<p>^what better stuff comes in a 15.6" that doesn’t come in a 13.3"?</p>
<p>If you compare what came in the 13.3" that I listed it has everything, even a bigger hard drive, and more than what the 15.6" has.</p>
<p>I really don’t know what you could fit in a 15.6" that couldn’t be in a 13.3". The one we bought even has extended battery life, so it sits up just a bit off the desk which is great for keeping it cooler.</p>
<p>and yes Resurgambell. I bought my D a really nice 25.5" Samsung monitor that also doubles as a TV. Although after the fact i realized that was stupid because no way I am paying for the directtv feed. So mabye later if it lasts long enough she can use the TV feature. Was a sweet deal though, so couldn’t pass it up.</p>
<p>Do you see yourself carrying a computer around campus? Some people always take theirs to the library and to class, while other people end up never taking theirs outside their rooms. If you belong to the latter, I would not be too particular about portability or size, but more concerned about performance and lifespan. </p>
<p>In my experience, desktops do tend to last longer for some reason, though this is just from what I’ve seen with the computers my family has had. Desktops will at least take longer to become outdated, not only because of superior performance but also upgrade-ability. I spent about $800 building mine before coming to Cornell, and an additional $300 upgrading it since (now it has a quad core processor, 6GBRAM, decent video card, 1TB hard drive). And it still has plenty of room for upgrades. A laptop of equal performance would’ve cost much much more, and one of equal cost would become outdated within five years. </p>
<p>However, desktop plus netbook is probably not worth it unless you really need good performance or don’t want to get another computer for more than a few years.</p>
<p>Tchaikovsky, I’m planning to do the same thing, except I’m just going to bring a video card + hard drive from my old computer, and build the rest on campus, in order to avoid shipping the huge box. For holidays and stuff, though, is there somewhere you can store a desktop? or do you have to bring it back home every time…</p>
<p>I am a three-hour car ride away from home, so for winter break and summer I take my rig home. Shipping does sound like a pain. I personally would not trust a shipping company with my computer. Perhaps if you kept all of the packaging for your case you could still ship it back home safely. (I would make sure to use super extra thick padding.) So if you don’t mind using your older machine over breaks, temporary storage might be a good solution. There are a number of storage services offered in Ithaca (I do not know much about any of them since I’ve never used storage before, but I’m sure if you ask someone here will know a lot), so I suppose you could keep it with the rest of your stuff.</p>
<p>the 13 inch is good. im just saying its a lot more expensive. im not saying the 13 inch is THAT expensive lol. </p>
<p>i think its always good to have a laptop on hand. you can have a desktop and a crappy laptop. you never know when you might bring your computer out even though, right now you dont think you will</p>
<p>Looking at my schedule, I’m going to have a pretty long day most of the time with awkward breaks during the day of an hour or an hour and a half where it doesn’t really seem like it’d be worth it to head back to my dorm, but I could get some work (or goofing off) done. My current plan would be an Asus Eee 1005HA, which looks like it has really nice battery life, and a Dell Studio desktop with an Intel Quad core 2.66 gHz, 8 gigs of RAM and a 640 HD, the total for both being $1300. I know I won’t carry a larger laptop around…</p>
<p>$1,300 total sounds pretty good. I think a desktop plus netbook is the ideal setup if you have the money, since that will afford you both computing power and excellent portability.</p>
<p>the Asus eee 1000+ series really has amazing battery life. I have the first generation and it still gets about 5-6 hours on average, almost a year later. They’ve only improved since that one.</p>
<p>I’m planning on getting like a 22" monitor to use for my dual screen setup in my dorm. I can type my essay/lab report whatever on the big screen, and still look around on my little one for information/research stuff. Or vice versa. Who knows. I just get a little annoyed having like seventeen windows open in the same screen, trying to flip back and forth between two.</p>
<p>dual screen is definitely great, saves so much time. a bunch of my friends got dual screen, usually one for essay and one for movie while writing the essay</p>
<p>At my work I have three 17" screens. It’s great because you can research on the Internet, do some coding on the side, and write a paper without having to flip through windows.</p>
<p>i would want the acer timeline 4810T with SU9400 (1.4ghz but dual core) this baby is almost as fast as it competitors but runs so much longer and is very portable</p>
<p>and a 4330 radeon graphics card is nice if you want to watch movies or play small games :P</p>
<p>i have a 13 inch macbook pro and keep a wireless mouse/keyboard plus a 22 inch monitor at my desk. worked great for movies etc. 13 inches was great because it made it very very portable going to class and the library. i previously had a 14inch ibook and found even dropping to 13 made the computer way more portable. the macbook pros are really light, sturdy and thin. a laptop is great because often the computers in olin and other libraries (except mann) can be full during busy periods. i am a huge apple fan, and think the durability in their new computers is well worth the price. From what I see macs are way more reliable and sturdier than pc laptops. </p>
<p>i would highly suggest getting a tv or monitor if you can afford it and hooking it to a laptop… i didn’t have cable freshman year, but later in college the tv came in handy to be able to get sound from the monitor (a normal computer monitor is not well suited for cable or sound).</p>