What rig for college??

[VirtualLarry]

When I was in college, studying compsci, I had an AMD 386-DX40 rig. I don't even know if they had laptops back then. Surely, they must have been the "luggable" kind. So I can't really give you pointers on this.

 

[Vaulter]

If you are living on campus I would go with a laptop. Not sure where you'll be living, but in a dorm theres not a lot of space for a desktop, the heat output will make your room hot, the noise from fans during gaming will probably annoy your roommate, and you will spend all your time on it instead of actually enjoying college.

I'm a junior in college at the moment.

 

[mfenn]

Just curious, but if you dont mind my asking, when did you graduate? I do agree about taking notes on a laptop vs written on paper, that writing on paper is much better. Personally, I graduated before laptops were available, but I do see a lot of students now typing papers and such while waiting in the hallways between classes.

Been about 4 years now, so not too long ago.

(Not directed at frozentundra) While I agree that a stylus-driver laptop/tablet can be super useful in theory, my experience is that any sort of Internet-connected device is a huge distraction in class. You have to have ironclad willpower to avoid getting sidetracked.

You will of course need some sort of computer to function in school (papers, homework, whatever), but you don't need it in class!

 

[xXdragonbatXX]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/SIPz

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[Torn Mind]

All a college student really *needs* is:

1) Paper
2) Mechanical Pencil w/ Lead
3) Eraser
4) Pen
5) Binders
6) Engineering Calculator (e.g. TI 36X Pro)
7) Netbook Computer
8) Backpack
9) Self Discipline

Seriously. Science, engineering, humanities... doesn't matter.

Netbooks are productivity killers because of waiting time and small screens.

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[jaedaliu]

Netbooks are productivity killers because of waiting time and small screens.

wasted money on the chiropractor as you've hunched over a tiny keyboard for hours.

I also stopped using pencils and erasers in my second year of undergrad. Much faster to just cross stuff out and continue when using pen.

I also don't think this is about what you need in college. but rather what he wants.

You can probably get away with writing instrument and paper. Everything else is just extra.

oh wait, nice shades when you're hanging out at the coffee shop.

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[Torn Mind]

Not true for college-level work. IMO, the biggest productivity killer is a powerful computer capable of playing fun games...

What I'd do:
1) Lenovo X130E (AMD Fusion, 1366x768 resolution, 128GB SSD)
2) Windows 7, streamlined & running Classic Theme
3) Microsoft Office
4) Major-specific software (Matlab, stats programs, etc.)

I got through a science degree just fine with a netbook (N270, 1024x600, 512MB Ram). The secret to productivity is to put the computer (and smartphone) away and RTFM (aka textbook).

I remain annoyed, and still do, every time I try to use the 2 NB505s we have to even browse email. The one with Windows 7 Starter chokes on the 1 GB of RAM while the other with 2 GB RAM can only handle FF with ten tabs max. I even prefer a 3.2 Ghz P4 Prescott to do mere basic office work. The Pentium M Dell D810 downclocked at 800 Mhz did not lag so badly either. In fact, the Pentium III I used was better because of its larger screen size despite worse specs everywhere else.
Of course my favorite rigs were the E8400s in the labs. Complete burners compared to the old throwaway Latitudes.

 

[OBLAMA2009]

Many College newbies discover within few weeks that College is Not High school and wasting time on extensive gaming does not coexist well with school work and socializing.

I would suggested as a first step to get a 15" light (as easy to carry around) portable that can do what you need to do for school work + emailing and other type of online communication that are power mongering like gaming.

After few weeks if you find yourself in an Education a/Social/Psychological situation is so that live are No Go without gaming you can take the next step and get what fit to your environment at the time.

hes right, when yur in college, gittin' tang > playing lame video games. plus chances are if your computer is 3 years old its still good...

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[xXdragonbatXX]

I actually need a high running computer for my computer programming class and computer/software class. So that whole pencil and paper plan is so 2001. HAHA

 

[frozentundra123456]

Been about 4 years now, so not too long ago.

(Not directed at frozentundra) While I agree that a stylus-driver laptop/tablet can be super useful in theory, my experience is that any sort of Internet-connected device is a huge distraction in class. You have to have ironclad willpower to avoid getting sidetracked.

You will of course need some sort of computer to function in school (papers, homework, whatever), but you don't need it in class!

I graduated much longer ago than that. The fact that we are even having this discussion is evidence of how far we have come technically. If you can believe it, when I was in science courses, I did my calculations with a slide rule. Even basic scientific calculators cost pretty much what a laptop costs now.

 

[ThePolarSky]

...

 

[Essence_of_War]

I was also going to use his keypunch to write the next killer iOS app in Fortran, but gave up when I tripped and dumped my stack of 15,000 cards.

I was smiling until I got to here, then I made the poor call of taking a sip of coffee while I read the last paragraph.

 

[mnewsham]

I did my calculations with a slide rule.

There are those of us out there who still do.

 

[ghost03]

IMO a tablet (while awesome to have) is really not a replacement for a laptop. This is going to depend on your major, of course, as Office-type work will swap over a lot better than, e.g., programming a microcontroller, where the software just isn't available on a tablet.

Moreover, I fully expect that you will want a laptop at college. I can't imagine what I would have done without mine. There's plenty of instances where you're going to want to get work done outside of your dorm, and it will inconvenience yourself (and possibly others) to not be able to do so. Also, keep in mind that if you use it a lot, even a good laptop will probably only last about 3 years, so you may need to buy a second one before you graduate.

This is not to say that you can't benefit from a gaming desktop, either, however. I know when I was doing 3D CAD drawings in '05 I finished well ahead of those on laptops because I had my Geforce 7800GT powered desktop and didn't have to wait for lag when rotating and zooming, etc.

The good news is, I think a $2000 budget is PLENTY to get both a fast desktop and a decent laptop. Personally I would probably split that down the middle--1k will buy you a really nice laptop these days, and certainly a decent gaming desktop. Plus, the desktop can be upgraded when you come across money--like in a summer internship for instance.

 

[Torn Mind]

It's really a matter of optimizing your computer and work habits. Your NB505 (and all Atom netbooks) probably should stick to running XP and Office 2003. Run a tight ship and it'll hum.

Contemporary netbooks running an AMD E-350 or Intel 847 processor run Windows 7 just fine. Most netbooks today have/support 8GB of RAM, 1366x768 11.6" displays, SATA II SSDs and full-size keyboards. Their downfall is poor build quality, but the Lenovo Thinkpad version is passable. Just don't pay more than $300 for one...

Pouring 100-200 dollars extra into another OS and Office then would not be my cup of tea, although I knew plenty about lighter browsers such as K-meleon and its deivatives. Now, I didn't use for class the Toshiba because I had the D810 already. I was forced to go to Linux on the first NB505 because the hard drive sectors Windows was on was ruined. There, having menus get clipped means means auto-hiding the menu bars or moving them. The second one was bought this year with the intent of getting the files on the recovery partition to restore Windows to another hard drive and then liquidate them while I still can.

As for these newer netbooks, it sure seems that netbooks and ultraportables are less and less distinguished from each other.

 

[ghost03]

Software is a huge point actually. I wouldn't plan on running office 2003 to save resources. It's really best to have the same version of the software as everyone else, so when you go to give a group presentation, everything shows up instead of being all over the place. Missing fonts, missing equations, crazy formatting, etc.

 

[Torn Mind]

Software is a huge point actually. I wouldn't plan on running office 2003 to save resources. It's really best to have the same version of the software as everyone else, so when you go to give a group presentation, everything shows up instead of being all over the place. Missing fonts, missing equations, crazy formatting, etc.

The auto-complete feature in Excel 2007/2010 is really handy if you ever use it heavily at some point in the future.

 

[Torn Mind]

My recommendation for the OP:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

CPU: AMD FX-8350 4.0GHz 8-Core Processor ($190.98 @ Newegg)
Motherboard: Asus M5A97 LE R2.0 ATX AM3+ Motherboard ($79.98 @ SuperBiiz)
Memory: Crucial Ballistix Sport 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600 Memory ($47.20 @ Newegg)
Storage: Seagate Barracuda 500GB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($55.37 @ Amazon)
Video Card: XFX Radeon HD 7970 3GB Video Card ($403.98 @ Newegg)
Case: Corsair 300R ATX Mid Tower Case ($49.99 @ Newegg)
Power Supply: Corsair Enthusiast 650W 80 PLUS Certified ATX12V / EPS12V Power Supply ($53.99 @ Newegg)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224BB DVD/CD Writer ($17.98 @ Outlet PC)
Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit) ($93.61 @ Amazon)
Total: $993.08
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2013-04-25 17:59 EDT-0400)

Pcpartpicker is not always up-to-date, so double check at the site it is being sold at.

 

[Ayah]

Dunno about you guys, but I've got 3 "included" copies of several different windows versions from my university

 

[Sleepingforest]

I would actually take a Radeon 7950 and an 128GB SSD over a Radeon 7970. The difference for most games is pretty slight, while the SSD will help greatly with load and boot times.

Also: check to see if your university has Dreamspark Premium, a Microsoft program that educational facilities can enter to get free copies of Windows for students. You can also get a discounted copy ($70) from Microsoft for being a college student even if your school is not in Dreamspark Premium.

 

[mfenn]

I actually need a high running computer for my computer programming class and computer/software class. So that whole pencil and paper plan is so 2001. HAHA

Bullshit. You do NOT need a high-performance computer for any undergrad CS or programming class. Dual-core is nice so that you'll be able to find those annoying deadlocks in your multi-threaded code, but the speed is irrelevant.