Hey guys if you are interested in something light and powerful. but not a PDA check out the new Tablet PC's that are on the market. the schools and colleges are just buying them by the bucket load. I work for company that sell this stuff and trust me i'm not being biased. If you know anything about BECTA, the organisation behind IT in the education place, they have released a report on this.
Seeing as you already have a desktop, then you probably wont need a Laptop too. I started uni with just a laptop and within the first semester I realised it was nowhere near powerful enough for my degree (lots of 3DS Max, Rendering, Compiling, Video editing etc.), so purchased a desktop instead. In the final year I found a need for a laptop alongside the desktop too, but my old one was ancient by then. They're useful for the odd essay around the house or when you feel like sitting up in bed, or on the sofa to do work...
i used one note for all my note taking, and it rocks for puting in formulas and what not. Also if you are in comp-sci it is just about required to have a laptop. if you are going to be taking any real networking classes (read working with cisco or SUN hardware) make sure it has a seiral port. the USB-Sieral just dont work all the damn time, and why fight with it.
Just done first year of Computer science at Cardiff, and i bought a laptop because I have a 21" sony CRT and would not have fit it in my room. The laptop never left my room except on trips home when I could do some work on the train. To use the laptop on the uni network you need it to be registered. Guess what, i never bothered! The department/uni will have plenty of machines for you to use during the day. What you DO need though is a memory stick. In fact, have it surgically attached to you! You will use it every day.
i would suggest against a laptop. they make you play in class and not pay attention. you never need them. most people that buy them end up with them never moving from their desk. you dont really even need them in comp sci courses unless your at a tech college or something since they teach theory. many profs dont even like to see them in class. use the lab computers. so you get stuff done or bring a desktop to your dorm but if you do, actually work there and dont get distracted because you have your own little unsupervised room with tv bed computer and friends and any other assorment of wonder fun little things
I'n my opinion it would depend entirely on what resources are available to you. If you only stay 5-10 mins from your college/uni then your really not outside of walking distance to any computer should you need it and you don't really waste any time getting there. I had to travel to uni every day from my first degree and still have to travel for an hour when i go up every so often just now. There is nothing that can match a laptop for being able to do about an hour and a halfs work while on the train. It would be completely wasted otherwise.
To each their own method of handling classes. Bottom line is to do whatever makes you pay attention in class best. For me, typing an overview of what the person is saying helps me from just zoning out during a lecture. So I'll take notes even if there are already lecture notes on-line or if the professor is just spouting stuff out of the book. Most of my notes are straight text in some sort of outline form and the ocasional diagram I draw out on the touchpad using a stylus. Most of the classes that I use it in have been things like history/theory, chemistry, and CompSci. I totally agree with the math aspect. If you expect to use a laptop in math or any diagram/formula heavy class ... don't. You could try a Tablet in those cases, but I have resisted doing that even though I am a total computer nut. Amendments, those are super-easy on a computer. Forget arrows, writing in the margins, or squishing stuff in-between the lines. Just click somewhere in the middle and start filling in your details. I don't usually type my notes from top to bottom, I'll put things where they belong. So if the professor adds to something they were talking about at the beginning of the class, I don't need to draw a huge arrow, I can just put it where it belongs. Links are possible to, either a real link (a pain) or just some notation around the source an destination. Or better yet, instead of linking one paragraph to another through some notation, just copy and paste the text to get it where you want!
During Lectures a laptop is a no-no as you will start toplay about and surf the web (if there is a WiFi connection preset). Lectures dont like seeing them and will tell you just that, besides i dont know a single person who can input text and formula quicker than a uni student with a pen and paper. I would suggest that you get a laptop for keeping back at your room as moving a Desktop about is just not fun when you have to move out of halls/move house. Get one of those Desktop replacement laptops if you need the extra power as their not realy designed for moving about (unless attached to the mains).
I don't think it is really useful, of course it's a fun toy, but for school purpose if you got a decent desktop it is not a must. I'm currently in my 4th year of Civil Engineering and I bought a laptop in my second year, I used it like 3 or 4 times max at school for team project and that's it. Most of the program used for school works well better on desktop and your university will probably have very decent computer lab with loads of program to work on. Hope I helped a bit.
I have a laptop for uni, but it probably doesn't help at all as I just use it to play games on or to browse the interwebnet in boring lectures. I use it a couple of times for work but I think I could have got on fine without it, e.g. for some programming lectures I could have all the software setup on my laptop to work on it in uni, then just take it home and continue work easily.
depends on what kind of course u r doing.... can sometimes be resyricted by what software is made available on the uni's pc's. but then again some places do not want students bringing their laptops because they r not pac tested. Or they do not want them added to the network.
Well, yes, but if the Uni requires you to use a certain piece of software then they'll provide it---for instance, I had to do a course using MAPLE, but they certainly didn't expect me to supply my own copy! Sam
Well I decided to go for a laptop afterall as I intend to do travel back and forth to home quite a bit. Eek! The real work starts tomorrow.
hows it goin. wanna buy gaming laptop but need it for college too. how feasible would it be to lug a 17incher round college? are they really that heavy?
Not very feasible. You gotta work out if you will actually use it in college as well. On my course at uni, no-one whips out a laptop in the middle of a lecture or anything, it's not the done thing. Although I don't do a computer-related course, to be fair. Granted, I do have a laptop, and I do use it for uni work, but I don't cart it to and from lectures. And this is a 12" iBook (I.e. pretty damn small), I wouldn't like to think about a 17" beast.
