t’s back-to-school time and students the world over are being innundated with ads for the latest and greatest in PCs to help them through the coming year. Problem is with so many options it’s hard to figure out exactly what you need and what to get. Should I get a notebook or one of those new tiny netbooks? And what is a “desktop replacement”? Then there is the question of brand, processor, hard drive and other specs. I’m not surprised people are confused – people often turn to me as a tech expert and even I can’t come to a firm conclusion when it comes to buying a new notebook.

To help you get a better idea of what kind of computer you should get for school (whether you are a high-school student, at university or college or even a parent looking for something for your kid), here is Dabbler’s guide to buying a computer for school.

Vital Stats

Reading ads and articles on computers it might look like you need the latest, greatest and fastest one available. Things couldn’t be further from the truth: The faster and more current the components, the higher the price. But when it comes to actual performance, the differences in the top eschelons are very small and only really noticeable if you are running benchmark programs. For the everyday user the difference between a $700 pc and a $2700 pc is negligible. This is because with everyday use you are never tapping the full potential of the components in these computers. Even watching and recording videos puts minimal drain on modern processors. The more expensive PCs are targeted towards 3D gamers and business people and by buying them you are basically paying for things you will never use. Sort of like getting a Hummer for city driving. In short, price doesn’t necessarily reflect performance.

For a student PC, the elements you should be looking for are

• quality of build and physical strength
• battery
• weight
• ease of use

Quality of Build

Since you’ll probably be lugging your PC around and throwing it in a bag all the time it’s vital that the thing doesn’t fall apart after a few months. Sadly many PC manufacturers sacrifice the physical strength of their notebooks to reduce weight. And that can cause huge problems down the line. The key here is to find a PC that feels rugged and doesn’t have a lot of pieces that seem like they can come off easily. The easiest way to do this is simply picking up the notebook in the store, shake it a bit, pick at every piece that looks loose and open and close the screen from one of the corners. If the screen bends noticeably when you open it, it’s too weak.

What to look for: A notebook that feels solid, doesn’t have any loose components and has a screen that doesn’t bend and twist when you open it.

Battery

If your notebook has a crappy battery it’s a solid waste of money. So make sure you check the battery life of the one you are looking at before buying it. There are tons of web sites out there that review notebooks and they all list battery life. Anything lower than 3 hours is unacceptable. Most notebook manufacturers offer larger replacement batteries that give you a lot more juice. But these are heavier and protrude from the body so it’s not necessarily a trade off you want to make.

What to look for: A minimum battery life of 3.5 hours on full power.

Weight

Although notebooks have gone drastically down in weight over the years they are still surprisingly heavy to lug around. And not surprisingly the larger the thing gets, the heavier it gets as well. For this reason many students opt for smaller and slimmer models – but with smaller size comes a higher price. As an example we currently have a 15 inch laptop that I find way too heavy to carry around. My sister-in-law (who is a student) opted for a tiny 12 and some inch computer and I’m now very envious of her. For my next notebook I am getting a 13.3 inch model. The downside to getting a smaller form factor is that the screen is smaller as well so you need good eyes to read what you are writing. On the other end of the spectrum there is the desktop replacements that are 17 inches and above. Although these behemoths technically qualify as notebooks, they really aren’t meant to be carried around and if you get one you should also get yourself a physiotherapist to straighten your back.

To assess the weight of the notebook, pick it up and hold it in one hand on your side as if it was a book. This way you’ll quickly see if it hurts your back to carry and you’ll get a true sense of the weight.

What to look for: As small a form factor as you are comfortable with. Anything above 15 inches is unfeasible when it comes to carrying the notebook around.

Ease of Use

If your notebook is hard or annoying to use you’ll be kicking yourself for buying it. Therefore it is imperative that you feel comfortable with the way the notebook works before you buy it. I am thinking here specifically of the feel and layout of the keyboard and track pad. Surprisingly different notebook manufacturers choose different keyboard layouts and some of them are quite counterintuitive, especially if you are used to a full-size keyboard. There are also a myriad of different types of keys that feel and work quite differently. Some are heavy to press while others are light, some make a lot of sound while others are quiet, some are indented while others are flat. This is all down to preference and before you decide on what notebook to get you should always try to type out a few sentences or even paragraphs to make sure you like what it feels like. Same thing goes for the positioning and functionality of the trackpad. Although for the most part these navigational tools work the same way, the positioning of buttons and other extra features differs between manufacturers and not all of them are convenient.

What to look for: A keyboard that “feels right” when you write on it and has a button layout that makes sense to you.

But what about all the other stuff?

What you’ll notice is that none of what I listed above is actually listed in ads and store shelves. Instead they list processor power, RAM, hard drive space and other technical features. The reason why this is secondary in your choice of notebook is that unless you are getting a really cheap or really expensive one (or a netbook – see below) they are all pretty much the same across all manufacturers and models. Nevertheless you need to know what you are looking for so here is a full rundown:

Processor:

Get an Intel Core 2 Duo processor. Anything else is sub-par and old. Intel’s competitor AMD is lagging way behind when it comes to performance and quality and even though these processors might be cheaper they are not worth the money.

RAM

Since all new computers come with Windows Vista installed you need at least 1GB of RAM for it to run properly. Most notebooks these days come standard with 2GB of ram with the option of extending it to 4. 2GB is ideal. Anything less than 1GB is unacceptable and a rip off.

Hard Drive

Hard drives are dropping in price at an incredible rate. Therefore you can get a lot of storage space for very little money. Look for a notebook with a minimum of 230GB of hard drive space. This gives you ample room for files as well as movies and music and whatever else you want to cram into it. If that’s not enough, consider getting an external hard drive. A 500GB one should run you no more than $150.

Other stuff

The notebook must have Wi-Fi, a DVD burner, a minimum of 3 USB 2.0 ports, VGA and audio in and out. When it comes to Wi-Fi, Wireless-N is not strictly necessary but could be an advantage. Bluetooth, IR and other fancy stuff is only worht it if you are going to use it (which is highly unlikely). Some newer notebooks come equipped with HDMI and DVI ports but these are wholely unneccesary unless you are going to hook your notebook up to a 1080p HDTV and use it to watch movies. And even then you can get away with using a regular VGA port so it really isn’t something that should be a deciding factor in your purchase.

What about those nifty netbooks like the EEE PC?

The Asus EEE PC was a shocking success last winter that turned the PC world upside down. Who would have thunk that tiny, underpowered and feature weak PCs would become so popular? On the heels of the EEE’s success almost every PC manufacturer is now pushing out netbooks and tiny desktop alternatives. These tiny computers are ideal if all you are doing is word processing, code writing, web, im and email. If on the other hand you want to run heavier applications like image-, audio- and video editing you are out of luck.

What to look for: If you are considering a netbook, wait. In the coming months a myriad of these small form-factor machines will be hitting the market and prices will plummet as performance, storage space and screen qulity will go up. There is a reason why RBC is giving the EEE PC away for free with the opening of new accounts: Even though it’s only 8 months old it is already obsolete and unsellable. I wouldn’t buy a netbook until some time in early 2009.

I hear Macs are great student PCs. Why haven’t you mentioned them?

You’ve probably heard that Macs are great student PCs, that they don’t crash, that they “just work”, that they can stop global warming and that by owning one you instantly become a better person. All of this rubbish is just ingenious marketing from Apple Computers and has little merit in the real world. The fact of the matter is that pound for pound Macs, and especially MacBooks (Mac notebooks), are massively overpriced compared to PCs. In addition with a Mac you are forced to buy Mac software which again is more pricy than PC software. And Macs are proprietary meaning that if something breaks you can’t just take it anywhere to get it fixed – you have to take it back to Mac and their customer support and replacement parts are also overpriced. All in all I wouldn’t recommend a Mac to anyone unless they were very rich and had a lot of money to waste.

One more thing:

You keep hearing about how unsafe and unstable Windows Vista is and how your PC is basically going to blow up in a nuclear meltdown from all the malicious software and viruses it will contract. All of this is untrue: Vista is a great operating system and works extremely well. It is also far safer than Windows XP and harder to hack into than Mac OSes. And when it comes to viruses, 99.99999% of them can be blocked by doing three simple things: Turn on Windows Firewall, download the free version of AVG anti-virus and buy yourself a cheap router to put between your notebook and the outside world. The router will work as a firewall and block pretty much every malicious attack coming from the evil people out there. If you do these three simple things, the only virus you’ll get is the one you download and install yourself either from the web or from an email.

Questions, comments, tips or concerns?

Have any questions, comments, concerns or tips you want to share with us? Drop us a comment and we’ll answer them as quickly as we can.