I spent a year in college, though i'm currently in the USAF.
I would heavily heavily suggest you look into getting a laptop w/ a built-in wireless card. Almost all colleges nowadays have some sort of wireless internet on parts of the campus, plus you will be able to take the computer with you out of the loud dorm to the library, commons, bench outside, denny's resteraunt to do your studying. You will sacrifice a little on the games unless you spend the big bucks, but the portability is priceless as a college student.
Since you like playing games, I would look into the Dell XPS 2 series. Using a student discount, you can get the following for under $2,500:
Intel Pentium M 760 Processor (2.0 GHz) (performs as well as 3.0+ghz desktop processors)
XP Home Edition
17" Widescreen UXGA screen
1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz
256mb nVidea GeForce Go 6800 video card (best nvidea card on the market)
CD Burner/DVD drive
60GB 7,200 RPM HDD
Hey all! I'm new to these forums and have noticed how active they seem to be, so I decided to go ahead and post my questions!
I'm a senior in high school, getting ready to buy a new computer for college! Now I know to look to see what the school has to offer, and I'll be sure to do that once I decide which school I'll be attending. I know that what I would like to have will exceed their requirements, so that's not a problem either.
Sadly, making my own computer isn?t an option (believe me; I?ve tried hard to convince my parents otherwise). I?m stuck with handing out the ?big? bucks to try to get a computer that will hopefully fit my needs/wants!
The companies I?ve been looking at consistently have been (and I?d love to know your take on these!)? also, if any of the companies make better laptops over desktops, let me know! Whether I get a laptop or desktop depends on which college I choose, and I?m less knowledgeable of who is the top dog in the laptop industry than the desktop.
Falcon-NW
Alienware - Which I?ve separated from, I?ve heard many bad things about them from a lot of people that I trust; your thoughts?
Velocity Micro
VoodooPC
eMachines
Dell ? along with all the other well known companies such as HP and Gateway..
Along with some random ones that I?ve just recently learned of (ibuypower, monarch, and some others I can?t remember).
As you can tell, I?m looking for a higher end pc, I?m big into the gaming (CS:S, WoW, and the likes). I?d love to be able to play WoW on the highest settings and have it run without any problems or lag. I would think if I managed to do that, I would be pretty good even for the next NEXT gen. games (eep! I hope).
Nonetheless, the computer would need to be able to handle the basics for school (oh noooes).
One thing I?m concerned about is if anything is coming out in the next couple months that I should wait/look for? If something good is arriving in august, I could just wait to buy a computer until then.
Price range? Well, as much as I would like to say unlimited, if there is any possibility of a system with my interests at heart that wouldn?t run me over 3,500 ? that would probably be nice. But I?d rather just get the basics of what?s out there and what?s coming soon!

Chowhound
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GameSpot
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