<p>which is better to have? u prolly get more power for the money with a desktop but it lacks the portability of the laptop. comments please</p>
<p>Laptop, prolly. Specially for engineering majors. Buy a nice docking station for connection to peripherals and you are set ^.^</p>
<p>Yeah, laptops are more expensive point for point than a desktop, but its a good investment.</p>
<p>This is just my opinion, but I would have gotten a desktop in retrospect. I have only taken my laptop out of my room twice in four years. I never saw the fascination with bring your laptop to class. Most of th people who do just go on facebook and look at pictures or play games online. Since I am a science major most of my class require that I actually print off the notes and bring them to class (e.g drawing a chemical reaction is hard to do on a laptop.....well maybe if you have a tablet). Also there are computer labs all over campus if you need to use a computer, so that helps me. For grad school, I will probably use my laptop more.</p>
<p>what is it about laptops that make them good for engineering majors? thats what im planning on majoring in so more info on that topic would be helpful. thanks</p>
<p>Well, consider that there is an entire list of engineering courses that require a laptop.</p>
<p>Seems these courses are mostly found in mechanical/aero and chemical engineering, though. The mechanical/aero department actually makes a laptop mandatory, if you are considering that specific branch of engineering.</p>
<p>Computer</a> Required</p>
<p>BTW, IBM compatible is an old term for PCs in general (that are running Windows as opposed to Linux or Mac OSs), which leads me to believe whoever wrote that thing is a dinosaur. IBM doesn't even make PCs anymore, FFS...</p>
<p>thanks. i appreciate it, this helps alot</p>
<p>why on earth would you want a desktop.. i've had a laptop since like 4th grade lol.</p>
<p>Laptop, definitely. I had a desktop and was really annoyed that I couldn't take it to the library with me, or anywhere else I wanted to study outside my room. I mean I could have, but it would have been quite a pain. You'll find some of your classes are quite dependent on computers, and you'll want to take them out of your room.</p>
<p>Also, you have to have a laptop for some majors, such as Engineering.</p>
<p>Also, why would you ever want to have a desktop over a laptop, anyway?</p>
<p>The only advantage I can think of a desktop has over a laptop is that, dollar for dollar, a desktop is more powerful. Or, in other words, you pretty much have to pay extra to get the same power on a laptop that you can get on a desktop. If you have a financial cap, a laptop's price effectively limits how much power you will get, and if you have enough money to get whatever you want, getting a laptop will still cost you more than getting a desktop with similar capabilities.</p>
<p>However, I am, and have always been, a laptop fan ^.^ I don't see the desktop's power as making up for the mobility a laptop offers. Nor for having to use the desktop while sitting... ugh. 99% of the time, I use my laptop while laying down in my bed. And its awesome that way.</p>
<p>If I had to choose between a laptop and desktop again(I chose laptop the first time around) I would choose desktop, because it probably would've lasted longer(my laptop still works but the screen doesn't anymore), would've been more powerful, and I hardly ever took my laptop and used it anywhere. I could have, but that would have been kinda useless, since I can use a computer anywhere pretty much.</p>
<p>Get a desktop fgt, go build one for a cheap price and use the leftover money to get a cheap ass laptop. The laptop should only be used for school so you dont need any power in it.</p>
<p>Just wondering myself how much it costs to build your own desktop. I'm interested in doing this, since I think it'd just be a cool thing to do.</p>
<p>isn't a laptop included in with tuition? how exactly does that work? I'm guessing you just go to the bookstore and pick it up if you have it covered...does anyone know the kind of laptop they give you, if it's any good?</p>
<p>
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isn't a laptop included in with tuition? how exactly does that work? I'm guessing you just go to the bookstore and pick it up if you have it covered...does anyone know the kind of laptop they give you, if it's any good?
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<p>Its not included in the tuition. Generally, they include it in the cost of attendance prediction which they use when they calculate financial aid (with your EFC estimate).</p>
<p>My desktop cost me about 1K or so. Including the OS. I have 4 gigs of RAM (a good named manufacturer), a quadcore processor, and a lot of other nifty things. You can easily spend half of what I did and get a desktop thats decent. The most expensive stuff I had was the processor, OS and ram. </p>
<p>If you get a decent graphics card, average processor, and other stuff of average quality; i dont see why it wont cost more than say... 500-700.</p>
<p>If anything, I would set up a desktop system for the dorm. This includes an extra monitor for dual-monitor configuration (you won't believe how good this is), keyboard, mouse, and probably an external hard drive for all the games (So you won't be playing Counter Strike in class).</p>
<p>When I said desktop system, I meant a system for your laptop with added mouse, keyboard, monitor, and external hard drive. Sorry for confusion.</p>