p.c for student daughter

asot

John_LG wrote:

Whilist posters are right about the benefits of laptops (portibility) there are many downsides to consider. Battery life, poor upgrading, dvd rw are rare, low memory, small hard drives, poor sound, smaller screen, limited connectivity for devices... just my opinion, of course.

There are definately downsides. The most important thing would be you can get more for your money with a desktop. Some of these points don't seem to make sense though. Also I am not sure about what you mean about limited connectivity? Just a shortage of USB ports? In which case yes there are fewer USB ports on a laptop.

I agree with:
* Hard drives are definately smaller and this is something to consider.
* The screen is likely to be smaller as you say.

I disagree with:
* Desktops don't have a battery so there is no comparison; a laptop you can run on the mains or from a battery.
* Poor upgrading; relatively few consumers upgrade their computers and those that do will most likely upgrade simpler things such as memory which can be done on laptops quite easily.
* DVD-RWs are not rare and are even found on the very cheapest laptops nowadays.
* RAM is available in the same quantities as standard consumer desktops (although more expensive).

Little_John

John_LG wrote:

Whilist posters are right about the benefits of laptops (portibility) there are many downsides to consider. Battery life, poor upgrading, dvd rw are rare, low memory, small hard drives, poor sound, smaller screen, limited connectivity for devices... just my opinion, of course.

Have you actually looked at laptops in the last few years?

The inexpensive ones have 14" or 15" screens it is the 17"+ or 12"- that are expensive becasue they have to cram all the bits in the small ones the big ones are just to heavy.
Battery life has never been better, spend and get a centrino based laptop and you can get up to 4 hours out of them.
Upgrading why? you spend as much as you can on your CPU to start memory upgrades are no longer stupidly expensive and have always been easy to fit.
DVDrw my 2.5 yeqar old laptop has a DVDrw and they are very common in most resonable laptops only the bargain basement dont have DVDr
Limited connectivity? !!!!!! are you on? laptops usually have 1 PCMCIA slot, at least 2 USB usually 4, firewire, modems, network ports all built in I even have Svideo out on mine and a built in card reader.
Hard drives are now in excess of 100GB
Poor sound I will give you, the speakers are too small but stick some external speakers on and the quality is great.

The Laptop option is definalty somthing to look at, a PC can be cheaper but they take up space that is usually limited in student accomodation. A laptop would allow her to use it at uni where ever she goes if she calls home for weekends she can take it with her and work over the weekend, in the garden on the train even watch dvds while on the move. I know lots of people that have regretted buying a pc once they start thir course and could really make use of a laptop.

You can go for the bottom end Dell inspiron 1300 whihc is ok but the specs are pretty low. take a look at the Inspiron 640m knock the warrenty down to the 1 year collect and return, you get a centrino 1.86Ghz built in wireless, 512MB memory, 14.1" widescreen, 60GB hard drive and a DVDrw for £540. The only thing I can see that would be a restriction on what she wants to use if for is the 60GB drive, it is a fairly big drive for a laptop but music,videos and photos can take alot of space but she will be able to write alot to DVDr or buy a USB hard drive to store stuff on.

John_LG

I have to apologise for having an opinion! I did recognise that laptops have benefits - I was trying to give some valuable points to consider, as the OP didn't actually say that their daughter was at uni and not staying at home! So this computer might have many other purposes, rather than just carrying around to the library and on the train.

Little_John wrote:

Have you actually looked at laptops in the last few years?

Slightly offensive, but in good nature I hope - yes, I use them everyday, and that is what my opinion is based on. My work sees the use of laptops and desktops everyday.

The inexpensive ones have 14" or 15" screens it is the 17"+ or 12"- that are expensive becasue they have to cram all the bits in the small ones the big ones are just to heavy.

You are right, but my point is that due to the main benefit of a laptop is portability, you sacrfice your 17inch monitor. No one has less on a desktop - in fact many people are now going towards 19inch as you can get them from £125!

Battery life has never been better, spend and get a centrino based laptop and you can get up to 4 hours out of them.

Again, you are right - but that's at optimum power saving, with low monitor brightness... and when they are brand new! I've seen so many laptops one or two years down the line needing a battery repalced at some expense (especially if no longer made, as the technology has progressed!)

Upgrading why? you spend as much as you can on your CPU to start memory upgrades are no longer stupidly expensive and have always been easy to fit.

Laptop motherboard aren't that upgradable. New desktops can have up to say 4GB of memory installed. You wouldn't normally buy a desktop with less than 1GB of ram, so why would you for a laptop?

DVDrw my 2.5 yeqar old laptop has a DVDrw and they are very common in most resonable laptops only the bargain basement dont have DVDr
Limited connectivity? !!!!!! are you on? laptops usually have 1 PCMCIA slot, at least 2 USB usually 4, firewire, modems, network ports all built in I even have Svideo out on mine and a built in card reader.

You didn't buy a cheap laptop nearly three years ago with a dvdrw! That's a much higher spec. I'm refering to the amount of plugging in at the same time. Again, I find that in my work, I'm often restricted by the connectivity to only 2 usb and no com port, have had to buy expandable hubs. I didn't explain that very well. My point is for the OP to CONSIDER what it will be used for, so they don't have the same problem. And again, most sub £500 laptops do not have things like firewire and card readers! I'm sure you can find some that do - but it's not the norm.

Hard drives are now in excess of 100GB
Poor sound I will give you, the speakers are too small but stick some external speakers on and the quality is great.

Hey, we agree on a few things, I'm feeling less offended now. I think it's a case of you and I are painting the opposite ends of the spectrum. But that's the benefit of a forum - for opinions. The OP has probably already bought something, or made up their mind anyway!
Over and out.

hobo28

For a student, buy a laptop. They can then use it wherever they are, eg. in library (whatever that is!) and of course its a lot easier to move when inevitably they move house etc.

You can get a perfectly decent laptop nowadays for about £400.

jack_daniels_2

I just sold my laptop as I wasnt impressed and no amount of persuasion will ever see me going back to a laptop its desktop for me all the way, come to think of it in a chicken or egg experience what came first! The George Foreman or the Laptop

rygon

The best thing to do is sit down with your daughter and ask exactly what she expects out of her computer..if it is potability then a laptop is the only way to go..but will be more expensive.
As far as pcs go i bought mine from http://pcspecialist.co.uk about 2-3years ago and have had no problems.
With regards to buying a pc from shops like comet, dixons etc a lot of the pcs come with software bundled in with it, which not only bumps up the price but also comes with a lot of products you do not want and are hard to remove. They also sell the pc with microsoft OEM which is installed on your pc already. so you will not recieve a microsoft disc.

as for specs i would go for an AMD athlon 64+ processor (3200)
motherboard will most probably be an asus or abit
go for 1gig ram (for the extra money its definately worth it)
3 1/2" floppy drives are not really used anymore so dont worry about getting a pc without that feature.
a dvd RW drive is always a good investment as it allows you to back up large amounts of essential data.
as for soundcards and graphic cards, if she isnt going to play any games (or isnt doing music production) then theres no real point in buying these (let the motherboard take care of it)

Little_John

John_LG wrote:

I have to apologise for having an opinion! I did recognise that laptops have benefits - I was trying to give some valuable points to consider, as the OP didn't actually say that their daughter was at uni and not staying at home! So this computer might have many other purposes, rather than just carrying around to the library and on the train.

I didnt mean to offend, All your points gave the negative sides to using a laptop so I thought I would give the positive points of a laptop and allow the OP to decide.

I know it wasnt posted if she was moving out but most do so I just assumed as has everyone else. I think a laptop is invaluble at university, people only really need 512MB of memory 1GB is now the norm if your looking for somthing that is processing alot of information like encoding dvd videos, opening loads of photos at once alot of multi tasking. Opening word, excel, 2 or 3 internet explorere windows having winamp or WMP playing in the background isnt alot of stuff to ask of a 512MB system 256MB would be ok for that type of work maybe slow during track changes but it would be able to handle it. Also memory is an itemt hat is easily upgradeable in the future should she find that she is using it for more.

yes she will get a higher spec system if she custom builds for the same amount of money and can get a 19" monitor personally I like big screens I use a 21" but you do sacrifice some of these features for the portability which is a huge factor especailly if she is planning to go away at any point of her course having a computer at her side could be invaluble.

amcluesent

Definitely a laptop. I did my MSc using a trusty Compaq M700. I'd go a refurbished corporate laptop, maybe an HP NC6000.

smileylunar

Wow! thanks for all the input so far, My daughter is at uni and had bought a cheap laptop last term but it couldn't do the things she required, internet access, storage of data etc, she is considering a wireless link, but a bit scetchy on the details as she isn't sure if anyone else in the house she will share is on broadband, or wether she will get a router..if that makes sense!
she is obviously skint(!) but even so we would rather spend money on something reliable as opposed to getting a cheap unit and it fails as she is a few hundred miles from home and getting it mended could be a problem.
hope this helps!

albertross_2

http://www.dmxcomputers.co.uk/

Her existing laptop should be able to do internet access, they all can.

Whatever you get, make sure it has 512MB of ram or more, as XP needs this to run smoothly. I'd go for a Dell, either new or refurb.