[lug] Wanted: Recommandations for HDD and Mem Upgrades for CU Freshman

[David L. Anselmi]

siegfried wrote:
> Greetings!
> 
> My daughter just received a couple of college scholarships. She received a
> new (Del, I think) notebook as part of her first scholarship and recently
> learned that she has to spend the money received from her second scholarship
> or loose it.

Congrats!

> I assume that Del (or whoever the mfr is) has a warranty still in effect.
> (Unfortunately, it is not convenient for me to consult the warranty
> documents since they are with her and not me). Does this mean we should not
> consider a local shop for upgrading her disk drive and memory? She has 2 GB
> ram, 80GB disk. 

Call Dell and ask.  They have directions on their site for removing the 
heat sink to blow out the dust.  That requires removing the monitor and 
keyboard.  I can't say that applies to a model that's still in warranty 
but they do actually expect people to do it.  So they might let you 
change the drive yourself (especially if you buy one from them).  And 
you can ask how to install Windows, which might get you a Vista CD.

> Does anyone have any compelling arguments as to why a CU freshman who is
> majoring in architectural engineering would need a dual boot windows/linux
> machine instead of just a vista boot? If so, I'll pass them on to her.

Nate's idea about software is a good one.  So if people who design and 
build architectures like to use something on Linux there's your answer.

Me, I can't imagine what the difference between an architect and an 
architectural engineer is.  How many art vs. math classes you have to 
take?  ;-)

Dave