Buy or build for a college student?

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?

"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.


wrote in message
...
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?

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.

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

wrote in message
...
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

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

hawk

wrote:
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?

wrote:

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

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.


"Dick Sidbury" wrote in message
...
wrote:

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

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

David Besack wrote:

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?

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.