Selecting a computer for school

It is that time of the year again. The dog days of summer yield to beginning of another school year. I also find that this time of year many people ask me a similar question. What should they look for when buying a computer for their child to use for school? Granted the majority of questions come from the parents of college bound freshmen, but the answer applies to parents of all grade levels.
The first thing to get out of the way is whether you are going to buy a desktop or a laptop. They both have their pros and cons. Desktops are usually cheaper and more durable. If your child is living at home, this may be the route that you would want to take. The benefit of laptops, is in their size and power consumption. They take up less space than a desktop, which is a plus in a dorm situation. They also consume less energy than a desktop, which is a benefit if they are renting a place. In addition, the portability of laptops makes them ideal for taking notes in a class or seminar.
Once the type of computer question is addressed, there are certain hardware questions that you should ask the salesperson. The first question is about the amount of memory that the computer has installed. On a budget, you can skate by with 128 megabytes of memory, but you want to ideally have about 256 megabytes. Another memory related question that you want to ask is what is the maximum amount of memory that you can add to the computer. You ask this in case you may want or need to upgrade your computer later. You may not want a computer that can only recognize 256 MB of memory. This is a problem that you shouldn’t have with a new computer, but it is always good to ask.
The next question that you should ask is about the size of the hard drive. The price of hard drives is cheaper for desktops than they are for laptops. You want to have about a 40 gigabyte or 60GB hard drive. This will provide more than enough room for downloads and other data storage.
When looking at the processor speed, anywhere between 2 gigahertz and 2.5GHZ should suffice. You want to also insure that it has a CD-RW drive as a minimum. The RW means that the CD drive can make CDs instead of only being able to read them. The DVD drive is a nice option. An Ethernet card will allow the computer to connect to networks. On a new computer, you should look for at least 2-4 USB 2.0 ports.
If your child is going to be living in the dorms, contact the school to find out what options are offered for Internet connections. A good computer is an excellent tool to help achieve academic success. As always, feel free to email me with your questions.