College Computer

[a-4-year-old]

Hey guys, I'm off to Drexel University pretty soon and I need to get a computer.  I was thinking I would prefer a Desktop rather than a laptop.  I'd like to know from you guys who are at school if you ever use your laptop to take notes and more importantly if it is necessary or not.  My major is computer science so I will eventually have to run linux on this machine.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

[jrgp]

Maybe get a Macbook. Runs all sorts of software, usability is great, and, possibly most importantly, it suspends/resumes really, really quickly and the battery life lasts much longer than equivalent windows laptops. It also can dual boot Linux very easily.

I'm not sure how great a desktop would be since a laptop can be just as good and are way portable. The only downside I can see to getting a laptop instead of a desktop is that they're stolen often/easily. (At my brother's college a few times people broke into dorms and held the dormers at gunpoint and had them give over their laptops; it'd be much harder for them to steal a full fledged desktop in that situation)

[pavliko]

Get a umpc ^__^
But don't rage at it like I do( I smashed already 3 of them into a wall >.> )
But it's great..
Very light, mobile and can run anything(kinda), a loli version of craptops

[L[0ne]R]

That depends on your program and the university. Just keep this in mind: you might need to work during lunch breaks, before/after classes, or any other time you don't have class. If there are enough computers at the university and if they're powerful enough for you - then I guess you won't really need a laptop.

I'm saying that from my experience, but I was taking Digital Multimedia Technology, which was a pretty intense program with lots of projects going on at the same time, so we ended up doing most of the work outside of class time. Also most of the software we had to use had high system requirements (all sorts of image- 3D- video-editors), so we couldn't do any work on crappy college computers (which weren't always available either) and had to use powerful laptops.

I don't know what your course will be like though.

Maybe get a Macbook. Runs all sorts of software, usability is great, and, possibly most importantly, it suspends/resumes really, really quickly and the battery life lasts much longer than equivalent windows laptops. It also can dual boot Linux very easily.

Uh... my experience with Macbook Pros (ones we used at college) is exactly the opposite.
Runs all sorts of software - windows can run much much more. :/
Usability is great - depends on what you mean by "usability". There are some major cons and pros.
Suspends/Resumes quickly - many people at our class had the problem of macs not resuming from sleep mode. Sometimes I had no choice but to reboot.
Can't comment on battery life and linux.

[jerich]

laptops over desktop for sure at a college, u can bring it to study groups and to libraries, etc. to work on projects. if u get your laptop stolen, its because of your/your roommates stupidity. laptops are stolen because idiots leave their doors open/unlocked when they go out


P.S.
lol drexel university is right by my work, maybe im goin to steal it when im out from work

[100% not captain ben]

get an ipad they're so good for the college kid on the run make sure to wear skinny jeans and appreciate shit you've never heard of while you're drinking coffee even though you hate the taste and readjusting your balls all the time

[Atticus]

Purchasing a desktop over a laptop would be a huge mistake in school. You can't take a desktop to a friend's place to work on work together and you can't take it to the library. You will regret the purchase of a desktop.

I bought a black macbook in 2007 when I started college. I have had no problems so far besides spilling coke on it, but even then it was fine. You can always dual or triple boot your mac. I needed a program for engineering and windows was a simple install (my school provides windows for free if you need it).

[a-4-year-old]

Purchasing a desktop over a laptop would be a huge mistake in school. You can't take a desktop to a friend's place to work on work together and you can't take it to the library. You will regret the purchase of a desktop.

I bought a black macbook in 2007 when I started college. I have had no problems so far besides spilling coke on it, but even then it was fine. You can always dual or triple boot your mac. I needed a program for engineering and windows was a simple install (my school provides windows for free if you need it).

How often have you actually taken your laptop out to a library/study group? I understand that that is the main advantage of having a laptop, however I don't expect to need much flexibility out of my computer, especially considering most of those circumstances can be remedied with a simple flash drive.

[10th_account]

I study CS and I've brought my laptop along almost every day. Some days I've even brought two laptops. No joke.

You eat lunch together with friends and will likely work on something or just surf the web to prevent boredom. You'll often also want to meet before or after lectures with your friends or a group to work on an assignment. And for some labs you'll have to connect some device into your computer. The school and all the teachers assumes you all have laptops.

And you won't need Linux for CS. With Win7 you'll have compatibility with all the software you'll need to use in the courses. But feel free to dual-boot. The people who do usually gets the most skirt.

[Neosano]

Nah. Dual booting is boring.
Better install linux and then a virtual machine on it. If you're not familiar with linux - do in reverse.
BTW, why would he need linux, lol.

[a-4-year-old]

Nah. Dual booting is boring.
Better install linux and then a virtual machine on it. If you're not familiar with linux - do in reverse.
BTW, why would he need linux, lol.

The CS student I talked to said that the compiler they use only runs in linux

[Neosano]

Nah. Dual booting is boring.
Better install linux and then a virtual machine on it. If you're not familiar with linux - do in reverse.
BTW, why would he need linux, lol.

The CS student I talked to said that the compiler they use only runs in linux

First of all... Why would you use some shitty compiler?
And then, as I said, you can install windows, then vmware on it, and then linux as a virtual machine :]

[{LAW} Gamer_2k4]

I used an HP laptop all four years of college (my model for the last two years was an HP Compaq 8510w), and I didn't have a single problem with it.  Battery life is about 2.5 hours after two years of use, so I'm satisfied with that.  And yes, having a laptop is EXTREMELY useful in college.  If you need help with something, you just pick up your computer and head over to a friend's room.  If you're working on a team project, everyone can be in the same room instead of sitting on the desktop PCs isolated from each other.  If you have a class or a lab that has computer elements, you can just bring your laptop to class.  If you need to take notes, a program like OneNote or even Notepad are often significantly better alternatives to a paper notebook.  If you're on the go and you don't remember something, like where your classroom is at the start of a semester, you just whip that thing out and check.  If you need to demo a programming lab for an instructor, you just bring your laptop to his office.  If you need help from a writing tutor for a paper, you just take your laptop down to the tutoring center so you can make corrections on the fly.  Aside from maybe the "getting stolen" thing, I can't think of a single downside.

GET A LAPTOP.

Maybe get a Macbook. Runs all sorts of software, usability is great, and, possibly most importantly, it suspends/resumes really, really quickly and the battery life lasts much longer than equivalent windows laptops. It also can dual boot Linux very easily.

If he's getting a new laptop, he's getting Windows 7, which does all of that (and more).

Nah. Dual booting is boring.
Better install linux and then a virtual machine on it. If you're not familiar with linux - do in reverse.
BTW, why would he need linux, lol.

The CS student I talked to said that the compiler they use only runs in linux

We used XUbuntu in my operating systems class and we just ran it from a VM.  Dual-booting wasn't necessary at all (and even if it was, Windows computers handle dual-booting just fine).

[jrgp]

Nah. Dual booting is boring.
Better install linux and then a virtual machine on it. If you're not familiar with linux - do in reverse.
BTW, why would he need linux, lol.

The CS student I talked to said that the compiler they use only runs in linux

First of all... Why would you use some s**tty compiler?

The Linux compilers are not shitty.... just because some people here swear by the one that's in Visual C++, doesn't mean the Linux ones aren't as good.

But either way, they run on Windows natively fine. Sometimes just with Cygwin or Mingw.

[Espadon]

Some people choose to take their power laptop budget and use it to build themselves a powerful desktop and take leftover to buy a netbook, since taking notes and writing papers in the library isn't processor intensive. I'm not sure if that suitable for you though.

[jerich]

Some people choose to take their power laptop budget and use it to build themselves a powerful desktop and take leftover to buy a netbook, since taking notes and writing papers in the library isn't processor intensive. I'm not sure if that suitable for you though.

Why do you need a very powerful computer in the first place? He should leave his "gaming" computer at his house so he can mess around with it during his breaks and enjoy the college life and not be cooped up in a dorm all semester. A laptop is perfect for his needs in education and balancing the social aspect of school.

[a-4-year-old]

Some people choose to take their power laptop budget and use it to build themselves a powerful desktop and take leftover to buy a netbook, since taking notes and writing papers in the library isn't processor intensive. I'm not sure if that suitable for you though.

Why do you need a very powerful computer in the first place? He should leave his "gaming" computer at his house so he can mess around with it during his breaks and enjoy the college life and not be cooped up in a dorm all semester. A laptop is perfect for his needs in education and balancing the social aspect of school.

My "Gaming" computer is 5 years old. Any new laptop can run circles around it.  I don't care for netbooks with their shitty little keyboards.

I want a Desktop because its the cheapest way to get the power I want, and I can then get a really nice monitor that would double as an HD PS3 screen.

I'd only really want a laptop if I absolutely had to have one. I don't intend to do any studying in a library unless someone makes me.

[Atticus]

Purchasing a desktop over a laptop would be a huge mistake in school. You can't take a desktop to a friend's place to work on work together and you can't take it to the library. You will regret the purchase of a desktop.

I bought a black macbook in 2007 when I started college. I have had no problems so far besides spilling coke on it, but even then it was fine. You can always dual or triple boot your mac. I needed a program for engineering and windows was a simple install (my school provides windows for free if you need it).

How often have you actually taken your laptop out to a library/study group? I understand that that is the main advantage of having a laptop, however I don't expect to need much flexibility out of my computer, especially considering most of those circumstances can be remedied with a simple flash drive.

I take my laptop with me everywhere. I use it in classes to type notes if allowed. Every one of my math classes, economics classes, engineering classes, and many of my science classes have had online homework. You can always use the computers in the library or the computer labs but they are very slow and are often mostly taken. I have a 13 inch macbook and it is very portable. I still get 3-4 hours of battery life out of it even though it is 3 years old. You could carry a flashdrive around and rely on an open computer, but it wont always be there. Also, if you're in a small freshman dorm, you don't want a big desktop computer taking up a 4th of your half of the dorm room. I guess it all depends on your situation and your school's resources. Choose wisely.

[a-4-year-old]

Purchasing a desktop over a laptop would be a huge mistake in school. You can't take a desktop to a friend's place to work on work together and you can't take it to the library. You will regret the purchase of a desktop.

I bought a black macbook in 2007 when I started college. I have had no problems so far besides spilling coke on it, but even then it was fine. You can always dual or triple boot your mac. I needed a program for engineering and windows was a simple install (my school provides windows for free if you need it).

How often have you actually taken your laptop out to a library/study group? I understand that that is the main advantage of having a laptop, however I don't expect to need much flexibility out of my computer, especially considering most of those circumstances can be remedied with a simple flash drive.

I take my laptop with me everywhere. I use it in classes to type notes if allowed. Every one of my math classes, economics classes, engineering classes, and many of my science classes have had online homework. You can always use the computers in the library or the computer labs but they are very slow and are often mostly taken. I have a 13 inch macbook and it is very portable. I still get 3-4 hours of battery life out of it even though it is 3 years old. You could carry a flashdrive around and rely on an open computer, but it wont always be there. Also, if you're in a small freshman dorm, you don't want a big desktop computer taking up a 4th of your half of the dorm room. I guess it all depends on your situation and your school's resources. Choose wisely.

Thank you for the input, I'm not ordering anything until after Orientation, in the likely event I end up with a laptop it will be a lenovo thinkpad.

[Atticus]

Is that the computer that the school provides? My freshman chemistry teacher went to drexel btw.