After something my mother (yes I know we don't usually listen to them, but still..) said last night, I'm beginning to wonder what I should do. I'm going to uni in October, and will almost definitely be getting a laptop from various people for it. I also have my semi-aging desktop system at the moment (XP-M2500, NF7-S, 512MB PC3200, Radeon 9500 softmodded to 9700, 340gb HDD, dvd-rw + cd-rw). My original plan was to mod this system, new case + water cooling, total cost, circa £370=, Aqua-Computer £190, Lian-Li *full tower* PC-7077B £175. However.... its a lot of money, for something that I might not even need in a few months. Having said that, desktops are cheaper to upgrade etc than laptops, I could leave my desktop in uni room, and just use laptop out and about. I would be driving to/from uni, so the size of the desktop wouldn't be an issue for carting around at holidays, but lan parties at uni? Are they frequent? Some how I doubt it... I'm not a *avid* gamer, but partial to the occcasional lan party. Laptops aren't brilliant for gaming, and I doubt I'll be able to get a Alienware type one (upgradeable gfx etc) The other option, that I'm considering, is to go all mini ish (probably not quite shuttle size, due to the amount of hard disk space I like), but get a small case and possibly as well, upgrade the hardware to A64. Probably be talking £230 ish for the A64+mobo, and say... £80? for the case, say £300 exc water cooling But this would likely mean no water cooling, unless I went for a cheaper option than AC, but AC looks the dogs b****ks By the time I've added W/C, it comes to a similar price to the LianLi+AC. I could also go for a cheap Dragon case or similar, and mod that for W/C, but its a heavy case! Decisions, decisions. Anyone else been/planning on Uni, and what have you done? (Couldn't really find an appropiate forum, it was a tossup between Modding + Hardware, feel free to move it if there's a better one ) P.S. I have to get a case anyway, its currently case-less atm.
Well, im at uni at the moment, so my moding is restricted but that dosent stop me planning for when i get home! Our uni (Reading) has a Society for LAN gaming, called ReadingLAN, run by /Hamlesh (he is on this site sometimes) they hold events quite often, so LANs can happen quite often Just pick your case carefully! if it is heavy, then it wont be fun to get from car <> lan
From what I hear from all of my friends who got laptops for University, they're really not worth it. For the amount of power you get in a laptop, they're much more expensive than it would be in a desktop. But aside from that, do you really, really, need to have a computer with you at all times? Do you plan to be using the laptop (outside of your room) for doing anything other than taking notes? I can't count the number of dopes in my compsci classes that have spent thousands of dollars on laptops just to play Need For Speed Underground 2 (grr, EA!) during lectures. Not that I can blame their lack of interest in the class, but c'mon... at least skip class and play games on a decent computer!
Well, I qualify for a laptop anyway as I'm entitled to the disabled students allowance, so I'm sure I can wing a laptop for "making notes" on, even though I'll be writing anyway (i type faster than write, but writing is so much more flexible for Engineering ). Apparently, I can 'upgrade' it, if I pay the extra, but from what I've heard, its only a list of approved suppliers that the council will accept, hence, I doubt I'd be able to get an Alienware etc Its looking more like I'll use a desktop in the room, but use the laptop for random things (depends if uni has a wireless access point ). So, the general consesus is that I should take my desktop, and go for a decent case thats light. So... Do I mod my machine, or upgrade it to A64? I'm inclined to go for modding, I can upgrade closer to October, when technologys moved on etc... Plus, if I go for a decent W/C manufacturer, then there'll be new blocks available if something newer than A64 comes out (unlikey, but at least it'd be future proof). Is BTX likely to make any significant inroads this year? I don't want to spend £170 on a case for it to be obsolete this year If not, PC-7077 here I come
