How will this PC do for college?

[dredg]

I won't be ordering it until about August 11 so I don't think much will change on the components I want(or will it??). It'll be used for gaming, internet, watching movies, and having S-Video out to my 27" flatscreen. I do not plan on overclocking either. Well this is what I have so far

Case-ANTEC SOLUTION SERIES MODEL SLK3700AMB w/ANTEC SMART POWER 350W
Motherboard-Abit IS7-(? what are the differences between the letters)
CPU-Intel P4 2.6C GHZ
Memory-CRUCIAL MICRON 512MB 64x64 PC 3200 DDR RAM
Harddrive-WESTERN DIGITAL "SPECIAL EDITION" 80GB 7200RPM EIDE
Drive 1-Lite On 52x32x52x CDRW
Drive 2-Lite On 16x DVDROM
Floppy-Mitsumi 1.44 FDD
Mouse/Keyboard-Logitech Cordless MX Duo
Speakers-Logitech Z-560
Sound Card-Turtle Beach Santa Cruz
Video Card-ATI Radeon 9700 Pro
Tuner Card-Leadtek WINFAST "DELUXE" TV2000XP
Monitor-NEC 19" Model FE990-BK Black CRT

Anything I should change? What do you think of the setup?

 

[jfall]

When are you going to find the time to study once you have that in your dorm lol

 

[fs5]

scratch it all and get a laptop if your school has wifi

 

[Corporate Thug]

thats a nice system. the IS7 is a intel 865 chipset, the IC7 is the 875 chipset. stick with the IC7 as the performance difference is almost identical. almoso, i would by some buffalo RAM over crucial

fivespeed5: great choice of avatar to reflect the school you go to

 

[charlie21]

Looks like a solid setup. But if I were going to go back to school, I would definitely take a nice laptop with me. Especially if your campus has a good wifi setup. I can remember several times having work to do and wanting to get out of the house, and computer labs suck. I would have loved the portablility of a lappy.

 

[filmmaker]

Originally posted by: fivespeed5
scratch it all and get a laptop if your school has wifi

 

[Corporate Thug]

i went ahead and got a laptop for college but when i saw ALL the computer labs around, i wanted a desktop so i can game when i wasnt busy. btw, laptops are a B*tch to carry to campus and back to the dorms

 

[lameaway]

For gaming, its great. For college, its miserable

 

[fs5]

Laptop for the times you want to leave the house and code or study in the library. Or write papers and such for none CS majors.

 

[NeoMadHatter]

are you going to order all those parts or do you have some of them already?
i think you should drop the 9700 pro and tv tuner and just get the all in wonder 9700 or 9800.

 

[digitalman]

while i was in college i had a kick@ss dual monitor desktop that was my tv, dvd player, etc. while this is common now, at the time it amazed all my friends. then i bought a really cheap thin and small laptop to take to class (got it used on ebay). it allowed me to be able to take all my notes right into it and copy it to my desktop later. it didn't even have a floppy drive. i hooked it up to my little network and transfered files back to my pc. it was all i needed.

if i was going back now, i'd do basically the same thing but here are somethings that i would want my laptop to have:

1. wireless card... this is the holy grail of laptops.
2. some type of working hybernation mode. Mine was an IBM and had a really cool battery / hybernation mode that actually worked well.
3. no extra hardware to ruin battery life. you don't need to watch dvds in class.
4. remove solitaire
5. a volume key that can easily mute - no need to anounce to the class that you are turning you computer on. again the ibm's have dial to change the volume which was very handy.
6. scout the class the first day and sit next to a power jack and if possible an eathernet port. it is convienent to be able to access websites that pertain to class or (if you have your desktop setup correctly) you can log into it and access files or apps

I hope this is helpful - good luck with college!