Another new PC question

[BobT]

My daughter will be starting college next fall to pursue a medical degree. I would like to outfit her with a decent laptop that she can use throughout her college career....well most of it anyway.

I would like opinions about what to consider.

For example...

SSD vs HDD?

Mac vs PC?

Screen size?

Battery capacity?

Your help is appreciated.

[Lowblazah]

determining your budget first is going to go a long way in determining what you can get (mac, ssd, ect)

I would add a 3yr warranty to the top of your list especially if you want it to make it through 4yrs of college.

[jac714]

The first thing I would do is check with the school on what their tech requirements are, some schools have some rather specific technology requirements.

After that I would buy a major brand from a reputable dealer near the school. The warranty is a good thing so is insurance.

You are going to want to go higher end to prevent obsolescence before she finishes her undergrad, you will probably need to get another for med school

[upnorth]

If the textbooks are going to be electronic, disk space will be an issue. Bigger the better. SSD is faster, but pricey and I don't know too many place or people using it. Screen size? Normally bigger is better, but I have a 17" laptop and don't really like it. It is awkward.

If it is a college laptop I am sure it will see abuse. Might better off getting something a little less pricey and replacing it after a couple years.

[BobT]

Interesting points made. I didn't think about warranty too much or insurance. I also suspect it would be good to consider some means to do regular file backups or even hard disk backups just in case something happens to the hard drive, which would require an external hard drive.

Do larger screens put too much demand on batteries these days? I would imagine good battery life is essential. Wouldn't want to be in the middle of a lecture and have the batteries run empty. Lots of things to think about and consider.

Between the many various brands (Lenovo, Dell, HP, Toshiba, Macintosh, etc.) can one expect them all to be pretty good?

[Moose]

I am looking for a laptop for my son who will be attending Arizona State in the fall for Electronic Engineering Technology. From what he has requested so far he would like a High Definition screen and have it light enough to carry around some of the big screen rigs can weigh as much a 7 lbs. I would like to keep it under 5 and still have good battery life. Some of the top runners right now are the Asus and Toshiba laptops. also trying for 7200rpm hard drive and at least 6gb of ram. The 14" screen units might be nice and portable but I would think they would need a larger separate monitor if any long term work was going to be done with that small of a screen.

[upnorth]

YOu can get extended batteries for most any laptop that can extend the life to over 8 hours.

[mamohr686]

Keep in mind if your daughter has scholarships, college savings plan (992?) etc. they can be used for computer equipment purchased at the college bookstore. Also, as part of tuition many software programs/internet service are available to the student at no additional cost. When I went to NDSU, the technology fee went towards software licenses. You could get a free copy almost any program including windows and word processing software, and many more. Get the warranty because moving/dropping electronics makes them more prone to failure. Most warranty's include free battery replacement they are usually only good for about 3 years (so most of the time it will pay for itself). SSD are more reliable (shock proof) and faster because they have don't have a moving hard drive that needs to spin. The downside is they are way more expensive for the amount of storage space. I would say PC format all the way. The only classes that use mac frequently are photography or art, usually for the better editing software. All the slide shows, class presentations that I had to do were on powerpoint. I would lean towards an I7 processor and very high end video card. Some of the classes I had to take were totally web based, and I had to watch recorded lectures via the web. Most colleges are fairly cutting edge as far as technology, and she will want to be able to run the latest programs.

[BobT]

Quote:

When I went to NDSU,

This is where she is planning to attend. Any additional insight you are willing to share is much appreciated.

[LMITOUT]

A coworker is going through a similar dilemma with his daughter starting college this fall. As mentioned earlier, some courses have certain requirements/recommendations as far as PC's are concerned due to the software the students have to use in specific classes. He also found out that the campus bookstore of this particular college has laptops with full service repair/maintenance included. Granted, the price is a bit higher to include that service, but it is a piece of mind knowing you don't have to deal with a 3rd party like Best Buy and is right on campus so it's easy. They also have the PC's listed as recommended for "Course XYZ" so the student doesn't have to determine if it is the right one or not.

If your kid is computer savvy and can work through troubleshooting any problems she might have then you could probably save the money and just buy one that is similar to what the campus has for sale, but the best bet would be to check with the college to see if there are any specific requirements just to make sure before buying one.

GO BISON!

[BobT]

I finally found the pages for the Information Technology Services on the NDSU HSOforum. They recommend both Macbook Pro and Dell Latitude products. Based on the specifications they recommend I tried building the same PC on the Dell HSOforum and found it was about $500.00 more expensive to buy direct from Dell. Apparently the university worked out a price cut for purchases through their bookstore. It looks like they are able to offer their services for troubleshooting PC's purchased from the bookstore as well. I'm taking a serious look at this option.

[Dragonsm]

Those would be the two I'd look at then.

Both are nice PC's....the macbook pro will probably be a little thinner. We run latitudes here at work and they have been great PC's....but if I could, I'd love to try running a macbook pro for work.

Battery life is great in them (better than my dell) machined aluminum case all around that has held up great to even my 4 year old daughter.

Lastly, don't let "office" sway you one way or the other. I purchased Microsoft Office for Mac's and it is something I use daily in both PC and on my wife's mac. It's the same thing and files transfer from a PC to a mac isn't an issue.

Either way...there could be worse decisions.....(like going to "up the creek" U)

[mamohr686]

Since your daughter is going for a medical degree she will most likely be getting a biology or zoology degree (pre-professional option). That is what all the optometry, dentistry, medical, chiropractor students have to go through. Keep in mind if she is thinking about getting her MD degree placement and acceptance rates are better at UND or concordia college. One tip I will give you is that she should sign up for the very first registration session. Freshmen that go the very first week are the first ones to get into the required classes. She will have a lot of competition getting into the basic biology, chemistry, etc. and it's basically first come first serve. At the campus tour registration day, go the college bookstore and talk to the computer geeks, they can give you all your options based on the classes she signs up for. There is a giant computer IT center with computers for her to use on campus, so I wouldn't be in a rush to buy one.

[BobT]

Great advice. I don't know how this will affect things but she has completed a lot of her general requirements as she took all college credited courses during her last two years of high school and I believe most, if not all, will transfer without issue. Last I heard from her, she's thinking of bio-chem as her major or something along those lines. All I know is she is over my head.

She is scheduled for registration on July 7.

Thanks a heap for the info guys.