Son's college laptop

[Dennis Gordon]

My son is entering Northwestern as a journalism student in the fall. I just received their certified hardware/software package. The prices seem reasonable enough, but I'd welcome any opinions or alternatives.

The recommended laptop being offered for $2,000 from the school (vs. $2,675 retail) is a new model Lenovo Thinkpad Z61m:

15" wide aspect
2.0 Core Duo
1.5G RAM
100G 7200rpm HD
Dual layer DVD burner
Radeon X1600
Integrated 1394, 802.11, NIC, modem, vid camera, mic

3-year next day on-site support

This seems like a decent price for this spec, but with new rollouts coming soon, and not needing this until the end of August, might I do better for $2K?

 

[rayman2k2]

you could wait and see if Merom (Core 2 Duo) is out by the time you need it, but even if you wait, the price could get cheaper...

 

[tdg]

That is a very good deal on such a nice laptop, but yeah I'd wait until a week or two before he needs it. The price very well could drop a little bit, or some hardware may get upgraded to something better as it's available.

 

[Dennis Gordon]

The 3-year warranty makes it attractive, but I'll hold out for another 8 weeks and see what happens. They also require that he has a video iPod ($400) and the Adobe Creative Suite ($700). Whatever happened to used books at the college book store?'...;-)

 

[Outrigger]

The 3-year warranty makes it attractive, but I'll hold out for another 8 weeks and see what happens. They also require that he has a video iPod ($400) and the Adobe Creative Suite ($700). Whatever happened to used books at the college book store?'...;-)

REQUIRE him to have a vid ipod? whats next, he must be required to drive a certain brand of car as well? and I thought colleges were getting ridiculous with requiring to buy the newest edition of books when all they do is swap the pages around.

 

[movax]

Used books ftw. Almost time to go buy them, in fact... There goes teh open house monies.

 

[Slartibartfast]

Requiring that crap is ridiculous, I wonder if they're getting a kickback from apple

Anyways, I agree to wait, but that is a very nice price on the laptop. It can only get better

 

[Dennis Gordon]

Oh and I forgot the $600 required Canon Optura DV camera. To be fair, all of this stuff (totalling about $3700) will be required for entering 2007 freshman. This is only strongly recommended for this year's entering class, and the school will provide gear for this year, if necessary. But next year, you're on your own...

 

[icehole]

They also require that he has a video iPod ($400) and the Adobe Creative Suite ($700).;-)

There are Student versions of most software. Once he has a student ID he can get Adobe CS for less than $400.

 

[Cowcaster88]

The 3-year warranty makes it attractive, but I'll hold out for another 8 weeks and see what happens. They also require that he has a video iPod ($400) and the Adobe Creative Suite ($700). Whatever happened to used books at the college book store?'...;-)

Why are they requiring the iPod? Actually if you order a computer through Apple's College store you can save about $179 on the iPod, but I don't know if you'll find the same price on the same specs on a MacBook Pro (assuming you need the 15in screen).

 

[rayman2k2]

I know some colleges are now replacing books/lectures with podcasts. I guess some have charts and what not (or are video podcasts) and require the video ipod

 

[Dennis Gordon]

There are Student versions of most software. Once he has a student ID he can get Adobe CS for less than $400.

In addition the CS, the package also has Dreamweaver, Flash 8 and some other programs. Oddly enough, it includes Photoshop Elements, which seems pointless since the Suite already has PSCS2. I'll probably buy the academic versions separately, as I'd rather install and upgrade them myself anyways.

The J-schools are going through a big tech transformation as they try to adapt to the blog-o-verse and remain relevant. The cost of the technology is still pretty small relative to the enormous tuition and other fees... ;-)

 

[Farva]

I know some colleges are now replacing books/lectures with podcasts. I guess some have charts and what not (or are video podcasts) and require the video ipod

ummm, cant u view the podcast on your computer anyway? i cant imagine why he would need an ipod do view a podcast.

 

[aznx]

At my university, it costs about ~200 for students for Adobe CS2 Premium Suite. If you want to save some money..PM me.

@icehole

it depends on your university's deal with adobe..

 

[aznx]

In addition the CS, the package also has Dreamweaver, Flash 8 and some other programs. Oddly enough, it includes Photoshop Elements, which seems pointless since the Suite already has PSCS2. I'll probably buy the academic versions separately, as I'd rather install and upgrade them myself anyways.

The J-schools are going through a big tech transformation as they try to adapt to the blog-o-verse and remain relevant. The cost of the technology is still pretty small relative to the enormous tuition and other fees... ;-)

Also at my school, the prices for a single license of Photoshop CS2 is $280..while the whole Suite is only $190..bonkers

I think you'd save by buying the whole thing.

 

[WaterIsTasty]

ummm, cant u view the podcast on your computer anyway? i cant imagine why he would need an ipod do view a podcast.

yeah this ipod business sounds like complete BS

 

[BBowermaster]

Also at my school, the prices for a single license of Photoshop CS2 is $280..while the whole Suite is only $190..bonkers

I think you'd save by buying the whole thing.

Same with Macromedia. Last I checked, any single program was $99. The suite was $199. So if you buy say Dreamweaver and Flash for web development, you might as well buy the suite and get Fireworks, Coldfusion, etc along with it.