<p>any suggestions?
laptop or desktop?
necessary processor speed, etc..
I'll appreciate any help, seeing as I'm technology impaired :P</p>
<p>laptop for sure.</p>
<p>if you're tech impared, you probably only run word processing, internet, music, and email. :)</p>
<p>a base model will be fine, but upgrading to 512MB RAM, and anything over a 1.5GHz processor is ideal for improved performance. going to 1GB RAM would be excessive.</p>
<p>Do you want to watch DVDs? make sure it has a dvd player, and preferably a widescreen display. Do you want to pirate DVDs? :p make sure it has a dvd burner.</p>
<p>a 30 or 40 GB harddrive should be fine unless you have a hell of alot of music.</p>
<p>Get a wireless card in it (b/g is fine, but upgrading to a/b/g would be a good capability to have if it's only like $20 more) so you can go online wirelessly on cornell's wireless network.</p>
<p>Dell has the best customer service, great prices, etc. Quality doesn't vary that much from brand to brand. Look @ these inspirion models: 700m-very portable, 6000-powerful/not as portable/better components for less, and 9000-a beast, pretty much a desktop you can fold up and carry home.</p>
<p>search <a href="http://www.dealsea.com%5B/url%5D">www.dealsea.com</a> for "dell" as dell always puts out awesome coupons like "35% off inspirions over $1000" (make it $1001 and get it for 650...instead of buying a $650 computer.</p>