Is it better for college student to have a laptop and desktop?

Question

I was given a dell inspiron 1501 as a gift from a close friend in August and I'll be graduating from HS in a few months. I'm being told that I should have a desktop too for "safe purposes". EX: the laptop stops working. However, it seems to me that having two computers is just too much.
What I was thinking was just purchasing an external hard drive (the internal hard drive is only 60 GB and almost full) and more RAM.
Does this seem like a sensible option? Should I just buy a desktop?
I have no idea what to do!

Answer 1

I'd recommend just using a laptop. It's too much bother to sync up both computers, and in a dorm, you're not going to have the space. Even in an apartment, having a desktop in addition to a laptop takes up too much space unnecessarily, and today's laptops are powerful enough to provide all the functions you could possibly require.

Buying more RAM and an external HD is very smart, I've done both. They're both relatively inexpensive and highly practical.

Answer 2

It's more efficient to have a laptop in college, as it is more portable. If you wanted, you could also purchase a desktop, newer Dell models are running very small and compact now, and wouldn't take up a whole lot of space. Buying an external hard drive would be another good option, as would buying a 2 or 4 GB flash drive to store your smaller files on.

No matter which option you choose, it will benefit you to have that something extra!

Answer 3

I'm a Ph.D. student, working on my dissertation and teaching my own classes. I would DIE if I lost my data, but all I have is a laptop and a flash drive to store old and backup data. If you have both a laptop and a desktop, that's fine, but most people can get by with only one. I run various cartography, statistical and GIS programs on my laptop just fine, as do most of my classmates. Our department has two computer labs, and there are other computer labs throughout campus, so if I am stuck without my laptop and need to print something, I always can. I just make sure I always carry my flash drive so I can access my stuff. Some programs at my university actually require that students have laptops that meet certain criteria so they can run the graphic programs that they need. The computer labs in the design/architecture/planning department are actually just a bunch of desks with a monitor you can hook up your laptop to get a bigger screen. And you can get wireless in nearly every room on campus, but not every university has that.

If you know what university you are going to be attending, you can always call and ask what their computer lab set ups are. At most universities you get space on a drive, so you can also keep data saved on the school computers. I use that space for data I want to keep but don't necessarily need/want on my laptop.

Answer 4

The general consensus says: laptop!
I wish I had one. An external hard drive is great for your backup "safe purposes." Most likely your college will have a library with a computer lab should something go wrong. Heck, we can even rent out laptops for 24 hours from our library.
Stick with the laptop: you can type notes in class instead of writing them (make sure this doesn't annoy the prof), do homework outside or at a coffee shop, you name it.

Answer 5

Most students seem to prefer having a laptop, because it is more portable. I don't know of any who have two computers. Keep in mind that most schools still have computer labs you can use for backup or for printing out major documents.

Answer 6

If you can afford to have an extra computer it is never a bad thing. But no, you do not need to have one. A laptop will do everything you need to do in a college setting unless you're doing intensive graphics work.

Answer 7

It depends on the college and the classes you are taking.