Should I buy a desktop for university?

[PencilOwner]

Hey everyone,

I am going to university next year for Computer Science,
and I have already bought a decent laptop.
I have some extra money and
I am sort of interested in building a desktop.

I figure that it would be a good 'learning experience',
and also, then I could have a solid computer to back files up on,
and I could run more heavy programs on it and keep my laptop fast and clean.

Is this a good idea? Or should I save every penny?
Any opinion or advice is welcome.

 

[LinkedKube]

Are you paying for school yourself, do you have scholarships? I lived on campus at a university for 4 years and I know that laptops get stolen a whole lot more often than desktops, for obvious reasons.

 

[SNGX1275]

I think a desktop is a good thing to have, and the experience building is just good to have regardless of how much it actually helps you in your field.

Laptops are nice to have for portability, and for giving presentations so you don't have to fool with making sure everything goes smoothly on the 'house' computer (although I don't know how much of that is required for undergrad CS). So keeping yours, even when you are a senior and its now old and slow, is still going to be nice to have. Do your heavy lifting on the desktop.

And as you noted, large storage is much easier on desktops (more hds, cheaper, larger, ect).

Also, its nice to know that if something blows up on one of your computers you have a backup.

 

[joeljoels]

Have to agree with the rest of the guys, if you can spare some money a desktop should be more than useful especially since it's gonna be perfect for backing up all your data.

 

[penn919]

It's not really necessary, but if you want to do it there really isn't a reason not to, so go for it!