• Welcome to Overclockers Forums! Join us to reply in threads, receive reduced ads, and to customize your site experience!

What To Do!?

Overclockers is supported by our readers. When you click a link to make a purchase, we may earn a commission. Learn More.

Penguin4x4

Are you my Daddy?
Joined
May 28, 2002
Location
Sector 7G
OK, now that my sister is graduating high school, we(mother and father) decided to get her a computer for college. Now, I have two options: I build one or I buy a laptop. To my knowledge, she only:

  • Chats on AIM
  • Burns CD's via NERO
  • Text Bashes
  • Uses KaZaA Lite (I know this doesn't pertain to selection, I only added this to be complete)

Budget: $800-900 bucks MAX

Your thoughts?
 
If it's for college, then get a laptop. Increasingly this is an advatage as more and more campuses go wireless. Buy the extended warranty and make sure she has renters insurance that covers theft.
 
Keep in mind that whatever college she attends will have some sort of discount on software, and generally hardware. Most have deals with Apple and either Dell, Gateway, or IBM. They all have recomendations on their website, which you need to investigate before you do anything. While I highly doubt their requirements are higher than anything you can get in that price range, as most allow for Celerons and such, it might be a determining factor, depending on her intended major. While a laptop does have a cool-factor which most young people appreciate, it's advantages go well beyond that. She can take it to class, move it to type papers (very important, actually. Being tied to a desk is a real pain sometimes), easily bring it home on vacation (also important if she has stuff to do), etc.. A desktop has its place, but generally only if expandability is required, screen real estate is important, or she's doing some computationally intensive work. That laptop, while cheap, makes some big compromises. 128MB of RAM isn't enough anymore. I wouldn't get anything less than 256, and you're still hobbling the system until you get up to around 512, and that costs money for low profile dimms. 20GB hard drive, while certainly adequate, will probably not work for any Kazaa user. While colleges are increasingly prohibiting the use of these services, she can easily fill it with crap. I can't even live with 40GB. When she goes, warn her what she does on Kazaa and the like. College kids are getting sued, and she could get kicked out, or at least punished, if she gets caught.

Z
 
Laptop with extended warranty and accidental protection(so if you spill coke on the keyboard you are covered). First and foremost, someone else becomes the primary tech support, and I think it will just cause less hassle down the road. Your sister doesn't need the power of a desktop you could get her.
 
zachj said:
Keep in mind that whatever college she attends will have some sort of discount on software, and generally hardware. Most have deals with Apple and either Dell, Gateway, or IBM. They all have recomendations on their website, which you need to investigate before you do anything.
Z

On which site are you refering to, the University's or the Manufacturer? She will be attending SFA in the nursing field. I've warned her on numerous occasions about KaZaA, my parents as well. Guess she'll have to learn the hard way, :D
 
K guys, after yakkin about it in mIRC with Kendan and flounder43, I've decided to wait until July or August to start looking at FatWallet, TechBargains, and Anandtech. Hopefully I'll be able to get a sweet deal.

Otherwise I'll have to get a Compaq Presario 1255US from Best Buy, :)
 
Back