SmartAdvice: When Selecting Student Computers, Leave Room For Upgrades
Buy the best computer your budget can afford, and don't skimp on drive capacity, The Advisory Council says. Also, integration servers ease pain of making hospital apps compatible.
By The Advisory Council
InformationWeek
December 12, 2005 12:00 AM
(From the December 12, 2005 issue)
Editor's Note: Welcome to SmartAdvice, a weekly column by The Advisory Council (TAC), an advisory service firm. The feature answers two questions of core interest to you, ranging from career advice to enterprise strategies to how to deal with vendors. Submit questions directly to smartadvice@tacadvisory.com
Question A: What should a university (or parent) consider when selecting computers for students?
Our advice: Whether it's for a university looking to establish standards for PCs to be required of students, or a parent looking to purchase a PC for their student starting college, we recommend several criteria for consideration.
First is the question of Microsoft Windows-based PCs or Apple Macintosh computers. For university decision-makers, this is a trade-off between the needs of different academic departments versus support costs for multiple platforms. In the "real world" which students will enter upon graduation, Macintosh use is generally limited to businesses such as film and video production, recording, publishing, advertising, and graphic arts. Universities that offer academic programs in these creative fields usually support both platforms. For parents, it's best to check the university's recommendations.
Second, once you've selected the platform(s), it's important to select PCs with sufficient horsepower to last through the students' college years. This implies a middle- to high-end machine now, since it will be at the low end of compute power in four years. Of course, everyone has a budget. We recommend that desktop and AMD-based notebook PCs have 64-bit processors; Intel-based notebook PCs have Pentium M 740 or higher processors; and Macintosh systems have 1.5-GHz or faster processors. There's also the question of whether student PCs should be laptop or desktop models. This depends on whether the students need mobility with the PC. If the students are expected to bring PCs to class, then desktops clearly aren't an option.
Third, consider adding RAM and selecting a large hard disk. Storing documents, digital images, drawings, presentations, etc., will add up quickly. As with the PC itself, it's best not to skimp on the disk capacity selection. Upgrading a hard disk later can prove costly and disruptive. We recommend a minimum of 80 Gbytes for laptops and 160 Gbytes for desktops. As for RAM, it's cheap, and keeps getting cheaper. At a minimum, specify 512 Mbyte in a single slot, to leave room for expansion. To ensure the ability to run simultaneous programs or to have multiple images, drawings, etc., in memory at the same time, students should invest in additional RAM when they purchase their PC. Considering new applications today, having 2 Gbytes of memory isn't excessive.
Fourth, for screen size (for laptops) or monitor size (for desktops), again it's best to get the largest screen size one can afford (and fit in a dorm room). For laptops, since students don't typically have to be able to work in an airplane seat, we recommend a 15-inch screen. For desktops, the minimum size should be a 17-inch flat LCD screen. LCD screens are falling in price, so purchasing a CRT screen isn't necessary to save on cost, and an LCD screen is a great dorm-room space saver.
Fifth, the PC should have a built-in DVD/CD-RW (or DVD+/-RW) drive for software installation, multimedia usage, and file backups.
Sixth, consider the campus network infrastructure; 10/100 Mbps Ethernet is standard on most new PCs. If the university supports wireless connectivity through the campus, a PC that supports the wireless standard of IEEE 802.11 b/g is essential. If neither broadband nor wireless services are available (a rarity in a university), then a 56-Kbps modem is required.
-- Stephen Rood and Peter Schay
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