<p>I currently own a laptop, but for college next year I'm leaning on getting a desktop. </p>
<p>Cons:
*Absolutely no portability- I can't move from my desk to my bed or take notes in class or anything. It's stuck in one spot.
*Along the same lines, I can't really take it with me if I go somewhere for the weekend. </p>
<p>On the other hand, I saw a desktop on sale today with a quad core processor, 3 gigs ram, 640 gig hard drive, built in tv tuner and dvr, 19" widescreen, etc. for about 1,150. 2,500 wouldn't get me a laptop with all that. </p>
<p>If I'm willing to put up with lack of portability, I don't really see any reason to go laptop unless there's something I'm missing...</p>
<p>how good specs do you really need? the two computers in my house combined would only need 80 gigs of hard drive, despite my geekyness.</p>
<p>if there are drunken orgies in your dorm, and you'd rather study at the library, there's no way to bring a desktop to take notes and research on.</p>
<p>
[quote]
if there are drunken orgies in your dorm, and you'd rather study at the library, there's no way to bring a desktop to take notes and research on.
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</p>
<p>One of the many reasons I'm going sub-free...</p>
<p>Specs:</p>
<p>HP Pavilion Media Center Desktop PC
Intel Core 2 Quad Processor q6600
3072MB DDR2 Memory
640GB HD
Reads and writes CDs and DVDs w/LightScribe
TV tuner, PVR, remote control
802.11 b/g wirless LAN</p>
<p>Not sure about graphics, but it'll be more than enough for me whatever it is</p>
<p>sounds like a good deal. probably integrated graphics or some cheap card. but HP uses 667MHz RAM, not 800. also I don't know what mobo they're using... it's still a good deal for $1150 though.</p>
<p>My advice is generally that if you already have a desktop take it to college. If you are buying a personal computer for yourself for the first time then get a laptop. Laptops are highly overrated and many people could do without the expense of getting one. If you don't have a computer already though, laptops do provide some nice benefits and since you won't be spending the money again on a computer for a while those benefits are probably worth getting the laptop.</p>
<p>Unless you're into gaming, going with anything other than a laptop at most schools is somewhat pointless, since you could easily use the library computers and various on campus computer labs and just store things on a network drive. No point in spending $1000+ for a desktop that will simply sit in your room and only be used for things you could easily do for free on a public computer!
On the other hand, a laptop provides portability for in-class computing, note-taking, etc. as well as the ability to do your work anywhere -- quite a nice thing I'd say when you need to finish a paper on the way to a class! (Happens more often than you might think.... ;))</p>
<p>Exactly. If I can just use the library computers and whatnot, it's not crucial that I be able to take my own computer with me to the library. Obviously it would be nice to be able to pick up my laptop and head over to the library and use it, but that's just one of the cons. The thing with a laptop is that I can't get one with the 3 gigs ram or the tv tuner or anywhere near that big a hard drive without spending several thousand</p>
<p>I wouldn't really depend on the computers available in the labs and/or the library. Around midterm/finals time, they're always occupied to capacity with people who don't have laptops, typing up their final papers.</p>
<p>rg, I that depends on the school. here, our labs might get near capacity around those times, but enough people have laptops that our computer labs are almost never completely full.</p>
<p>sibelius, my question for you, though, would be what you're planning on doing that you should really need that kind of computing power? 3gb of ram is overkill for most any consumer application (and Vista doesn't count -- go for an XP system if you're going to go Windows...Vista still hasn't really proven its usefulness...except as a memory/processor hog forcing you to buy higher end hardware)
If you really just want things like a big HD, go for an external that you leave in the dorm when extra stuff -- but what do you really expect to need a 500-750GB HD for? I have a 120GB on my laptop and a 160GB external that I use primarily for backup purposes. I am doing professional audio recording, editing, and production, and what I have serves me fine. I really do not see much of a reason why a freshmen would need more than a couple hundred gigs at most!</p>
<p>Fair questions, and one answer is that I want this computer to last a good 3-4 years. 512 RAM seemed like overkill not too long ago....</p>
<p>As far as RAM goes, IMO there's no such thing as too much. I like being able to run a memory intensive game (not a gamer, but I do play some stuff), and it's nice to have firefox w/a bunch of tabs, word, and itunes or wmp or whatever all open with memory to spare and no worries about my computer freezing up...</p>
<p>As for the space, I don't need <em>all</em> of it, but I download a pretty good amount of football (as in old games, shows, etc., yes, I'm a nerd) and stuff, have a fairly massive collection of (legal) ruckus music, and all my pics take up a pretty large amount of space as well. Obviously that's not nearly 600 gigs, but it's always nice to have extra space.</p>
<p>This is true, although at the current rate...well... I'm going into my senior year, and my computer freshmen year was top-of-the-line with 768 MB RAM -- 3 years later, that would be barely enough to survive; however, that was fairly high-end (you could have gotten 1-2 GB, but that would be like getting 3-5 GB now). From that perspective, is it really such a wise idea to spend a lot more than usual to get a computer that you hope will be usable in 4 years? From my experience, most students seem to end up replacing their laptops at least once because they get so over-used! You will likely spend enough in maintenance by the 3rd or 4th yr of your laptop's existence that you may just want to buy a new (inexpensive) one...with better specs than a fairly top of the line system has now!</p>
<p>From a space point of view, you <em>may</em> need that space for downloads; however, your school is going to limit your ability to download videos, bittorrents, etc. Additionally, if you download iTunes, you can easily listen to other people's music for free as well. Still, if you think you need 600 GB of HD space, go for it; just consider what else you might want to spend that money on!</p>
<p>"(you could have gotten 1-2 GB, but that would be like getting 3-5 GB now)"</p>
<p>But I am getting 3 gigs, and at basement price, too. I have no interest in illegal music downloads or anything like that, but I am aware that some colleges throttle bittorrent downloads across the board...anyway, thanks for your thoughts. I'll just wait another few weeks and see what the sales look like.</p>
<p>I found myself in a similar situation to yours when I bought my laptop. I've regretted it almost every day since then. If you like computers at all, get a desktop. Unless you plan on taking it with you and studying where there aren't already computers (ie, the library, labs, etc) it's just depressing. And you can always store files on a jump drive in your pocket.</p>