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do more kids use laptops or desktops? laptops have the obvious convenience advantage, but desktops have more memory, and are probably faster in general. so what have u guys seen to be more prevalent among Penn kids?

By Regulus (Regulus) on Sunday, August 29, 2004 - 12:53 am: Edit

Seeing as I come from California and more than 80% of Penn students are from out of state, laptops tend to be very popular by virtue of their portability. I'd say the vast majority of Penn students use them. Unless you're a hardcore gamer you probably don't need a desktop. If cost is a major issue though, desktops are indeed cheaper.

By Pennquaker13 (Pennquaker13) on Sunday, August 29, 2004 - 01:02 am: Edit

It's pretty much split 50/50 between laptops and desktops around campus, so either one will work well for you. I have a laptop and that worked really well for me, cause my roommate went to sleep pretty early every night so I could go work outside, talk on AIM, etc. Also, whenever i went home, I could bring my laptop home with me if I ever needed to work on something or needed something off of there. Ultimately, I think the versatility of a laptop makes up for any advantages that a Desktop may have, especially if you don't always want to do your work in your room.


Ryan Khajavi
Sigma Nu, BP #1494
University of Pennsylvania, Class of 2007

By Slidems (Slidems) on Monday, August 30, 2004 - 10:52 am: Edit

Desktop - power, memory, and LCD monitors. Great for gaming and entertainment if you wanna play Doom3, Half-Life 2, etc. and for high performance comp sci projects
Laptop - flexibility, portability, and convenience. If you're not a gamer, get a laptop.

Or you could compromise and get a good laptop (Centrino model) with a good memory card, wide screen LCD, and a nice hard drive. My laptop is a Centrino model with tons of nice hardware and can run Counter-Strike Source beta and Doom3.