Desktop

<p>I have a netbook that I plan on using for college. An acer aspire 1 with a 6 cell battery and a 250 gig hard drive. I'm thinking that I will most likely need to have a desktop as well and while I'm not going to college until next year, I'm probably going to get the desktop pretty soon (for my birthday or Christmas.) I'm not sure what kind of budget I have but nothing too expensive. What kind of things should I look for in a desktop for college? Is anyone else going to be using a desktop? Recommendations for a computer?</p>

<p>Are you able to build your own? </p>

<p>You’d probably want something not too bulky, just for convenience’s sake with moving around things. </p>

<p>What do you really plan on doing on the computer?</p>

<p>Careful with the “not too bulky” though…most of those slim or small cased desktops have a lot of problems with components prematurely failing due to excessive heat.</p>

<p>@ user_007</p>

<p>I think you’re talking about the C51GM NVidia chipsets that were inherently defective from the factory and died over the period of 1.5 years or less. </p>

<p>That or you’re also talking about the Dells that used non-authentic capacitors in its motherboards causing them to prematurely fail. </p>

<p>As long as one is using a motherboard with solid caps and a AMD 740G/760G/780G/785G or Intel chipset, I don’t really see where the problem would be. </p>

<p>Most cases are able to ventilate a considerable amount of heat (even the slim ones) provided there’s a clear path for ventilation.</p>

<p>My roommate had one of those really small HP ones - over the course of the past year, he had a power supply, hard drive, and video card failure. All on separate occasions. The thing ran very, very hot too.</p>

<p>I recommend that you build your own – you have lots of flexibility with specs and can get exactly what you want. Not to mention, you can select quality components instead of having the relatively bad ones that come even in Dells, whose desktops are known for their quality.</p>

<p>I’d look for three things: powerful, efficient, and simple. My recommendation for the best bang for your buck is an Intel Core i3 530 processor /w Gigabyte, ASUS, Intel, or MSI motherboard, 4GB RAM, >1TB HDD, cheap mid-tower case, and an external graphics card if you play some hardcore games. The AMD Phenom II X4s and X6’s are also excellent deals if you do a lot of multitasking / threaded apps (eg. video encoding, compiling programs, SolidWorks). Try to aim for a budget of $500 w/o external videocard, $700 with external GFX.</p>

<p>Sounds a bit daunting? Contact a techy friend. Whatever you do, don’t let them convince you that you need a $500 videocard, $150 case, 50 fans and LEDs, or a $200 water-cooling system.</p>

<p>You don’t need a $200 GPU either.</p>

<p>@ user_007</p>

<p>Yeah those HP systems were prone to mass failure. I wouldn’t rule out a custom-built mATX PC because of that though.</p>

<p>Something like this would probably do you well </p>

<p>Athlon II X3/X4 Tri or Quadcore CPU
4GB DDR3 RAM
785G Motherboard with Integrated HD 4250
1TB Hard Drive (they’re super cheap)
DVD Burner</p>

<p>I definitely don’t need a graphics card. Any gaming I do is around a table top (white wolf <3). I wouldn’t say I am particularly good with technology (enough to run linux and solve basic problems on my netbook and my sisters desktop) but I have a few people who might be able to help me. Thanks for the advice, any other ideas are welcome. Maybe something I don’t have to build on my own?</p>

<p>I’d also not like to have an HP. My friend has had some crazy problems with them.</p>

<p>Getting something built by someone or on your own is probably the best bet for quality components because you know what’s going into the computer. (I guess it’s even more so if it’s with a compact computer.)</p>

<p>I can’t think of much compact computers outside of Acer or HPs Slim series.</p>

<p>I don’ think you need a desktop for college at all; it is just one more hunk of metal you have to move in and out of your room every year. I’d take the money that you were going to spend on the desktop, save some more and get a good laptop the summer before you leave for college. Then add a big monitor for your room. That will give you everything you need without the pain of trying to keep files synced, etc. Just make sure you get a good backup program (and use it regularly–like every day) to create a mirror image of the drive on your laptop so you don’t lose all your work if the internal drive goes bad.</p>