<p>I didn't buy my computer through Dartmouth, and I think in certain situations it is a better idea to do this than to buy through the school. For one thing, it costs a lot more for computers with, in my opinion, weaker specs than what you can buy directly from Dell or Sony or others. I remember when I was considering my purchase back in the summer of '04 before my freshman year, I found the deals Dartmouth was offering to be unimpressive. I ended up buying a top of the line Inspiron 9 series for several hundred dollars less than what they were charging for Latitudes.</p>
<p>The nice thing about the computers that Dartmouth offers is that they are designed to be portable and really take advantage of our wireless network. My computer is literally a behemoth - at 10 pounds and 1.5 hours of battery juice (back when it was new, less now) I can't really take it around campus with me too much, whereas people that get theirs through the college can just put it on standby, toss it in their backpack, and then check blitz or do work literally anywhere on campus. On the other hand, if you are looking for a computer that is "powerful" then, depending on what specifically you want your "powerful" computer to do you probably won't want to buy through the college.</p>
<p>As for the quality and tech support - it's really a mixed bag. Yeah, the Dells are pieces of crap but Macs sometimes aren't much better. I have two friends with Macs who had their hard drives crash on them. One these people actually had his hard drive crash again after he got it back from Computing Services, and he's a '09 so he only had his comp for a little more than a year when it happened. Factoring in the wait for the required part to come in from Apple and the backlog of other computers they needed to service, he was without a laptop for a total of about 3 weeks. It's not the end of the world - there are a ton of computers in the library and around campus where you can get work done, but it was a serious inconvenience at the very least. So don't assume that if you get a Mac that it will be indestructible - Macs break down, too.</p>
<p>I do have to say that Dartmouth's computing services are very good at getting your computer fixed. Definitely in one of the above instances, and I think in the other as well, not only did the computers get fixed by they were able to recover all of the information that had been on the hard drive, which is obviously a big deal considering how much schoolwork, not mentioning personal pictures and things were on them. And let me dispel the notion that if you don't buy your computer through Dartmouth they won't help you. I've had a couple of (fairly minor) problems with my computer and, though it was obviously a model that I couldn't have bought through the college nobody at the computing desk had any problem with helping me fix it when I took it there. I'm not sure what the policy officially says, but I suspect that they say that more to scare you into purchasing one of their models more than anything. I mean, the bottom line is that no one who works at the computing desk is going to be a big enough dick to turn you away if you come to them with a problem because everyone who works there, both students and professional staff, understand that you will be pretty screwed if you don't have your computer for an extended period of time.</p>
<p>As for compatibility issues, I had none. I mean, these programs aren't written for HAL 9000 or something. Basically every program is available for Windows and Mac, and it doesn't actually matter what model you get - it's not like a Dell Inspiron or a Sony Viao (sp?) run some crazy, super secret version of Windows that won't run any of these programs. They are written for Windows XP. Windows XP is obviously going to be the same Windows XP no matter what brand and model computer you get. Furthermore, all of the Dartmouth software worked just fine on my computer and computing services has a sheet available for those that bring their own laptops with a list of programs that you should install and the Dartmouth URL where you can get all of them (and the pages that have the downloads also have instructions on how to set them up). If you really are computer illiterate then maybe you'd be better off with getting the preloaded computers and not worrying about it, but if you are decent with computers (as I imagine most high school kids in America are at this point) it really won't be much of an issue to get everything you need on there.</p>
<p>Bottom line, it really isn't the big deal it's sometimes made out to be to bring your own computer that you didn't order through Dartmouth. I honestly recommend doing this because you will most likely get a better deal buying it directly, regardless of whether you want a more portable or a more powerful model.</p>