<p>agreed that warranty is very important. convenience of immediate exchange or fix would be a requirement for me.</p>
<p>but we’re in a different situation - we bought S’s laptop last year at former school as incoming freshman and went for upgraded system at that. school had 4yr full and accidental warranty, immediate exchange - the works. came in very handy when battery pack wasn’t working right or tweaks needed for display screen.</p>
<p>but now he’ll be 500+ miles away from where his warranty/service lives. sorta sad but glad he’ll be joining the up with the hokie nation this fall!</p>
<p>after paying for one laptop last year, would prefer to minimize the payout this year.</p>
<p>but if we need to get something, we will. during his 1st year of engineering courses, he discovered that programs were pc-based and landed up going to computer lab to run special programs when needed.</p>
<p>as a freshman parent, think the bookstore provides convenience of warranty and damage coverage for those, “oh-no’s”.</p>
<p>This is kind of late, but might as well write it anyway. For 1104, your son will not need an actual tablet pc. A dual-booted Mac with a USB tablet will suffice. When I took 1104 there were multiple students that had Macs with the Bamboo tablets. Everything worked out perfectly fine. If your son is taking 1024 at NVCC he won’t need a tablet there. For future engineering classes, a dual-booted Mac with a USB tablet should be fine if he ever needs to use the tablet feature. Most likely he wont even need the USB tablet like me, but then again, I’m not sure how classes are for civil engineers as I’m a cs major. </p>
<p>Btw, if you’re not already dual-booting the Mac, you will need a full copy of Windows 7 to install on the Mac since there isn’t an older copy of Windows on the hdd. But you can just download Windows 7 Enterprise from VT online, which is an upgrade version, and do a double installation. First install the copy of Windows without entering a key. Then do another installation on that partition with the key this time. You can google this for more information. There’s no need to waste more money on a full copy of Windows when you can use the upgrade version provided by Tech.</p>
<p>went to transfer orientation this week with my son and saw the nice lenovo tablet notebooks at bookstore. they haven’t arrived yet, but expected shortly - beginning of July…guess in time for freshman orientation.</p>
<p>if his current laptop (with dual boat) will do, really saves needing to buy another laptop.</p>
<p>thanks for the tips on how-to load windows 7 using vt license-great help. as part of standard to-do’s, he signed vt microsoft agreement and picked up discs. not sure whether they were for ms office or windows 7. but he’s got them. think he needs to install bootcamp and and then install windows - as described. </p>
<p>he’s hoping to become CE major and found out that it’s a competitive major - need 3.2 gpa at orientation, had no idea. also, they said he needs to take cad course this fall (CEE 2804 and ENGE 2824-CEE drawings & CAD). do those courses use tablet for drawing or mouse is ok?</p>
<p>again, appreciate details on installing windows 7 on mac! just thankful that he doesn’t need to get another machine.</p>
<p>No problem. The discs that your son got probably only contain Microsoft Office, like the ones I got during orientation. You’d have to download Windows 7 from Virginia Tech’s Student Software Distribution website. My Mac came with Boot Camp installed already. Versions 10.6 and up should already have it installed. Oh and about the cad courses. Honestly, I’m not too sure about how the tablet situation will be for those classes. Your son should be fine. Whatever programs they use are most likely used by students in other colleges, ones with no tablet requirements. If a tablet is needed at all, a USB one will do just fine. The only difference is that your son won’t be writing on the computer’s screen, but instead on the USB tablet.</p>
<p>Also a computer science major. I have a tablet but I have not used it once for any of my 2000 level CS courses and higher. Sometimes it might come in handy if you wish to take notes by using it but I still just user paper/pencil for notes since it’s easier really. It’s pretty much a waste of money. You could save $500 or purchase a really really nice laptop machine with the same price as a crappy tablet. Although I dare you to buy an Ipad or similar tablet like that and use that in class since it’s technically a “tablet” just to see what they say!</p>
<p>Speaking of that I actually saw a few CS students using Ipads in class, the professors I had didn’t really care.</p>
<p>FWIW, Rose Hulman requires that all freshmen buy a really nice Lenovo laptop. Their explanation seems to cause less controversey than Va. Tech. I don’t believe the University makes any kind of significant money on the hardware. I believe that the University is trying to provide students with efficient and effective support. Their only chance to do this is to try to standardize the hardware. All this really means is that if you buy your own hardware, you are responsible for your own support. If you buy direct Lenovo offers 4-year next day service on ThinkPads. That seems good enough for me. I intend to buy my son a business-class laptop that will have a better chance of holding up. The warranty I buy will depend on the price. I suspect that in a community of engineering students, there will exist enough self-sufficient techies for the students to support themselves. </p>
<p>Of course, talking to an adviser in a specific major is better than deciding blindly. Some folks are more comfortable providing their own support. Getting a student job in the IT dept. may be another idea if you don’t have the skills yet.</p>
<p>Yea, every year during the first week of move in (week before classes) there’s Get-Connected staff(of which I am part of) all over campus mostly in the dorms. They can help you get hooked up and get all the specific software you need. </p>
<p>There’s also 4help phone/email support during the year and also if you bought your computer through the school, there is all year support at the bookstore. The main thing that can snag you is if you have any hardware problems with your computer that will require shipping it back to the vendor. If you bought it through the school, the bookstore will fix it and ship it/replace it for you.</p>
<p>Just got my wacom Bamboo tablet and have been practicing with it. I have gotten pretty good at, but my hand writing is still not perfect and my hand gets tired very soon.</p>
<p>Does anyone know how important handwriting is when you using the tablet features and also does anyone know how much do you usually wright a day with the tablet (ex. a couple of paragraphs or a few sentences?)</p>
<p>I’m a junior engineering student now. I’ll give you my advices and you can decide whether to buy the tablet or not.
Pros: Take notes with it in class
Helps you during first few engineering courses.
SWAT helps you fix it and bookstore has 3 year warranty to fix it for you.
It’s pretty cool, the computer does not overheat at all.
Cons: Battery sucks, i’m on my second one now.
The computer is crap compared to its price, I can a better one half the price.
Tiny screen.
Pretty heavy for a small laptop.
Expensive.</p>
<p>I just finished my first year of engineering at VT and i really think that this tablet is a piece of garbage for what i paid ($2000). I have the toshiba portege m780 and I mean it has good specs and everything, but, paying an extra $600+ for the tablet function was really a waste of money in my opinion. </p>
<p>There was another student in my engineering class who had an external tablet and was able to complete the assignments and the professor i had didn’t have a problem with it. As long as your computer can handle and install the programs needed for the enge program, along with an external tablet, i really think you should be fine. I’ve heard some students selling their tablet and buying a regular computer with an external tablet.</p>
<p>In my experience, my tablet is really just, bad. It crashes from time to time. I’ve gotten the “blue screen” at least 2 times the past 2-3 months. The battery life is terrible on this-i only get about 2.5 hrs avg without being plugged in, which is ridiculous. The tablet function really isn’t even great either. It sitll seems to be in it’s preliminary stages of development as far as software is just decent at most.</p>