Buy or build for a college student?

[me6]

Nephew will be going to college next fall and all the
sudden his current PC has failed.

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I can see merit to buying one that has "support" given
he will be away from home

What do you all think?

 

[JAD]

"support"

#1 selling point for buying(even though they offer little at
times)......OTOH did the PC failed because of tinkering? As the
commercial machines go, if left alone they perform the tasks a student
would use it for. However, if he wants to do specific things(games,
graphic editing, animation) and you convey this to the 'sales person'
your not going to get the 500$ bargain model and your not going to
have a lot of upgrade choices if you go with the base model.

 

[David Besack]

Nephew will be going to college next fall and all the

sudden his current PC has failed.

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I can see merit to buying one that has "support" given
he will be away from home

What do you all think?

Well, since you're asking on a "homebuilt" forum what do you think we're
gonna say?

I started building my own because the "support" I should have gotten from
Dell wasn't there. I had a hard drive fail in the first 2 months of owning
a Dimension desktop and they would not help me. I had to replace it myself.

If he only needs to do basic student stuff you might be able to get a used
one off eBay very cheap. If you are intent on having a new one for warranty
reasons, remember that all the parts will have their own warranty, and you
will usually get better tech support for a malfunctioning part than for a
whole system.

 

[Fitz]

Buy...a laptop, if your goal is to assist in college work. It can go to
class, to other students dorm rooms for homework, etc.
Additionally, many schools are on Apple comps, and if that was the case at
his college, having an Apple would make interface much easier.

Build...if you want to get him a comp that will entertain him while waiting
for lazy profs to finally hand out some work assignments.

Fitz

 

[Bob Day]

Nephew will be going to college next fall and all the
sudden his current PC has failed.

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I can see merit to buying one that has "support" given
he will be away from home

What do you all think?

Build. You pay for the parts and a good book on
building PC's, and let him build it.

-- Bob Day

 

[hawk]

If he is going to be in college, why not a laptop?

hawk

 

[Dick Sidbury]

Nephew will be going to college next fall and all the
sudden his current PC has failed.

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I can see merit to buying one that has "support" given
he will be away from home

What do you all think?

Well I'm the father of a college student (and a college faculty member
who teaches computing) and I say buy. Why because notebook computers
are flexible, powerful, and relatively inexpensive. And having a
machine that you can take to the library or a friend's room or home for
the weekend to sit on the living room couch with the books that you
brought home until it's time to go back to school is nice. I don't
think that the ability to bring a computer to class is particularly
important. And lots of campuses are wireless which makes notebooks even
more convenient. So unless you can build a notebook, my advice is buy.

As a side note this past year I polled the students in my computer
literacy class and found that almost half of them now bring notebooks to
college. The year before the numbers were about 1/4 for notebooks and
the year before that 10% or so was typical. I attribute this to
increased power and flexibility and a big drop in price.

dick

 

[JAD]

just to add another side... don't skimp on the power when it comes to
a notebook..especially if graphics is going to be primarily used. My
son had a PIII and 256m ram( state of the art back then) and it
struggled running Adobe products simultaneously. We ended getting a
desktop to use in conjunction with the laptop.

 

[me6]

If he is going to be in college, why not a laptop?

Well.... my reasons against a laptop is you're getting
into even more proprietary parts and design. And
laptops generally all start developing problems after
some use, no? And if they DO develop problems I cant
fix it....it MUSt be sent in the factory to be fixed.
No?

I duno.....Im just "ambivalent" abt a laptop not only
for above reasons but also for reasons of easier
theft..... easier to lose..... etc.

I might be wrong tho

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Well, since you're asking on a "homebuilt" forum what do you think we're
gonna say?

You know?

I started building my own because the "support" I should have gotten from
Dell wasn't there.

Thank you. The big-name PC guys aren't all that great about support. I
hear horror stories all the time.

Best gift you could give your nephew is to build one with him, and teach
him what you know. I taught my collage student son what I know, and now
he works building and repairing PCs for other students for cash, as well
as keeping his own in top shape.

 

[ToolPackinMama]

Well.... my reasons against a laptop is you're getting
into even more proprietary parts and design. And
laptops generally all start developing problems after
some use, no? And if they DO develop problems I cant
fix it....it MUSt be sent in the factory to be fixed.
No?

I duno.....Im just "ambivalent" abt a laptop not only
for above reasons but also for reasons of easier
theft..... easier to lose..... etc.

Good reasons.

Why not build yourself a new one and give him your old one?

 

[Dick Sidbury]

Well.... my reasons against a laptop is you're getting
into even more proprietary parts and design.

Why do you say that? My notebook has ATI video, I have no clue what the
original RAM is but I added a stick of standard ram. My hard disk is
relatively standard.

And
laptops generally all start developing problems after
some use, no? And if they DO develop problems I cant
fix it....it MUSt be sent in the factory to be fixed.
No?

Yes, that's why EVERYONE who buys a notebook should ALWAYS buy the
extended warranty for 3 years. It;s usually about 100 dollars more
and well worth it.

I duno.....Im just "ambivalent" abt a laptop not only
for above reasons but also for reasons of easier
theft..... easier to lose..... etc.

You can buy a chain and padlock especially for notebooks. It doesn't
prevent theft but makes it more difficult. It's easier to steal a
desktop from a dorm room than a notebook that's chained to a chair or desk.

dick
-- and I have lots of literacy students who manage to mess up their
systems and it's very easy for me to help them if they can bring their
machine to my office.

 

[Mac Cool]

(e-mail address removed) said:

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I agree with the majority, if you buy, buy a laptop; if you build, teach
him to do it.

 

[Wes Newell]

Nephew will be going to college next fall and all the
sudden his current PC has failed.

Debating whether to buy a PC such as Dell..... or
build one.

I can see merit to buying one that has "support" given
he will be away from home

What do you all think?

Buy the parts and make him put it together, under supervision if needed.
Kids are given wy too much these days as it is. it will benefit him to
learn how to do it himself.

 

[-Alby Hewlet]

A laptop is the answer.

I got a used one at a computer show 4 years ago and still use it all the
time. It's a compaq armada. P2 266. It was still under warrenty, a 3 year
warrenty, when I bought it. About a year later the optical drive went
south, and a couple of emails to Compaq support was all it took to set up a
repair. They sent a box to my house via Fedex to use when mailing it back,
that arrived at 8 AM on a Tuesday, I had it packaged, and called for a pick
up between noon and 4 and left it on my front porch. When I got home that
night it was gone. I got an email that night saying they had it in transit.
Wednesday I got an email describing the contents of my hard drive and asking
for confirmation that it was my computer. I emailed a reply saying yes it
was. Thursday morning around 10 AM Fedex delivered my computer back with a
new cdrom. The entire repair took only 2 days.

Based on my experience, I'd go to a computer show with him, and look at the
used laptops.

Oh yeah, the only bad thing was the battery only lasted about a year in it,
and since then I've been using the AC power supply. Not that big a deal for
me, but it may be for him so you may have to buy a new battery, too.

 

[Al Dykes]

Check with the school, see what deals they may have, and what kind
of support exists on campus.

 

[me6]

Yes, that's why EVERYONE who buys a notebook should ALWAYS buy the

extended warranty for 3 years. It;s usually about 100 dollars more
and well worth it.

Really?

I should DEFINETLY get extended warranty on ANY
laptop.... regardless of brand or model?

 

[Dick Sidbury]

Really?

I should DEFINETLY get extended warranty on ANY
laptop.... regardless of brand or model?

Well IMHO yes. I've had two gateways, one Toshiba, and other people at
the office have had IBM, Toshiba, Dell and Compaq. We've had several
problems, many of which were minor after the warranty ran out. My
daughter also had a problem with her Toshiba.

And as someone pointed out if you have a problem with a laptop you
basically have to send it back to the factory or dump it. When my
Toshiba went bad the cost was 200 dollars to open the case just to tell
me what the problem was. And we just junked the machine for parts to
use in our other machines.

Obviously YMMV.

dick

 

[Al Dykes]

Yes. And get it with the manufacturer, nt the crappy
warranty the sales guys try to sell.