Posted on 05/31/2009 3:15:59 PM PDT by Netizen
Speaking of which, not to be snarky but there's this thing called "Google".... :P
Guaranteed - the father wants to make some money on the deal.
He can’t build a laptop with anywhere near the quality at anywhere near the price of what you can get from a major manufacturer. Laptops will break down, and at least if you buy a Dell, Gateway, or HP, you have someone to turn to.
This is a tad outdated. It says they update every 3 months, but it was last updated in February and all systems list XP, yet the flyer listed only Vista Office.
http://www.educ.msu.edu/content/default.asp?contentID=125
You should be able to get by spending 600 or less.
Yeah, my cousin said the same thing. Troubleshooting? Warranty? and Operating system disc? Recovery disc? Lots of questions.
The boy’s father says he does some type of Beta testing and gets freebies all the time. I don’t know what he tests or gets.
If you want to avoid Vista, and who doesn’t?, you can order
a laptop with XP Professional installed for an additional $100 upgrade fee.
So many people are demanding an alternative to Vista, Dell
got Microsoft to allow the swap....strangely, but accurately called an “upgrade”.
Don’t know how long this deal will be available - check with Dell.
Be sure to check what the college provides for software. My son’s college provides a full office package, operating system and virus software.
Its also obvious that you hadn’t read enough or you wouldn’t have missed that vital point!
Not to be snarky, but I wanted the opinions of people here at FR. I’m well aware that there are people here that know their stuff.
No one is forcing you to stay in this thread.
Plant DNA/genetics is likely going to require specialized software and computing power he’s not going to find on a Dell laptop. Computer modeling on a single PC can be terribly slow depending on what you are doing. That being said, he probably won’t be doing anything that complicated until his junior or even senior year when he starts working in the lab with samples, etc. Usually the lab itself will have all the data collection and computational programs already setup by a paid lab assistant or grad student. The majority of his first two years is going to be general ed (term papers) and math/physics/bio classes that will have minimal computational requirements outside of something like Matlab or Mathematica. So stick with something cheap that you won’t mind if he spills on it or it gets stolen. Whatever it is it will be outdated in three years anyway. By then he’ll be ready for grad school and have a better idea of what he’ll actually need.
Almost everything ships with Vista; look for XP. Upgrade after a 6-12 month “shake out” of Win 7 - which by the way almost everyone says will be a good one - dell has specials on their web, including laptops - I bought my Toshiba for a little more than the link you posted, but mine is LOADED...best price was from J&R Camera NYC - no shipping or sales tax...
Pay no attention to the humps who are giving you a hard time...like getting a kid through college isn’t hard enough...good luck...take the kid to best buy and have them try out the ‘puters first, then look on the internet, especially if you want to save a few bucks and you live in a tax heavy state...consider a docking station so they can work with a full size board and hook up a printer with a simple latch up - he’ll think it’s nerdy but will hopefully be smart enough and use it for more than facebook and it will be worth it...bought a lot of electronics from J&R and never disappointed...
I think you mentioned up the thread a ways, you would be doing a campus visit.
Looking at the page link, they seem to be offering pretty generic sorts of information. Tiger Direct. Both Dell and Mac. It sort of sounds like they’re leaving it up to you.
If it were me - I think I’d ask whoever you end up with as a rep/contact from the university when you visit.
Seems like they probably get asked a similar question about 10 times daily, and have an exact answer ready, I’d bet.
Yeah, but then your computer will smell like cheap wine and urine.
We’re waiting to hear on his testing. He’s taken so many AP classes in high school and with the Honors College, there was a bunch of classes he doesn’t have to take. We weren’t sure what the professorial assistantship was, if he might need to do lab work earlier than expected.
This may be overstating the case, at least when you have access to factory service manuals. I have replaced fans, LCD driver boards, the screens, keyboards, a CPU board and of course drives and memory on my older Compaq laptops. The service manuals are available on the HP site free of charge. It is true I might not have gotten very far without the manuals.
Unless there is a demonstrable NEED for a laptop, I’d tell him no. Get him a desktop that will accomodate whatever homework he needs that stays in his dorm, or bedroom or whatever.
There’s far too much emphasis on packing around a laptop for taking notes, etc. during class. Don’t go there. Listening to a lecture and writing notes by hand is a better way to drive things into your head. I did this in college and it works far better than having a toy along to help facilitate this. It’s another “middle man” along the way from lecturer to your brain.
Like I said, unless there is a real NEED to have a laptop, I would tell him no.
Ebay by the way, has lots and lots of choice used, refurbished systems for under $300. I just bought my mom an HP desktop with a 64 bit 2.6ghz dual core CPU, 3 gigs of ram, Vista Home Premium, 19’ wide screen LCD, new keyboard, mouse, and all cabling, disks, books,etc. for $232 + shipping. All like new. WAY more machine than my mom needed, but WAY less money than she was ready to spend.
EEEpc’s are refurbished and available for under $190 all day on Ebay. Don’t buy anything new to take to college. Shop yard sales. You can often find computers in the trash because they have a virus, or have never been cleaned and defragged and have slowed to a crawl. A good cleaning and they’re good as new.
I forgot, their price also included a 6 cell battery, 3 year warranty and a printer.
We also puchased the computer lock and bag, but it looks like a good pair of wire cutters could cut though the cable? lol
We’re in Michigan, but your suggestion of going to Best Buy is a good idea.
Are there any brands to STAY AWAY from?
In some circles, that would be considered an extra.
Best advice on this thread.
I just bought a new Macbook...from Amazon. I saved a couple hundred dollars compared to the Apple Store. I bought the cheapest model, the white one. It’s been a fine machine, and I like it very much (except for the glossy screen).
Just tried to give you my ecperiences...not sure about other brands, but am sure that you want to make the Best Buy trip...lots of laptops are uncomfortable, small keys, sensitive or too-large keypads, etc...plus, some kids like to consider the looks...something else...don’t tell them I told you this...but you can almost always get them to come down on price, discount the warranty, add the docking station or the keyboard and mouse for one, etc - even a printer - or throw in software at BB...they will almost always throw you a deal if you are ready to walk...
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