<p>Okay, I didn’t read any of this thread but wanted to make a comment.</p>
<p>The only thing I NEED my laptop for @ college is email, word processing, and internet. Knowing what i know now, I would probably have NOT bought a laptop at all and build my own desktop–I highly recommend this–OR buy something very low end. </p>
<p>Why?</p>
<p>No one would want to jack your crappy laptop.</p>
<p>Even if some idiot decides to jack your laptop which is futile on their part, because cons outweight the pros, that is, risk of getting caught and charged with **theft<a href=“see%20below%20reference”>/B</a> vs the $ value of the laptop.</p>
<p>you’d be spending less time doing useless crap wasting time.</p>
<p>most of the time people overestimate what they need. Most people i know with super high end everything don’t even use it. And if you are a die hard gamer you’d know better than to be running anything a laptop anyways. Plus, its college, you should ALSO know better than to be playing video games all day.</p>
<p>**California **consolidated a variety of common law crimes into theft in 1927, and now distinguishes between two types of theft, grand theft and petty theft.[2] **Grand theft generally consists of the theft of something of value over $400<a href=“it%20can%20be%20money,%20labor%20or%20property”>/B</a>,[3] while petty theft is the default category for all other thefts.[4] Grand theft is punishable by up to a year in jail or prison, and can either be seen as a misdemeanor or felony.[5] while petty theft is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine or six months in jail.[6] </p>
<p>i’d only recommend a desktop if you’re a real gamer (really graphics intensive games like FPSs). </p>
<p>other than that, laptops are better IMO. laptops arent tied to your desk. sure, you might rarely use it away from your desk/room but at least you have the option. what if you need to write a research paper due the next day and your roommate sleeps early? what if your roommate sexiles you? etc etc. its also much easier to bring home for breaks and stuff if its going to be your main computer.</p>
<p>your whole theft logic fails. no one will be able to tell a crappy laptop from an expensive laptop just by looking at it, save for macbook pros or something like that where theres a set MSRP and everyone knows how much they are. PC laptops come in 20394829034823 different configurations in the same case, so no one will be able to tell if your dell inspiron is barebones or fully decked out. and if it does get jacked (which will only happen due to carelessness on your part) the thief will most likely never get caught anyways unless you have some lojack type system on it.</p>
<p>Well see, having an “option” is only useful if you use it. This will vary from person to person, but in my case, I NEVER TOOK it out of my room. So lets “pretend” I spent X amount of dollars for mobility that I never needed and never used, that is just wasted money. </p>
<p>Yeah, that theft thing didn’t really work out huh. I think people that would steal your laptop would most likely be people you “kind of know, but not really”, so they would have a chance of calibrating your laptop’s value a bit. But it is unlikely that another student is going to jack you @ UCLA anyways. My friend left his wallet on the racks @ de neve dining hall for 3 days and no one even touched it. </p>
<p>I just personally hate laptops because you lack freedom to do whatever the hell you want when it comes to hardware. Plus I am an overclocking junkie, I know I talked about how you don’t need that much power, but I do it purely for the sake of doing it, not for the extra juice. Would have gottten a desktop if I known better. Just my opinion though.</p>
<p>^True, but you have to consider whether the student even knows how to build his own PC and tweak BIOS to overclock the computer. </p>
<p>That’s why a good desktop PC with more power is better. Consider this: you can get a full-sized keyboard, good speakers, a large 22" widescreen LCD, and faster hard drives in a desktop PC compared to a laptop. I believe that most people use laptops just to study or type up papers when they’re on campus, away from their desktop PC. In that case, just buy a ultraportable netbook like the ASUS Eee PC, MSI Wind, Acer Aspire ONE, etc. It saves weight and usually have very decent battery life, and only costs around $300-$500. </p>
<p>(mrMOO: what’s your overclock? I’ve only gotten 3GHz on a Conroe E6600).</p>
<p>2.3ghz on conroe e6300, stock fan w/ my ceramic thermal paste, LOL! I find the stock fan that comes with the conroes to be MUCH better than normal stock so i just stuck with it. </p>
<p>I’ve heard of the 6300’s going up to 3.3ghz and what not, on liquid of course.
I have the gigabyte D3 mobo.</p>
<p>I have full sized keyboard, speakers, 22" widescreen LCD for my laptop it is just easier since sometimes my friends play ps3 on my LCD and I can just move my computer to on my bed and keep working, move it to the lounge when my roommates are sleeping or playing music… so mobility can be a big factor depending on the person…</p>
<p>im just saying that i think for most students, the option of portability is far more useful and appealing than the performance edge desktops have. sure you get more ‘bang for your buck’ with a desktop, but i bet if you survey students on campus im sure you will find an overwhelming majority that will without question ‘pay the premium’ for the convenience of a laptop over a desktop.</p>
<p>jinobi, i actually think laptops are quickly becoming (if they’re not already…dont know the stats) the default computer for the average consumer, not just something students take to campus. people dont like being chained to their desks. everything now is all about wireless access and portability. being able to surf the web anywhere in their house (or outside their house, for that matter) without wires has a huge appeal to buyers. that can also be seen with the huge boom in PDAs and smartphones in the recent years.</p>
<p>VTECaddict: laptops are being the default computer; their sales have steadily risen, and i think laptops are outselling desktop PCs now. so you’re right on that point. </p>
<p>i understand the need to go without wires, but that’s why i believe sub-$500 ultraportable notebooks are great as well; they provide what most people will use their laptops for, which is web access and office applications.</p>
<p>I agree with jinobi. Ideally, for portability I would go with an ultraportable and also have a desktop. </p>
<p>I’ve got to say I probably deviate much from the general pop, but laptops will never appeal to me, despite their portability, UNTIL I am able to play god with its internal parts–the way i can with a desktop. </p>
<p>I practically live off of google though. Gmail, Gcal, G reader, Google docs. If someone where to take my laptop right now and throw it in a river I wouldn’t lose any valuable data because most of it is backed up online and/or somehow integrated into google. I don’t believe in using outlook or other email clients UNLESS you own some sort of business or something of the like that required you to recieve massive amounts of emails that would quickly fill up gmail’s 6-7gbish inbox. </p>
<p>Jinobi, what fan are you using, and are you using artic silver? I was always a big fan of the big typhoon… but never got one myself because I was lazy to learn how to lap it correctly and get that nice mirror finish. LOL i hate fans that are more are designed for aesthetics over efficiency of heat transfer/cooling/whatever you want to call it.</p>
<p>I’m using GlobalWin CS1202512L 120mm ceramic bearing fans in an Antec P180B case (I was aiming for silence here). I’m using a Scythe Infinity heatsink (so heavy, especially with crappy LGA775 stock pushpins), with Arctic Silver 5. The Infinity has been OK for me; it’s so heavy, and it’s mounting system is so cumbersome, that I don’t think I’m getting a good contact with my processor. </p>
<p>I’ve lapped heatsinks before, and you only need to go up till 800 grit sandpaper. Anything past that is just for aesthetics; a mirror surface finish won’t help you past 800 grit, and some surface roughness is actually needed for the thermal compound to “adhere” to the microscopic grooves between the two surfaces.</p>
<p>You sure about the microscope grooves? From what I know, you try to reduce that as much as possible. </p>
<p>LOL I know what you mean about huge and heavy heat sinks. I was taking a look at my friend’s comp a few months ago because it randomly crapped out. After taking a look inside i realized that it was because his the thermal paste had formed a strong bond between the heat sink and the processor. If the case was disturbed enough, the heat sink would pull the processor out of socket. </p>
<p>I think its a good idea to drill a few holes on the top of your case and have some sort of “support system” for that heat sink, ie have some sort of strong thread (fishing line works well here) or whatever to hold it up and take some of the weight off of the mobo. Also, this is great if SOMEHOW your heatsink FALLS OUT. I’ve seen precious cards attached via PCI smashed from this happening. </p>
<p>Yeah, LGA775 sockets are weird. When I first came across them and was trying to put my heat sink in I thought I was going to snap the motherboard.</p>
<p>1) Take a lot less space. I found that really convenient considering the size of some of the rooms here.</p>
<p>2) Portability. I don’t take my laptop to class and I hate lugging the thing around. But there have been a few times when I was really thankful I had the “option.” Plus, I go home a lot and a laptop saves me from setting up a server to access everything.</p>
<p>Advantages of desktops:</p>
<p>1) Way cheaper (from what I remember, two years ago). At that time you could save almost twice as much on an equivalent desktop.</p>
<p>Bottomline, you can get a laptop or a desktop sub-$500 these days so go with whatever floats your boat. You have more convenience with the laptop but you save money on a desktop, plus its much easier to upgrade desktops.</p>
<p>mrMOO: yea, there have been tests done on lapping. anything past 800 grit doesn’t give you much benefit, but you can still do 1600 and 2400 grit if you’d like. just dont use that polishing cream on it (the ultrafine 10000 grit one). </p>
<p>i might just do the fishing line idea, since i have almost 2 pounds of weight hanging on those pushpins. >_<</p>
it is just easier since sometimes my friends play ps3 on my LCD and I can just move my computer to on my bed and keep working, move it to the lounge when my roommates are sleeping or playing music… so mobility can be a big factor depending on the person…</p>