<p>HELP! What is the best laptop to carry around at Harvard? Or should I get a desktop? Please elaborate, cuz I am rather dumb when it comes to Tech stuff. Money no objection, BTW.</p>
<p>My D says that laptops are ubiquitous there. It seems to be an Apple-heavy campus, and we ended uip getting our D a MacBook. We got the MacBook Pro which is snazzier, but somewhat larger. In retrospect, she'd have prefered the regular MacBook to have a lighter machine to carry. BTW, with a Mac, there are relatively few options you need to consider adding (though extra memory is always nice).</p>
<p>Definitely a laptop; you'll need it for the libraries, lectures (assuming you don't take notes in notebooks), outside, etc. (Harvard has a great wireless network). My roommate had a desktop and while it worked fine for her, she was also one of those rare (in my opinion) people who actually study in their rooms the majority of the time.</p>
<p>As for laptop <em>type</em> (forgive the pun), I personally have an IBM Thinkpad T43p, which I really love, but many of my friends prefer Macs--I'm not sure what they're called, but they're white and have a little square charger. I think gadad was right--MacBook? I like my Thinkpad because it's very light and has everything I need, but it's really a personal-opinion thing. I'd say go for whatever's light enough to fit in your backpack, has a good screen, and of course has all the technical specs like the processor, memory, all that. Oh, and make sure it has wireless...:)</p>
<p>PCs have a better price/performance ratio. I just saw an ad at staples for $800 a 15.4" widescreen, 1GB ram, 120GB hard drive, and good processor. Toshiba, I think.</p>
<p>Macs are great if you want to spend a little more. You can run windows on them, but your mouse is only 1 click and its kinda annoying to use the two-finger click method.</p>
<p>I say go PC. Vista rocks and Bill Gates is THE MAN. (BTW, he went to (but dropped out of) Harvard)</p>
<p>If you buy a MacBook you should get the operating system software that allows both windows and macintosh to be used. but you will probably prefer windows (some may argue against this).</p>
<p>if your looking for a windows laptop, sometimes dell gives away huge offers in their end of quarter sales. i've seen 1 gig RAM 120 GB regularly priced at $900 on dell.com...sale days are even cheaper. staples may be a rip off.</p>
<p>Hmm..I'm probably bringing both a laptop and desktop. Since desktops are lot faster (haha, raid set of hard drives, etc.). Food for thought, check if Dell sales tax is cheaper in MA than where you are right now.</p>
<p>Harvard has a deal with Lenovo that'll get you some pretty good discounts on various Thinkpads and other accessories, as well as with Macs if you're willing to wait until you get here (I'm not sure if admitted students are eligible for the discount). The Thinkpads are usually pretty good for the price, although they only offer fixed configurations for you to choose from.</p>
<p>I wouldn't recommend the thinkpads. IBM used to make those things beasts, but after Lenovo bought their manufacturing arm the quality was not up to par.</p>
<p>As for Dell laptops, I don't recommend them at all. I've had nothing but problems with those things, but it really depends on the individual case.</p>
<p>I say go for the best deal but don't get ripped. It's better to buy a cheap laptop twice than a super expensive one once.</p>
<p>I have a IBM thinkpad, and it's really light and easy to carry around. But ultimately, it depends what you're looking for in your computer.</p>
<p>I can't judge Dell quality, but our family has a lot of experience (employee purchasing). Their service is outstanding, though. For just the desktop I'm using right now, I've gotten an LCD monitor, power supply fan, DVD burner, and hard drive replaced all quickly, without hassle.</p>
<p>LOL, the problem is that you had to get those replaced :)</p>
<p>Dell is good for desktops. I have a few that have been running solid for a long time. It's just the laptops that I've had trouble with. I've had 10 customers have issues with them.</p>