<p>To anybody who would know...</p>
<p>Is it generally better to have a laptop or a desktop at Case? Do people seem to prefer one over the other? Do people bring laptops to class? Are there places to plug in a DC power adapter in Case classrooms (if your laptop battery runs low)?</p>
<p>by far, I would say that most students have laptops. It's nice to be able to leave the room if your roommate is sleeping or bugging you and still be able to get some work done. There are a few people with both, but unless you are a major computer geek, you don't need that. Some people bring laptops to class, but it's hard to take notes during class (especially in science classes that typically have tons of equations and diagrams). Most of the lecture halls and classrooms have a place to plug in, but you probably won't have much more than 3 hours of class a day, so your battery most likely won't run down most days.</p>
<p>Wish I had a tablet PC...</p>
<p>I think we all do :-)</p>
<p>I love my desktop PC. I put it together. : )</p>
<p>Cool, but I don't know, it's gonna be tough to have a desktop, especially if you live far away, and you have to fly far. You would have to store your desktop somewhere and all that stuff..I'd find it a pain to disassemble and reassemble each semester, and then have to restore it each semester and blah blah blah..</p>
<p>Dude, it takes less than ten minutes to connect all the wires (I know I've had to do it several times. My parents have had computer problems).</p>
<p>logistically, desktops are a hassle, pure pain to do it all the time. that's 10 minutes that coudl've gone to doing something else..like gaming, on a laptop...:-D</p>
<p>Thanks for the responses.</p>
<p>I do live far away (New Hampshire), but I'll be driving to Case with my own car. Even so, I think I'll get a laptop anyway just so that I can bring it anywhere on campus and do work.</p>
<p>How vital is it to have a printer of your own, in your dorm room?</p>
<p>Or are there university-provided printers that make this unnecessary?</p>
<p>We get a decent amount of printing free at the north and south campus offices (Wade and Fribley). I think it's either 1 or 2 thousand pages a semester, which is plenty. I had a friend with a printer, and I used it some in the winter or after the offices closed (which is midnight most nights). By the academic buildings there is the Nord computer lab that offers black and white or color printing for cheap, and the library has free printing as well. You really don't need a printer, but it can be nice to have, so it's mainly a matter of personal preference.</p>
<p>Yeah, I have a printer, but it broke midway through sophomore year and I never felt the need to get it fixed :-) bc I'm lazy. I just printed to the common area (Wade) and in the computer labs.</p>
<p>If you have a laptop, you can have a USB hub on your dorm desk connected to your "dorm room infrastructure", such as a mouse, a full size keyboard, printer, digital camera input, iPod connection, additional drive, etc. Also, you can connect a larger monitor with a VGA cable, or get a stand to prop up the laptop screen to eye level. So, for just 3 cable hook ups to the laptop - one USB cable, a monitor cable (optional) and the Ethernet wire - you have effectively a desktop set up, and you also have all the mobility advantages of a lap top.</p>
<p>actually, the thing I don't like about laptops is that the one's that can handle the things I want to do in a computer are heavy (for laptops) and loud. Also, they're not very durable (my laptop started screwing up the first year I got it in 8th grade and by the eleventh grade the battery was worthless and the ac adapter had problems staying in and sound stopped working completely. And most of these happened well before the 11th grade). Anyways, my sister's new laptop also has battery problems. </p>
<p>My reccomendation for you. If you get a laptop, make sure you switch out with a newer model every year (just back up your harddrive to save your information or whatever). If that seems to expensive, keep extending your warranty. Or consider getting a Mac (*shudders). I hear those are reliable.</p>
<p>Anyways, I speak from the experience of having three laptops in the household.</p>