Desktop or Laptop for College [POLL]

I would definately go with a laptop.

When doing work during your breaks, it is so much more convenient having a laptop and sitting in any place. At the university I attend, there are a lot of public computers available. However, during busy times, they are always full. Futhermore, they are quite slow whch makes doing some research or finding information efficiently very difficult.

Another nice thing is that many new laptops are very capable of gaming, depending on the model that you are looking at. You may lose a bit of portability, but it isn't a huge deal.
 
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
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I KNOW- had an 80 gig ibm hd and that fuxor died faster than any other drive I've had! it's no wonder ibm dropped their hd division.

~Adam
 
Originally posted by RemisGodly
From recent IBMs?
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Yup, brand new machines right out of the box.. in the field for maybe 2-4 weeks and POOF HD is dead as a door nail. Just an hour ago I got a trouble ticket for a laptop (T41) that had a HD kick the bucket. IBM + Hard drives equal complete garbage.
 
I read up on the IBM hds while I had mine and I remember reasing a good reason why they die so quickly (architecture wise) but I can't recall it.

~Adam

PS yes the ibm hd's suck.
 
I bought my 600m for college. I regret it. I should have used the money to buy a decent gaming desktop (Barton/nf2/96xt) and a sweet PDA. It would've costed less.

I rarely bring this thing to the library when I study, and even rarer so that I bring this thing to class.
 
Originally posted by CleanSlate
I read up on the IBM hds while I had mine and I remember reasing a good reason why they die so quickly (architecture wise) but I can't recall it.

~Adam

PS yes the ibm hd's suck.
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Okay. But IBM doesn't build their own hard drives anymore. You are referring to the DeathStars which aren't in production anymore. Maybe you should read up on them again.
 
I had this debate this last summer.

I ended up choosing desktop, and I am very happy with the decision. But if you do go desktop, better get an LCD, because the desk space in dorms is ridiculously small, even only a 15" CRT by itself takes up over 1/3 of the desk space in my dorms, a 19" takes up about half.

Infact you can do what I did, get a 17" gaming LCD and buy a $50 Leadtek tv tuner to watch tv on so you don't need to bring a TV too.

But depending on you major, better make sure that you are not required to have a laptop for class. I found out that I need a laptop for my CIS course next spring.
 
You should read my other posts, instead fo trying to make me feel stupid, when infact you only look stupid for not reading that I already knew this shit.

~Adam
 
Guess we're lucky .... our desks here are quite large. They have a flap that can be raised on the back that extends the desks back another foot. I'm about to get at least one more 19", maybe 2 for this desk. I wouldn't say that you can't get a crt. I would say it would be dumb to not look at your situation before picking a monitor.
 
Desktop....Laptops are nice, but unless you're willing to go balls out you're limited in termas of functionality.
 
not sure if you have mentioned your budget, if you have, i probably missed it.

If i were you, i'd just get a tablet PC. you can organize your notes, they just seem VERY handy. Then, get a desktop. problem solved.
 
I vote for a desktop, plus a low-end laptop if you don't need the power. Or you could get a nice PDA and little keyboard for it instead of that laptop.
 
I am a sophmore in HS, and a student network admin. I get to use a Compaq Tablet PC and a nice HP notebook, and I must admit, for school related stuff, the tablet is just amazing. Only problem is that its not meant for games. It plays RA2 just fine, gets 6hrs battery, and is 3lbs. The advantages to the laptop are a bigger keyboard, a dvd burner, and the ability to play ut2004 at max settings, which is useful because mmy teachers are cool and let me do whatever if im done with work and such. I HIGHLY reccomend a tablet PC. HIGHLY.
 
I'd say drop $800 or so on a decent midrange desktop and monitor - I see no point in high end hardware that become midrange in a year - And you will have some components that will stick around much longer to cut down on upgrade costs - Desktops are a platform. Laptops are an appliance. See if you can snag a $400-500 lightweight Pentium III /Celeron laptop to accompany it...

For any *student* uses a P3/Celeron will be more than adequate power, for surfing the web, word processing, making a powerpoint layout, etc.

A wireless router and a wi fi nic (if not integrated) would be nice to keep the same information on the lappy and the desktop as well, and probably fit well within the budget, which I don't have the numbers on, granted, but I'm presuming no more than $1500, which is really quite a bit of money.
 
Originally posted by TheAcorn
See if you can snag a $400-500 lightweight Pentium III /Celeron laptop to accompany it...

For any *student* uses a P3/Celeron will be more than adequate power, for surfing the web, word processing, making a powerpoint layout, etc.
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This would be my second choice for a laptop after an iBook. Just make sure it gives more than 3 hours battery life.

I think you should seriously consider Apple notebooks. They're AWESOME, OSX is amazing and the G4 processor is powerful enough to run all of today's games. If you only want something to take notes, do some homework, browse the net, maybe a slight amount of photoshop for school, listen to music, play *low* end games (ie: Warcraft 3, Starcraft, Medal of Honor, etc), then get an iBook. If you want to do all that and have room to do a bit of video editing, heavy renders in 3D studios or Photoshop, and you want to play all the newest games on your laptop (ie: UT2004, UT2003, Halo, Call of Duty, etc), then you should get a Powerbook. Insanely good notebook for all of those things, 1-1.33ghz G4 processor, Geforce Go 5200 or Radeon Mobility 9600, 256-1024mb DDR266 or DDR333, SuperDrive (DVD burner), wireless ethernet (with an Airport Extreme card), 5hrs battery life, and not to mention the best things about macs.... OSX.

If given the chance I would get a Powerbook over a Centrino in a second.
 
Originally posted by Mojo
If given the chance I would get a Powerbook over a Centrino in a second.
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I wouldn't, particularly the powerbooks. They're not as durable as the iBooks or a lot of the PC laptops (but they're better than they used to be). Also the centrino systems can wield a good bit more raw power. As far as battery life goes, I've never had 5 hours out of a powerbook, but i've come close many times with an iBook. Occaisionally going past it.

If you like OS X the iBooks are a good buy, but since there's really not any major advantages with either system I'd suggest pricing around the thin and light or "moderately thin and light" category PC and Mac notebooks to see what you can get and how the prices fall. The iBooks are fairly good, but in the price bracket the powerbooks could used improved screens, and a few other things.

The centrinos are really an awesome mobile solution, very good power, and excellent battery life. I have to say if I were going to be buying a laptop for every day use that had to be portable that would be my first choice. And if you want to see some of the best notebooks out there check out the IBM T and X series laptops. I am not suggesting that you buy one however, because they're pricy.

There's a number of laptops out there that offer a lot for a good price, check out averatec for example. You get a lot for $1500 from them.
 
Yes, that's what I said.

It's true. Whether you get 60fps in every game at highest detail is another story. But for people like myself, the G4 processor run all games in a *playable* fashion.
 
Originally posted by Mojo
Yes, that's what I said.

It's true. Whether you get 60fps in every game at highest detail is another story. But for people like myself, the G4 processor run all games in a *playable* fashion.
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Well I hate to say it but I don't think that's a virtue to go on about with the G4 laptops. The centrinos can play a larger number of games at least as well as the G4 can. But I don't think many people buy a lightweight computer like an iBook/powerbook or comparable Windows laptops to do a lot of gaming anyway.
 
Originally posted by emorphien
Well I hate to say it but I don't think that's a virtue to go on about with the G4 laptops. The centrinos can play a larger number of games at least as well as the G4 can. But I don't think many people buy a lightweight computer like an iBook/powerbook or comparable Windows laptops to do a lot of gaming anyway.
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Most people don't buy laptops to do a lot of gaming :p
 
One more vote for a desktop...

I'd say get a SFF/mini-ITX/micro-ATX and an LCD... makes it easy to move your computer back and forth.

I'm on coop work term right now (and will continue to alternate between work and school every 4 months for 5 years) and trust me, its a boon when you move without sacrificing power of a desktop.

Personally, I don't find laptops that useful at university. The only time it might be useful is if your doing research at the library. Also, they are very easily stolen in dorms. My friend at McGill University (in Montreal, Canada) tells me that since the beginning of this school year, there've been 7 laptop thefts.

Anyway, that' my $0.02 CDN (which I guess isn't worth very much :p)
 
I don't see the laptop being terribly useful in most situations, but I think I will get one for college.

I'll be going to McGill, in Canada, and my family will be living in Finland, so I think I will end up commuting between the two countries at least a few times a year. A desktop computer, even a small one, would probably be a pain in the ass to transport. But I won't be going there for another year, so I'll have time to think it over.
 
I'm sure there's laptop thefts in every school....
Can't live in the "what if" world forever. Unless you want to waste your life.
 
Yeah but if its a well known issue, wouldn't it be better to avoid it if you can?
 
Not bad at Waterloo, either...

At least I haven't heard of any at my rez(on work term right now, though)
 
Laptop theft is a constant threat. Keeping your room door closed and locked whenever possible helps. Those laptop locks are worth having but won't slow anyone down much if they're determined.

edit: I can't tell you how many people I've heard of having their laptops stolen (amongst other things) while they're asleep in their room. Lock the door!
 
Originally posted by dotZIP
Did you read my post above? Just a friendly warning
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Yea, but I think the risk is relatively small. My brother has managed to keep his laptop from being stolen the past two years. You said tehre has been 7 thefts in the past year; there are probably a few hundered or thousand laptops there. The odds seem to be that the lapdoesn't get stolen, especially if my laptop doesn't look exceptionally good, and if I am careful.
 
Ive had a laptop for the past 3 years at college and this was my first year with a desktop too. I have to say that i never got the full potential out of my laptop until this year as i did not want to carry around my only aim / email / gaming computer. Now that i have the desktop, i take the laptop with me to class and on campus so that i don't have to walk all the way back to my apartment now. (15 minutes each way). I really want to get a tablet but for the price i could upgrade my desktop, get a better laptop and buy a wacom tablet.

and yes, there are no women at wpi.
 
Originally posted by Government_Man
i did not want to carry around my only aim / email / gaming computer
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Why not? It seems to me that you don't need aim, email and gaming capabilities in your dorm when you aren't there.
 
Originally posted by ilkka
Why not? It seems to me that you don't need aim, email and gaming capabilities in your dorm when you aren't there.
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To me its more of a matter of losing my only copy of a number of things. So a backup of some type, hidden, is a good deal. The other thing is if your laptop is stolen then you have nothing to work with. That's not a problem for me anymore, I've got the desktop at home, and multiple ways to duplicate my data, but it was something I worried about when I was in the dorms a few years ago.
 
i took both a desktop and laptop. by "a" desktop I mean I brought ALL my computer crap. took a van and my car to do it. never, ever again. 6 hours to rochester with all that crap was a dumb idea...coming home for the break with it was worse. a desktop would be fine, even with a CRT. a laptop sucks because they get stolen so easily, and you cant game on them, plus you have nothing to fudge around with. next year, im definatly just taking my laptop and my single desktop.
 
Originally posted by Mojo
Yes, that's what I said.

It's true. Whether you get 60fps in every game at highest detail is another story. But for people like myself, the G4 processor run all games in a *playable* fashion.
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yeh man, you can play the sims great, and all those other mac games like.....the sims expansion packs...and...uh......

.....



:D
 
Originally posted by kronchev
i took both a desktop and laptop. by "a" desktop I mean I brought ALL my computer crap. took a van and my car to do it. never, ever again. 6 hours to rochester with all that crap was a dumb idea...coming home for the break with it was worse. a desktop would be fine, even with a CRT.
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Rochester hmm?

And you're from NJ too?
 
Originally posted by emorphien
To me its more of a matter of losing my only copy of a number of things. So a backup of some type, hidden, is a good deal. The other thing is if your laptop is stolen then you have nothing to work with. That's not a problem for me anymore, I've got the desktop at home, and multiple ways to duplicate my data, but it was something I worried about when I was in the dorms a few years ago.
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I would be more worried about the laptop being stolen when its alone in the dorm than when you are carrying it with you.
 
Originally posted by ilkka
I would be more worried about the laptop being stolen when its alone in the dorm than when you are carrying it with you.
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Well, there's the chance of that, although looking in my room you wouldn't have known I had one. It was in the docking station under a 19" monitor hidden by my keyboard and so many other things. It was also locked via the base station, and my roomie and I had the anal need to ensure the door was locked when we weren't there. Either way, to get to it you'd have to know it was there, and then you'd have to get the monitor off of it, and everything else out of the way. It was protected in part by inconvenience.

And being on the 4th floor kept people out of our windows.

But I can't tell you how many people thought I had a 2nd computer when I pulled my laptop out.
 
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