<p>does colgate recomend buying a PC or mac, or a certain brand? current students, what are ur opinions and what computer did u buy</p>
<p>did anyone buy a tv tuner instead of a tv? do they work well, are they common, and can you use it as a tivo? how does the tuner work- do u plug in a cable to a cable jack? and with roommates, does that mean that only one person can have a tv tuner if thers only one cable jack</p>
<p>I talked to the person in charge and he said he will send a letter out next week, he said PC (DELL) give a 4 year warranty that also includes dropping it or spilling coffee on it, and the best warranty offered for Macs was a three year one, and I dont know if that is a laptop or desktop.</p>
<p>The Colgate Bookstore sells Dells and Macs preconfigured to meet the requirements of the University. Essentially you need Win XP Pro and enough CPU and HD, plus wifi. The good part is that if you buy it from them they supposedly will repair it and even offer you loaners if there is a problem and they will configure them.</p>
<p>However, even with the Bookstore discount, they are more expensive (at least the Dells are) than you can get them yourself. What I did last year was to check out the configuration of what the bookstore was selling and then went to <a href="http://www.techbargains.com%5B/url%5D">www.techbargains.com</a> and put in for an e-mail notification for when Dell was offering coupons and specials for the same laptop as the bookstore was selling. Within about a few weeks Dell had a sale on the same notebook. So I configured it on the Dell site the same as the bookstore's and checked out the price. It turned out that I could get a better configured Dell laptop and also the 3 year onsite warranty for less than the bookstore was selling theirs.</p>
<p>And that Dell onsite warranty is solid. They will send someone to whereever you are, with the parts and repair it the very next day, essentially for anything with no questions asked. In fact, when my daughter was home for break, our dog attacked it. The next day Dell replaced the screen, motherboard and keyboard.</p>
<p>It's pretty easy to configure your laptop to log on to the Colgate network. They post instructions and if you really can't do it, there are tech geeks who will go to your dorm room and do it or help you out.</p>
<p>Oh and don't bother with the tuner. First you'll have to unscrew the cable everytime you want to take your laptop to the library; have to watch on your computer screen and be next to it to control volume and channels. </p>
<p>And I'm pretty sure there is only one cable connection in the rooms. You're gonna want to decide who brings up a fridge/TV/phone etc. put the TV someplace where you and your room mate(s) can watch together on a bigger screen TV anyway. Use the laptop when you want to watch a DVD your roommate doesn't want to see.</p>