and at school needs.

While looking at laptops, take into consideration how quiet/loud it is. I know a few people with the Compaq laptops and they are just INCREDIBLY loud. A guy in one of my classes has one and it's just louder then shit, drowns out the whole room. A friend of mine brought Compaq laptop over to my place and it drowned out my main desktop machine. From my experience, Toshiba's are absolutely SILENT, and Compaq's are just way too loud. Dells seem pretty quite too, but i guess that depends on the model... Other then that, i'd try to see them in person before purchase.
 
Originally posted by J Macker
BBGun ... why bother? what's wrong with pencil & paper ?
heck of a lot cheaper for those years of frugal living.

1) notes for all classes are all in one spot

2) it never gets heavier the more classes/notes you take (i.e. carrying around 3 different spirals or a big binder

3) add annotations in searchable text to scribbled notes pages so you can find them easier later

4) its cool

:D

I know if I had the opportunity to have the functionality of today's tablet PCs when I was in school, I would have definitely used it.

BB <-- B.Sc. CU-Boulder, '89, M.S. Auburn, '92
 
the one major possible downfall of a laptop is its still a machine. If you depend on it with all your critical data then be that way. Ive seen to many people store tons of important data on thier laptop and no where else. If HD fails you = screwed. At least with desktops you can add HD's with great ease and are very rarely moved/banged around unlike laptops.

Now granted any smart college student/person/computer user better be buying a CD burner or external floppy and be backing that stuff up. But we all know what your average computer user does not do ;) :D
 
SFF and a nice LCD. Power and performance vs. a laptop anyway you put it a laptop just never performs that great or really makes you feel homey like a pc does. I have a Ideq 200n and my Dad has a laptop his his computer is faster than mine but it sure doesn't perform that way doing anything. I think laptops are pointless the real use I've seen anyone actually doing something with at college has been shooting aliens on a farm in my physc class. So much easier to upgrade to.
 
Originally posted by BillLeeLee
If you don't game, laptop (although laptops now have some pretty good graphic chips in them).

I prefer the best of both worlds. I have the laptop and my desktop. Heck, I barely ever bring the laptop out; it's more of my coding/development machine. And plus, everyone who brings laptops to class from what I've seen are browsing the net instead of actually listening to the lecture anyways.
 
Originally posted by That_Sound_Guy
Im the complete opposite, my employer is all IBM and I installed at least 200 laptops and they are ok... thats if the hard drives keep working. These IBM's have horrible hard drive life. anything through the A,T,X,R series, all suck IMHO

Probably from when IBM still owned their hard drive business eh? Wonder why we all called them the deathstars? They weren't very reliable, I had one that came with my Dell and it died after 1 3/4 years. New drive is a Hitachi. Hitachi owns IBMs hard drive department now I believe, and they're faster and more reliable than they were with IBM.
 
I came to RIT with a laptop, and still have it. But earlier this winter I built a new system which I had been needing badly. If you get a laptop for college, get the smallest and lightest you can without breaking the bank. Otherwise you'll find yourself not carrying it around very often.

If you get a newfangled laptop with a decent graphics card you'll be able to play most games for a couple years. My 8100 has only recently been totally unable to play certain games at any resolution. But i don't game a lot, so its not a big deal.
 
I started college in '98, so a laptop wasn't really a good option at that point. However, If I was starting college now, I would get both.

I spent 2 grand on my first computer. If you are looking to spend anywhere close to that, get both. For the desktop, spend around 1200-1300, and get a solid system. For many college students, their PC is everything: stereo, dvd player, video recorder, (sometimes) tv, game console, file storage.

Then go out and get a cheap, used laptop. My friend just picked one up for law school for 700 bucks off dell's auction site. Nothing fancy (P3 850, 256 MB ram, etc), but it works for what most college students need a laptop to do. Really, most people I knew that had laptops used them to work on papers or excel or pp presentations with group members at the commons, or coffee shops, whatever. It doesn't have to scream to edit text. As others have said, you want to get a decently light machine, and battery life is important. I also recommend getting a wireless card, as many college campuses have wireless access in some or all parts of the campus.
 
On the tablet PCs w/ organization to come later:

Graph paper: $5 for a shitload
Clipboard: $1 apiece, $2 if you get a nice one (get one with a decent clip)
Nice scanner: $150
Firewire/USB2.0 combo card: $50
Desktop: Whatever you spend on it.
Monitor: Ditto.
Friends: Soda every now and then.

If you need to check mail or Googlewhack something real quick, you can just mooch off of a buddy's laptop—as for notetaking, I'm still in high school, but I've found that a clipboard or two (or four) is great for keeping my "To Be Organized Later" notes together. All I need now is a scanner.
 
I'll repeat what others have said and suggest an inexpensive laptop. Something just powerful enough to do word processing, email and powerpoint. Then stretch your dollar to get a reasonable performing desktop machine- maybe after the first term.

I too go to an engineering school where laptops are required. In the first two years, we used them in class. But it was a joke- we were expected to run SolidWorks on a P3-700 with poor graphics cards. In the last two years we hardly use them in class except to give presentations or meet and do group work. And a lot of times you'll be using special software, like Cadence or Xilinx, that you won't have or can't get anyway, so the school provides lab computers.

I can't have to tell you how nice it is to synthesize some VHDL on a 2 GHz system when everyone else is stuck trying to do it on their laptops. More power for your dollar.
 
Originally posted by emorphien
Probably from when IBM still owned their hard drive business eh? Wonder why we all called them the deathstars? They weren't very reliable, I had one that came with my Dell and it died after 1 3/4 years. New drive is a Hitachi. Hitachi owns IBMs hard drive department now I believe, and they're faster and more reliable than they were with IBM.

This is very true. Hitachi took over that section of the business. They don't have the same problems that they used to.
 
Originally posted by RemisGodly
This is very true. Hitachi took over that section of the business. They don't have the same problems that they used to.

It has gotten better, but I as of right now have 7 dead 40 gig HD's on my desk from desktops and 6 dead laptop 30 gig drives. They arent failing the rate the deathstars did but they still have a large amount of issues. Just stating my experiences, anyways back on topic ;)
 
Originally posted by That_Sound_Guy
It has gotten better, but I as of right now have 7 dead 40 gig HD's on my desk from desktops and 6 dead laptop 30 gig drives. They arent failing the rate the deathstars did but they still have a large amount of issues. Just stating my experiences, anyways back on topic ;)

From recent IBMs?
 
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