<p>I'm going to University of Portland in the fall and I'm assigned to Christie, which is a more techie, all-male dorm, but I'm still worried about things like theft. I recently built a $3000 water-cooled computer, as well as bought two 27-inch LED monitors, and all of it is quite... nice-looking.</p>
<p>Is it normal to bring stuff like this into the dorms? If it got stolen I'm afraid I'd go insane lol.</p>
<p>This is a no-brainer, don’t bring it. You’ll just be tempting fate. why do you need all that for anyways? Buy a laptop you can lock down that will suit your needs.</p>
<p>lock it to your desk :)</p>
<p>don’t know if I would go around advertising this…</p>
<p>Hmm… I was under the impression some people brought nice stuff into their dorms… Well, what if I downgraded to just one LED monitor and a $1000 gaming desktop, and covered the desktop with a blankie? Lol. </p>
<p>I “need” all of this stuff because there isn’t a laptop in the world that’s powerful enough for my needs. Unless all I did was surf the internet and watch movies, a laptop can’t replace my desktop.</p>
<p>Who is going to steal it? I say bring it unless you think your roommate will.</p>
<p>Thanks… I’ll have to keep an eye on the roomy :P. The only way I’ll trust him is if he brings nice stuff as well, lol.</p>
<p>There’s a reason I can’t replace my desktop with a laptop… Even if I spent $5000 on the NICEST laptop, it still wouldn’t be as good as a measly well-shopped $800 custom build. I wish I could, but I need da power.</p>
<p>While it’s smart to be aware of theft, I do have to say: it’s been my general experience that most people you’ll come across at college are good, upstanding citizens of society and wouldn’t steal. This is especially true if you know who he is and where he lives.</p>
<p>That said, just in case, there’s no reason to advertise that it’s a $3000 gaming machine. You simply have a nice computer with two large screens – there’s nothing more to it.</p>
<p>Not to mention, anyone who has any clue on how to steal the parts and make good use of them knows that used parts aren’t worth very much at all.</p>
<p>If that $3k is built to my specs, and I am guessing it is, it probably weighs as much as a safe… I just sold my pride and joy to a coworker (real steel case with two layers of Dynamat to keep things quiet) and moving the thing was not for the faint at heart. A 27" LCD is not exactly portable either. I’d say get a laptop style lock, secure all three components to your desk, and that’s all.</p>
<p>I’d be more worried about heat dissipation and noise - if the OP has a serious quad core or two in there and a couple of Crysis-friendly SLI’s, water cooling or not the heat has to go somewhere :-).</p>
<p>@Blue, nice, new high-performance parts frequently sell for 3/4 of the retail. Even the low performance parts you won’t find selling for less than 2/3 the retail. That’s quite a lot if you ask me, considering my CPU alone costs over $1000, and my GPU costs upwards of $800. You must be one of these good Samaritans who wouldn’t steal muh parts :P.</p>
<p>To the above: my system isn’t THAT heavy, actually; I mean, it’s built in a massive 35 lb. aluminum case and it has two large radiators and a big reservoir, but as long as you’re not Avril Lavigne it wouldn’t be a problem. Also, my monitors are LED so they’re quite thin, only weighing around 9 lbs. </p>
<p>I’m definitely set on downgrading. This was poor timing anyway. I don’t need quite so much.</p>
<p>I’m actually replacing my pride and joy with a Shuttle H67/i7 2600K + SSD + uber video card and the like…</p>
<p>What video card, eh? I’m thinking about downgrading to the 2500K and just overclocking it like crazy :p. I’m looking at the 6950 2GB for my new build.</p>
<p>I’m not a PC gamer, alas, more of a 360 gamer. The Shuttle I have in mind can take a double width video card actually, tho not sure about a 6950. I’ll probably put an Nvidia Quadr0 580 or 600 for engineering and image work.</p>
<p>You already know the answer. NO.</p>
<p>You are going to need to keep your thermostat cranked down low as I had a computer that wasn’t close to the heat yours could put out and it could keep the room 3-4 degrees hotter than the neighboring room (they were on the same thermostat)</p>
<p>Just make sure no one who is likely to come take it comes in your room and nothing bad will happen.</p>
<p>Keep your door locked and if there is a way, keep the computer out of sight from a window so one one can see what you have. Otherwise, I think your fine. You might be able to get insurance for it and with a $3000 computer in a dorm environment, I’d say it’s worth it…</p>