Notebook or desktop puzzle - need input from current students

In My Humble Opinion
1

We’ll be sending our oldest off to college next year and we had also been thinking about getting both kids a new computer for Christmas as theirs is about 10 years old and getting tired. But like most people we have to watch our spending and so we have some choices to make.

Our options: Buy a desktop computer for both to share, then buy a different system for our daughter before she leaves for college OR buy a laptop for our daughter for Christmas, and let our son have the shared computer with the understanding that yes, we will replace it also - just not right now.

Here’s where the Dopers come in: Which type of system - desktop or notebook - did you prefer when you were in school? Were there any considerations you had to give to the school’s technology setup or are they all pretty much standard? (Right now, my daughter’s leaning toward Ohio State, Bowling Green, or IPFW if that helps any.) I’d like to get some input from you guys to help with our decision.

Thanks so much for your help!

(We do have one more option that I forgot - we have a 5-yr-old laptop that doesn’t get much use here that we could let our daughter use. Would that work with current standards or is it obsolete?)

2

I guess it depends on what it is used for. I have both and prefer both, but I have a nice system with dual monitors that I use for programming and gaming. The laptop comes in handy for group work, for doing homework at school between classes, or even taking notes. It is good for brining home the homework and working on it when visiting the parents too.

If I HAD to choose one or the other, it would be a laptop. Especially if I lived in a cramped apartment or dorm room. A PC takes up lots of room and requires a lot of wiring and such. Laptops are easy, light and portable.

5 year old laptop? Yikes, not sure that would be good for much for school. Perhaps surfing the internet. Many professors pass out slideshow presentations as part of their notes, or PDFs, both of which use the latest versions, which would not work on a 5 year old laptop. (what OS is that anyway, Windows 2000 or ME? or apple?) If it is apple it might be more useful at that age than a Windows system.

Price isn’t usually an issue. You can get a decent laptop for 300-400 dollars, which is what you would spend for a desktop with a monitor. (assuming a 200 dollar Wal-mart Linux computer with a standard 150 dollar LCD Monitor).

3

I’d go with option 2. New laptop for daughter, plus new computer for son at a later date.

Laptops are pretty much the standard now for college (or at least where I am. My classes 2 years ago, was 1/3 to 1/2 the class using laptops for notes. The next year’s class was 100% laptops) They fit easily in a tiny dorm room, and you can easily move somewhere else if your roommate is bothering you.

My recommendation is for a decent system with an bare minimum of 1 gig of ram, wifi is an absolute must. A good battery life (4+ hours) and a good bag. I would go with something with XP (for compatibility, some places still use software incompatible with Vista or OSX. Take a look at the school’s software requirements)

Personally, I went with a tablet pc. My previous college experience, nobody had laptops, and I wanted one I could use and not be obvious about it. When I actually went, there were many more people with laptops than I expected, but I still prefer taking notes with a pen, so a tablet was still a good choice.

4

I vote laptop. I got my first laptop upon leaving for college, and the only reason I would consider getting a desktop ever again is to have multiple monitors. I got mine when the performance gap between the average laptop and the average desktop was starting to narrow considerably, and once that happened I think the advantage of portability trumps just about anything the desktop can offer (unless your daughter is into PC games).

5

I would suggest the new laptop now, another at a later date option. You will also probably be interested in this thread:

[http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=429808&highlight=laptop+swiss](Any suggestions for a laptop backpack?)

6

[QUOTE=Epimetheus]
5 year old laptop? Yikes, not sure that would be good for much for school. Perhaps surfing the internet. Many professors pass out slideshow presentations as part of their notes, or PDFs, both of which use the latest versions, which would not work on a 5 year old laptop. (what OS is that anyway, Windows 2000 or ME? or apple?) If it is apple it might be more useful at that age than a Windows system.
[/QUOTE]
:rolleyes:

Windows XP came out six years ago, so a 5-year-old laptop is probably running XP. I’m also not clear on why an older laptop couldn’t do something like display pdfs or powerpoint viewer. I’m pretty sure they had that capability on Windows 95. Sure, it’ll be a little slower, and it probably won’t be what your daughter will want, but it should work just fine for any academic purpose.

I recommend a laptop (either the existing one, or a new one) with a caveat: Laptops are easily misplaced or stolen, and many college-bound students are not conscientious enough to keep track of their belongings.

7

[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
:rolleyes:

Windows XP came out six years ago, so a 5-year-old laptop is probably running XP. I’m also not clear on why an older laptop couldn’t do something like display pdfs or powerpoint viewer. I’m pretty sure they had that capability on Windows 95. Sure, it’ll be a little slower, and it probably won’t be what your daughter will want, but it should work just fine for any academic purpose.

I recommend a laptop (either the existing one, or a new one) with a caveat: Laptops are easily misplaced or stolen, and many college-bound students are not conscientious enough to keep track of their belongings.
[/QUOTE]

Go shove those roll-eyes in a dark place. (talk about jerk)

And if you are running Windows 2000, it isn’t likely that a teacher giving out his docs in Office 2000 format, most of MY CURRENT teachers give em out in 2003, though some of em are already giving them out in 2007. So no, if you aren’t running XP, what you have on the computer WILL NOT be fine for ANY academic purpose. I’m a current student, are you?

8

I would also strongly suggest laptop, it so much easier to carry it around. If there’s a book that you can’t take out of the library or something, you can just take your laptop there. The only thing to watch out for is weight, I personally can’t deal with anything heavier than about 5.5 lbs. And I also agree that if you daughter is just going to be taking typical college classes, she just needs to most basic machine – something with wifi and a word processor. If she’s going into graphic design or something with specific computer needs, the department should be able to tell her what to shop for.

I also think a 5 year old laptop would be fine for a college student (for reasons mentioned above), so long as you know it works okay. I mean, I’d plan on replacing it eventually, but it should be fine for the first semester. It might actually be better to buy her a new computer until after she gets to school, then she can get into her rhythm and figure out what features she needs.

9

A laptop computer is a requirement at most (if not all) colleges and universities. You might want to check with the admissions guidelines & etc. so you don’t get caught off guard next fall. The good news is that most schools also offer decent laptops at reasonable prices for students (my school offers a choice of Dell or Apple).

Good luck,

Winston

10

[QUOTE=Epimetheus]
And if you are running Windows 2000, it isn’t likely that a teacher giving out his docs in Office 2000 format, most of MY CURRENT teachers give em out in 2003, though some of em are already giving them out in 2007. So no, if you aren’t running XP, what you have on the computer WILL NOT be fine for ANY academic purpose. I’m a current student, are you?
[/QUOTE]
I got my BS three years ago. I find it hard to believe that so much has changed in academia in three years that everyone needs brand new computers to get by.

I love computers. I buy new ones about every 2 years. Sooner if I can talk myself into it. But I don’t for a second think that I need upgrades nearly that often. Certainly not for sending email and browsing websites and writing term papers. It’s clear from the OP’s post that budget is an important consideration, so dismissing a perfectly serviceable laptop out of hand because it’s too old is not being very helpful.

Here’s a link for Microsoft’s Powerpoint Viewer 2007. It’s free, and is only 25 MB. It works on Windows 2K and up.
Here’s a link to Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and Powerpoint Compatibility Pack. It’s free, is 28MB, and will enable users of Office 2000 and later to view, edit, and save files in 2007 compatible formats. It works on Windows 2000 and forward.
Here’s a link to Novell’s OpenOffice.org offering, a completely free office suite that opens Office 2007 documents. It’ll run on pretty much anything with a screen and a keyboard.

Got anything else?

11

[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]

Got anything else?
[/QUOTE]

Unlike you, Civility.

12

My work computer is a Pentium–not a Pentium II, mind you, just plain old “pentium” and is running Windows 98SE and Office 97 (yes, I teach public school, why do you ask?) and still opens brand new PDFs and Powerpoints just fine. The only real problem is I can’t get memory sticks to work, which is a pain in the ass, but any 5 year old computer won’t have that problem.

13

The laptop we currently have is running Windows XP, so it appears up-to-date enough to work for her. I like the idea of sending the one we have with her to start school and then letting her find out what she really needs and buying at that time but would be glad to have more opinions and info from everyone else. I do appreciate everyone’s input and welcome more; this is really helpful!

14

I’m a senior in college now. Four years ago, I thought that the additional power of a desktop was more important to me than the portability of a laptop, so I bought a very powerful desktop (it’s still a very powerful computer, even now).

I also completely misjudged my needs. In retrospect, I should have definitely gotten a laptop. My freshman year roommate turned out to be incredibly loud, which made writing papers in my room nearly impossible. I also found myself completely unable to decipher my hand-written class notes. We had a four year old laptop lying around the house back home, so I brought that to school for the second part of the first semester. It didn’t work out well–the thing was a dinosaur. Launching any program would take upwards of a minute, and the battery wouldn’t last more than 30 minutes on a good day. I ended up having to buy a junky laptop second semester of freshman year, which turned out to be a second stupid decision. The laptop was cheap, but it was also almost unusable because it was severely under-powered, had an absolutely horrible battery life, and shed random keys off of the keyboard like it was its job. Then, to top it all off, the hard drive just up and died about a year later.

I replaced it with a MacBook, which as been absolutely perfect for me. It’s a little on the expensive side, but it has a great battery life, and I’ve never had any problems with it whatsoever. I know this is totally anecdotal, but some of my friends have had the same mac laptop since freshman year with no problem, whereas all of my friends who got cheaper laptops have had to replace their computers at least once–and in one case, twice–since freshman year. Also, keep in mind that college is an especially rough environment for a laptop to be in–if it’s not sturdy, it’s not going to fare well.

My recommendation (based, of course, entirely on my own college experience) would definitely be to spend a bit more to get a sturdy laptop that’ll last for the whole time at college.

15

The people I see who say that they took a ton of notes on a laptop were probably never in the sciences. It’s not easy–heck, it’s pretty much impossible–to write equations on a laptop quickly, much less something like an organic chemistry mechanism. (I might be able to do the latter with ChemDraw and a ton of practice, but pen and paper is still much easier.) Now a tablet I might be able to do something with if it just captures whatever the input is.

16

Whatever kind you get, if it’s new, check if the company has educational discounts (I know Apple offers educational discounts on its computers.)

17

[QUOTE=iamthewalrus(:3=]
I got my BS three years ago. I find it hard to believe that so much has changed in academia in three years that everyone needs brand new computers to get by.

I love computers. I buy new ones about every 2 years. Sooner if I can talk myself into it. But I don’t for a second think that I need upgrades nearly that often. Certainly not for sending email and browsing websites and writing term papers. It’s clear from the OP’s post that budget is an important consideration, so dismissing a perfectly serviceable laptop out of hand because it’s too old is not being very helpful.

Here’s a link for Microsoft’s Powerpoint Viewer 2007. It’s free, and is only 25 MB. It works on Windows 2K and up.
Here’s a link to Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and Powerpoint Compatibility Pack. It’s free, is 28MB, and will enable users of Office 2000 and later to view, edit, and save files in 2007 compatible formats. It works on Windows 2000 and forward.
Here’s a link to Novell’s OpenOffice.org offering, a completely free office suite that opens Office 2007 documents. It’ll run on pretty much anything with a screen and a keyboard.

Got anything else?
[/QUOTE]

I’m going to graduate in May. I’m also a very successful IT professional. It’s fine to say you don’t need upgrades, but the reality is today’s bloatware doesn’t run well on yesterdays hardware. You can make it run, but that probably involves memory upgrades, software upgrades, compatibility upgrades, and so forth. You’re tech savvy - good for you. Most people aren’t, and would be bewildered trying to sort through the software compatibility add-ons you’re talking about here. Hell, I was apprehensive about Microsofts’s automated install I had to do to open the Office 2007 word doc with my Office 2003.

My wife is using my old laptop - all she really uses is word and i.e. I tried to install and run Google Earth on the old klunker last night - it installed but wouldn’t run. Maybe a poor example, but illustrative, I think, that yesterday’s hardware sometimes really won’t run todays software. Sure, I could have hammered at it and probably got it running, but even if I did, it would be a pain in the ass to get it going and it would just run like shit. What’s the sense in that? AND - I’m an IT professional and I can anticipate exactly how much of a frustrating (and ultimately fruitless) pain in the ass it would be. An average Joe is rightly apprehensive about tackling something like that.

You’re computer savvy. Good for you. Most folks aren’t.

18

Computers are pretty cheap these days, and I think you should do your best to capitalize on whatever the sales are this holiday season. You will be able to grab a really cheap low-end machine that will last 4 years through college.

I suggest you go get a dirt cheap desktop right now for both kids to use, then when the oldest goes to college buy them a laptop through the university. Colleges have great bargains on PCs because they are able to get cheap software licenses that typical users can’t. Desktop now, University Laptop later. Both kids are happy.

19

When my eldest daughter went to college, we got her a desktop there, which was a fairly good deal. When she went to grad school, she got a laptop. Younger daughter got a laptop from the start. One plus is that when they come home they can work and do assignments without a lot of hassling.

I’d also check on discounts. Microsoft Office for students is fairly cheap, and comes with 3 licenses, so both kids can get it. We got the 2003 edition. I had 2007 on a loaner, and found subtle incompatibilities if you’re not careful in saving the right way. I found a PPT animation crashed PPT 2003.

Two things not mentioned:

  1. Get the extended warranty! Both kids used it. Eldest went to a private school, where they did things on-site, and she sure used it. Youngest went to a public school which doesn’t do stuff for students, so we bought her computer at Circuit City, only because there was one near her. It paid off.

  2. Download a copy of OpenOffice for them as a backup. They may never use it, but it’s free. When the Windows Update bug screwed up Office, my daughter was the only one on her hall who could actually open documents using OO.

As for the age issue - remember that the computer will have to work 4 years from now also. Some classes might have them run things on their computers, which might be a problem for an old one without much memory. Holding off from getting one freshman year might be okay, but be prepared for problems.

20

I use multiple monitors on a laptop. Granted, my secondary monitor is the shitty laptop panel, but the first one is a 42" HDTV, so that kinda makes up for it. Of course, I need that big a monitor for the games I play. :smiley:

Hence, a docking station with a lock and/or a locking file cabinet. Both of which I used when I lived in a dorm.

Office 2003 supports Windows 2000, and it can read Office 2007 files with a free patch from Microsoft’s website.