The end of summer vacation is near, and for those heading back to college, that means it’s time to stock up on dorm room essentials. But what if you’re a college freshman, and not sure what to bring for your first on campus living experience? Are you a returning upperclassman looking to upgrade your dorm? Here’s a list of tech essentials you need for your dorm room.
Laptop
The workhorse of the modern hominid—there is no piece of technology more essential for today’s college dorm room, than your own personal laptop. For most students, today’s laptops are powerful enough to handle anything a professor can throw at you. The portability of a laptop means you can take your workstation with you, to a friend’s dorm room or a local cafe. Watching movies, writing poetry, mixing music, playing video games, mindless browsing and video chatting with the family—you laptop will also function as your primary source of entertainment and a refuge from the chaotic nature of college life.
Desktop PC
For the gamers out there, typical laptops with their watered down energy saving processors won’t cut it. If you’re a member of the PC Master Race, you’ll settle for nothing less than a desktop computer. More storage, more processing power, better cooling and higher performance—plus the ability to upgrade parts and customize your rig for your needs make desktop pcs a must for the avid gamer. Furthermore if you’re running advanced engineering or design programs like ASPEN, AutoCad, SOLIDWORKS or Photoshop a desktop pc can be a huge asset to your dorm room. If you still require some portability, a higher performance laptop like the Asus ROG G751JY will do nicely. Larger desktop replacement laptops use desktop level processors giving you the processing power of a desktop with the mobility of a laptop.
Tablet PC
There’s a new class of mobile computing on the market that has taken the world by storm in recent years, the tablet PC. Ushered in with the monumental success of the iPad, today’s tablet pcs take portable computing to the next level, filling the processing space between laptops and smartphones. Use apps to keep track of your classes, take notes and record lectures. Touch up your presentation right before it’s your turn to step up to the pulpit or sketch artwork as you’re on the go. There are many ways to take advantage of the ultra-portability of tablet PCs.
Not sure if a laptop, Desktop PC, or Tablet PC is the right choice? Check out our more detailed post on “What Laptop Should I Take to College?”
Headphones
College dorms are often the least effective place to study, because of frequent interruptions from friends, roommates and the general hustle and bustle of dorm life. That is, unless of course you have a pair of Audio Technica QuietPoint Noise-Cancelling Headphones. Tune out distractions as you study in the comfort of your own dorm room with a pair of comfy headphones resting on your ears. You can’t always count on library computers to be available when everyone’s cramming for finals, turn your dorm into your own personal study hall with a pair of decent headphones.
External Hard Drive
As the capacity of memory storage devices keeps up with the pace of Moore’s Law, prices continue to drop each year. External hard drives are more affordable now than ever before. Today you can get a 2 terabyte USB 3.0 enabled portable hard drive for only $99.00—for most people, that’s more than enough storage for all their games, music, videos and photos. If you opted to skip the laptop for a cheaper more portable tablet PC, investing in an external hard drive will ensure you never run out of space for all your files.
We’ll be back with even more tips to make this upcoming semester stress-free and successful, so stay tuned!
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