Ultimate Dorm Room Gear Guide

[Guest]

Upgrade to a better dorm room--by giving yours a tech makeover with connectivity, computing and entertainment options. Win an HP Envy 17!

Ultimate Dorm Room Gear Guide : Read more

 

[Silmarunya]

Interesting, but I feel there are a few essential tech things you didn't cover:

- A highly portable notebook but with a still decent screen resolution for attending certain courses.
- An e-reader, as small dorm rooms don't really offer enough space for an large collection of books.
- Portable hard drives for group projects

Okay, these are all devices that are fairly easy to pick, but that goes for over half of this guide.

And are there plans for a similar article, but on software?

 

[bebangs]

i was expecting room design or arrangements. disapointed that these are more like advertising than an article about ultimate dorm room guide.

 

[NapoleonDK]

@bebangs I was thinking the same. Surely most highschool graduate geeks already have a solid platform of tech in their bedrooms, the ones who took summer jobs even moreso. I'm more interested in organisation, rather than some power strip (i have tons) or an LCD monitor (um duh) wireless router (who doesn't have a spare one in their closet?) ect. Give me a cleverly designed IKEA desk, modular storage, anything! Lets see a homebrew scrolling LCD screen that we can velcro to the outside of the door, taking the place of the old sock-on-the-knob trick!

 

[Tomsguiderachel]

Hey Guys,
We didn't include most portable tech because that was covered in our first Back To School Guide. http/www.tomsguide.com/us/pictures-story/192-school-tech-campus.html

The Dorm Room Guide focused on stuff that stays in your room most of the time.

Just so you know--this is not an advertisement. Editors selected all the products based on their merits. We toyed with the idea of doing dorm room layouts, but we came to the conclusion that every dorm is different (as with college apartments, too) and there actually isn't that much room for variation with regards to layout of tech in these tiny rooms.

That said, we are interested in your suggestions. DO you have any layout tips?

Thanks for reading,

Rachel Rosmarin
Editor, Tom's Guide

 

[dethsite2]

while the items listed within article are subject to availability, 1 thing I would put forward being a website which has international members, sometimes listing prices for gear becomes counter productive, most items listed would fall in the the snobs hill bunch..

basic laptops $500-700 with ram upgrades..
office suite between $500-$1,700 2 full licenses for 2 machines..
$300 for 2-5 license antivirus software
300-500 for 2tb network file..
1x usb 1 tb drive for storage on the go $100
last time I brought a printer epson $500-750 keep $220 every 3 month's for printer carts.. replace 1 replace all as ink does degrade over time...
1,000-1500 for a pc 4-5 tb's of storage..
ipad just for shits and giggles $500-1,200 depending on the model you buy..
for tunes ipod $350-800 pending on the model you buy


all up you wouldn't much change out of $6,000-7,000

while it's great you might great ideas on what the in vogue thing is for back to school for the american market, just fricken remember that you have international readers and your price in most cases are under priced for international consumers not everyone can get gear at cost price, most have to pay full retail for things..

not everyone is in the land of the almost free..

 

[dethsite2]

another thing I's like to add, to do apple dorm room for 1 person, you would close to paying $7,500 if not more, nothing is ever cheap where apple is conserned...

you don't fair much better in the pc world look at it from prefab fab junk from dell and gateway for pc, laptops are another story..
in a short space, i'd look at min of a linksys 8-16 port lan switch, with a linksys wrt 54-gl for wifi wireless n will be practically useless to use..

since if you're a smart cookey you'd be having console on you lan aswell so a larger switch would be a better option...

 

[damiano13mg]

e3000 or bust!

 

[dethsite2]

we're not all in the USA where stuff is mostly cheaper, myself, i'm in Australia, where designer brand gear is often the most expesive, nothing is seldom value for money...

nothing is ever cut and dry when buying, pc's,laptops, printers and other associated play toys that are for functional use, if it is just for bragging rights for street cred then everything just becomes a wased of money...

sadly i'm 6'1" so I'm stuck to going to specialized clothing stores where clothing starts around the $85-130 mark, as much i would like for clothing in k-mart or target in $25-50 no name ranges, sadly due to height and girth relegates me to other stores...

most of the clothing that gaga23 would typically retail within the $70-150 price for designer brand-name gear.. if you can pickup designer sunnies for $15 then they are bound to be knock-offs imported from china or thailand

 

[delta7]

[citation][nom]dethsite2[/nom]we're not all in the USA where stuff is mostly cheaper, myself, i'm in Australia, where designer brand gear is often the most expesive, nothing is seldom value for money...nothing is ever cut and dry when buying, pc's,laptops, printers and other associated play toys that are for functional use, if it is just for bragging rights for street cred then everything just becomes a wased of money...sadly i'm 6'1" so I'm stuck to going to specialized clothing stores where clothing starts around the $85-130 mark, as much i would like for clothing in k-mart or target in $25-50 no name ranges, sadly due to height and girth relegates me to other stores...most of the clothing that gaga23 would typically retail within the $70-150 price for designer brand-name gear.. if you can pickup designer sunnies for $15 then they are bound to be knock-offs imported from china or thailand[/citation]

Lol I got back from OZ in April. Seriously, the cost of everything is patently absurd, I was totally floored. I think on average 2 to 3 times more for consumer electronics, games are double, I just don't get it, most of the stuff is made in China or Taiwan next door, where's the cost coming from? Import taxes? I'm Canadian, exchange rate is just above par with (overvalued) Aus $ but we only pay about 10-20% more than US.

I was looking to buy a decent $50 Timex type sports watch, apparently they cost $300 in Oz. No I'm not kidding.