Well, well, well. It’s been quite a back-to-school week here at CrunchGear. We learned a little bit about affordable notebooks and netbooks, what time-draining video games to avoid and even what to do about feeding yourself now that you’re on your own.

To close out the week and in honor of Friday, we got a little dorm room light show for you after the jump. Remember to have a little fun while you’re pretending to study – that’s what college is all about, after all.

Technology Students Mess with Dormitory Lights – video powered by Metacafe

via Shiny Shiny

Tired of your boring home town? Want to “see the world” like you’re the star of a Disney Channel movie? Do what I and countless others have done—go abroad for a few months, experience a new culture, then come home all like, “Um, now what?” Very exciting, yes!

To that end, I’ve compiled a few odds and ends that might make your trip abroad less annoying. You know, gear, junk, wisdom, etc.

Bags

You’ll want a proper bag is you plan to spend any amount of time traipsing about the foreign locale of your choosing. Yes, nothing screams “tourist” like a giant bag, but where else are you gonna keep your laptop, dSLR and extra bottles of water? Exactly.

I recommend two bags, actually, both from Crumpler. Crumpler is one of those fancy bag places you find in “cool” parts of town, like New York’s SoHo. If all you’re looking is to carry your laptop to a café for some pointless Web surfing and half-hearted “Wish you were here!” e-mails, you’d do well to check out something like the Golden Dig. (All their bags have cutesy names, I’m afraid.) It fits my MacBook just fine, with enough extra room to fit a can of Red Bull and, gasp, my always-on-me point-and-shoot. (When I go out with the express purpose of taking photos, however, I bring a dSLR.) The strap is wide on your shoulder, so at the end of the day it’s not digging into your tendons like Grim Death. Plus, the Crumpler logo is pretty well known out here—the countless number of people I’ve passed on the streets in Barcelona, I’ve had one recognize it. Just call me Mr. Popular.

If you need a bigger bag, I suggest the 15 Hour Delay. This has enough room for not only your laptop, but also, say, your iPod and DS (or whatever music player or your portable gaming platform of choice), dSLR (you might want to detach the lens for added comfort), etc. It’s your “my whole life is in this bag” bag.

Travel Gear

Great, so now you have a bag or two, what else so you bring with you while you wander European city streets with that “please mug me” look on your face?

A laptop/netbook

You probably have one already, but be sure to bring your laptop or netbook with you while you travel. At some point, someone, be it your employer, loved ones, dumb friends, etc. will want to know whether you’re alive or not, and what you’ve been up to. Make that easy by using your laptop to constantly let people know that, yes, you yet live! Create a Tumblr account, Twitter, Flickr, or whatever Web 2.0 service is hot this afternoon and tell your mates to check those. That way you can broadcast what’s up without having to have 20 simultaneous IM conversations. Skype is handy, too, by the way, in case Mom and Dad insist on hearing your voice.

Phone

You’re gonna want a phone, if for no other reason than emergencies. (Guess who had to call Citibank a few days ago because every ATM in town said he was overdrawn!) I was able to go to Telefonica here in Barcelona and buy one of those pre-paid deals for not a lot of money, something like €20 for a phone with removable SIM card and a few minutes of voice. Minutes can they be added on at any Telefonica store. I bought the phone, then stuck the SIM into a Nokia N76, aka a Razr with Symbian. It takes good-enough video and pretty decent photos.

Camera

Hope you brought your petrodollars

If you’re abroad for any amount of time, you’ll probably want to take photos of the local landmarks. For example, I took photos of what turned out to be a strip club in Berlin the other night. We (my party and I) didn’t know it was a strip club, but we didn’t much complain when it turned into one. I do, and have in the past, suggested at the very least an entry level dSLR if you want to at least have the potential to take better than average photos. (I’m using an old Rebel.) If you don’t want to carry around something that cumbersome—a legitimate reason, I admit—then go with a point-and-shoot. To be frank, pretty much all of these point-and-shoots we talk about are so similar to each other in quality of photo taken, you really can’t go wrong. Canon, Nikon, Olympus (get one of those if you plan on taking photos from the beach because they’re water-resistant). Again, whatever type you get—dSLR or point-and-shoot—totally depends on what you feel comfortable like carrying.

GPS

The days of carrying around a giant map and looking like a jerk are over! Now you get to carry around a GPS device (or your cellphone) and look like a jerk! But seriously, having your current location in the palm of your hands while in a strange and exotic city is so fantastic. “Where the hell is Nou de la Rambla? Oh, way the F over there, cool.” It beats having to ask for directions, or unfold a map in the middle of the street at a phone booth. I’ve been using Google Maps on the N76 and it does the job. If at all possible, make sure you phone can browse the Web (BlackBerry, iPhone, fancy Nokia, etc.) because then you’re just a few clicks away from Google Maps Mobile. Even if it doesn’t have GPS, or a cell-based GPS approximation, at least you’ll be able to search around the electronic map to see where you are and where you’re going.

I would recommend against walking around with your iPod all day, not only for safety reasons, but you’ve heard your favorite playlist 1,000 times already, and you’re traveling to experience something different, right?

Other helpful advice

You’re better off getting batting advice from A-Rod than any type of advice from me, but here we are. When traveling abroad, it’s best to do some research before actually buying your airplane ticket. (I assume you already have a passport.) Find out if you need a visa to stay past a certain length, find out what type of power adapters the country uses (I bought a WORLD TRAVELER KIT! from Wal-Mart the day before leaving for like $20 and it works great), find out what the currency is and what the exchange rate is (from me, one Euro buys about $1.50, so if a beer costs €3, I know I’m actually paying $4.50), etc. Little things like that.

So yeah, common sense stuff to be sure, but they don’t call me Thomas Paine for nothing.

It’s decision time. Which should you buy for school, a notebook or a netbook? Netbooks are great because of their portability and low price points. Notebooks are good for their much more usable keyboards, optical drives, and computing power. So which one is right for you? Here are five good options in each category.

Notebooks

Here are some parameters I used for choosing a notebook for school.

1. Starting cost must be under $1,100. I’d shoot for under $1,000 but the MacBook starts at $1,099 and it’s a very viable option, especially if your school uses Macs.

2. Must weigh less than six pounds.

3. Must have a multi-core processor.

Best Notebook for Mac Users: MacBook ($1,099)

Surprised with this choice? Didn’t think so. If you’ve grown up using a Mac or attend a school that’s primarily Mac-based, here’s your option: the $1,099 MacBook. Sure, you can get Windows-based notebooks for half the price of the base-level MacBook but a myriad of style preferences, software needs, and brand loyalty ensures that the MacBook remains one of Apple’s strongest sellers.

Best Big-Screen, Still Sorta-Light Notebook: Toshiba L305D ($679)

Take any notebook with a 15.4-inch and you’ll notice that the only thing larger than the screen itself is the immense weight that the notebook adds to your bag. Most break through the six pound barrier with reckless abandon, even getting up into the seven- and eight-pound range. The L305D from Toshiba, however, is different.

It’s got a 15.4-inch screen, yet starts at just under 5.5 pounds. With 160GB of hard drive space and 3GB of RAM, the starting price of $679 is nice. You can get it for as low as $599, but that’s with only 1GB of RAM. The extra $80 is well worth it for 3GB.

Best Tablet Notebook: HP Pavilion tx2500z Series ($899)

The HP Pavilion tx2500z series of tablet PCs offers a relatively affordable and light-weight computing option. The 12.1-inch screen tilts, swivels, and flips and these newer models have HP’s hipster “Echo” designs on the lid.

Until tomorrow, you can get some pretty decent extras: $150 instant rebate, free upgrade to 3GB of RAM, free shipping, and 50% off of Office Home and Student Edition.

Best Notebook for the Price of a Netbook: Acer Extensa EX4420 ($499)

When you hear people say “Why would I buy a netbook when I can get an actual notebook for the same price?”, this is what they’re talking about. The Acer Extensa EX4420 features 2GB of RAM, a dual-core AMD processor, DVD burner, 14.1-inch screen, and a 5.4-pound travel weight. At $499, too, it should get the job done for most everyday students – both in the classroom and in the money department.

Best ‘Let’s Get Down to Business’ Workhorse: Dell Latitude E6400 ($879)

For the student who’s going to be spending more time in class and the library than anywhere else, there’s the Dell Latitude E6400. It’s actually sold from Dell’s business division, but don’t let that dissuade you.

The notebook has a large 14.1-inch that can be upgraded to a whopping 1440×900 resolution, yet manages to weigh in at a scant 4.3 pounds. If you’re willing to blow through the $1,100 spending limit, you can outfit the E6400 with a 9-cell battery, battery slice, and a solid state drive for a caffeine-infused 19 hours of computing before needing to recharge. Unbelievable.

Netbooks

Netbooks are the small-yet-scrappy cousins to full-fledged notebooks. They’re svelte enough to fit in a large purse or small backpack, or they can likely blend in with the pile of books you’re carrying around and hoping to quickly skim before class starts.

Parameters:

1. Must run Windows. Sorry. This is aimed at college kids. If your school supports Linux, that’s great, but most schools are either Mac- or PC-focused.

2. Must weigh less than 3.5 pounds.

3. Must cost less than $600 with Windows installed.

Best All-Around Netbook: Asus Eee 1000H with XP and 6-cell battery ($549)

Sporting a big (for a netbook) 10.2-inch screen, 80GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, Windows XP, and a six-cell battery with a claim of over seven hours of battery life, the 3.19-pound Asus Eee 1000H could almost be confused for an actual notebook. There’s an integrated webcam and a 95%-of-full-size keyboard, too.

Plus, you’ll get nice intangibles like a strong and many-numbered user community and a wide selection of accessories and cases. Now if you could only (like many other netbook brands) find one in stock. Amazon’s current ship time is 1-2 months.

Best Vista-Based Netbook: HP 2133 Mini-Note ($579)

One of the only big-name netbooks to offer a Windows Vista option, the HP 2133 Mini-Note is also widely regarded as having one of the best keyboards and build qualities around. For just south of $600, you’ll get an 8.9-inch screen, VIA C7-M Ultra Low Voltage processor, 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, and 2.8-pound travel weight.

You’ll have to really, really want to run Vista Home, though. The 1GB of RAM, three-cell battery, and 1.2GHz VIA C3 processor make this option a bit of a gamble.

Best Netbook Deal Around: Acer Aspire One with XP and six-cell battery ($399)

Acer’s ultra-aggressive pricing has made the company’s relatively late entry into the netbook game a non-issue. Case in point, you can grab the Aspire One with an 8.9-inch screen, 160GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, XP Home, and a six-cell battery good for over five hours of work for $399. That’s an insane price for all those features. It shows, too, as you’ll have to wait 2-5 weeks to get one from Amazon, for instance.

Best Big-Screen Netbook for Under $500: MSI Wind ($499) 

Despite recent consumer-unfriendly price hikes, the MSI Wind is still a great deal for a netbook with a 10-inch screen and Windows XP. The build-quality and screen are especially nice and the Wind doesn’t feel short-featured or underpowered (see our review here). Newegg currently has the black MSI Wind for $499, which features a 120GB hard drive, 1GB of RAM, 10-inch screen, 2.3-pound travel weight, and a three-cell battery good for more than two hours of work before needing recharged.

Best Netbook You’ll be Least Apprehensive to Buy: Dell Inspiron Mini 9 ($399)

Whether you’ve had a positive experience with Dell or not, the fact remains that the company is one of the most recognized names in computing. If you’re apprehensive about buying a netbook from a company you’ve never heard of, you may feel safest with Dell. Plus, for $399, you get an 8.9-inch screen, Windows XP, 512MB of RAM (you can upgrade to 1GB for $25), an 8GB solid state drive, a travel weight of 2.28 pounds, and a four-cell battery good for over four hours of work (according to Dell).

Careful, though. These things JUST came out so they’re relatively unproven. I’d hope that a company Dell’s size, however, would have rigorously tested these netbooks.

If there’s one very-important rule when it comes to schoolwork, it’s to save early and save often. I’d also add that you should save elsewhere, too. So here are five options for backing up your files.

First, some criteria.

1. Must cost under $100.

2. Storage space must be at least 500 gigabytes.

3. Must be relatively easy to set up and use.

And now, your options.

Western Digital 500GB My Book ($99.99)

Pros: It doesn’t look like an external hard drive, turns itself on and off with your computer to save electricity.

Cons: Included software is apparently slow, first generation of My Book drives had reliability issues (this is the second generation, though).

More info: You’ll likely see this drive in a fair amount of dorm rooms as it’s got a nice aesthetic and a relatively affordable price point. Setup should be easy and quick and the drive should work well on PCs or Macs.

The first generation of these drives had some issues with reliability. The case has no fan, so heat dissipation is important. Don’t set this up on top of a radiator or window sill, in other words.

Iomega 500GB Prestige ($94.99)

Pros: Runs cool and quiet, has an actual manual power switch for turning the drive on and off.

Cons: No software included (you’ll get a license to download EMC Retrospect, though).

More info: The Prestige’s aluminum case and Energy Star qualified power consumption will ensure that this drive runs cool and quiet. A dedicated on/off switch lets you shut off the device over holiday breaks and long weekends away.

Plus, Iomega has been doing the storage thing for a while so this drive has a good name behind it.

LaCie Ethernet Disk Mini Home Edition 500GB NAS Hard Drive ($99.99)

Pros: Network attached storage so you can hook this drive up to your network to read and write using multiple computers.

Cons: Somewhat troublesome with Macs, NAS setup not quite as simple as standard external hard drives.

More info: If your housing situation gives you control over your network and you want to be able to share files with your roommate(s) relatively easily, this is a great price for a 500GB network drive. First-timers or people looking for straightforward backup of one computer might be better off with a standard USB 2.0 drive, though.

 SimpleTech SimpleDrive 500GB ($89.99)

Pros: Pretty inexpensive for a good-looking 500GB drive, designed by Pininfarina of Ferrari fame, one-click backup and capacity meter on the top of the drive, includes 2GB of online storage through Fabrik.

Cons: Some customers reporting DOA drives or drives dying after a few months of use. Hopefully just a brief QA issue that’s been cleared up by now.

More info: Perhaps the best option when you factor in the one-click backup, online storage, thoughtful capacity meter, sleek design and lower price than competing models.

Mozy Online Backup ($60 or less per year)

Pros: Secure off-site storage, no need to purchase or maintain hardware or worry about drive crashes, relatively simple automatic backup, unlimited storage, can pay for it monthly at $4.95 per month.

Cons: Long-term costs end up being higher than buying traditional drive (storage is unlimited, though), can only be used with one computer – adding computers costs another $4.95 per month, much slower than having an actual drive connected to your computer, people concerned about keeping their files online should look elsewhere.

More info: This is actually the option I’d recommend to just about anyone. Mozy is easy to use, cheap to get into at $4.95 per month, and you don’t have to worry about setting up an actual, physical drive and hoping it doesn’t crash.

Storage is unlimited and you can set the software up (PC and Mac) to automatically back up certain important files and folders. Your files are backed up online, so they’ll copy much more slowly than if you had an actual external drive connected to your computer. Plus, as a backup service, it’s not great for actually keeping files for you to access as easily as you could with a conventional drive. So if you need MORE space, then you’ll want to check out an actual drive. But if you want to make copies of what’s on your computer’s hard drive, Mozy is a pretty good, simple, inexpensive option.

After 3 months of fun in the sun, it’s easy to forget just how much easier gadgets can make your life once class time rolls around. Unfortunately, it seems like the more useful they are, they heavier a beating they take. With each new year comes new people, new parties, and new opportunities for your gadget to disappear or get busted into a million pieces.

We here at CrunchGear love gadgets, and we love you. In turn, we love your gadgets. That’s why we’ve compiled a handful of ways for you to prep your gadget collection for the upcoming scholarly session. Enjoy!

Make it yours: Sure, it seems obvious – but you might be surprised how many gadgets I’ve seen end up lookin’ like they got into a fist fight with a brillo pad, simply because the owner couldn’t find a case that fits their style. The trick? Buy online.

Cases take up a good amount of space without all that much profit margin, so even gadget specialty stores only carry a handful in their meatspace outlets. Shelf space isn’t nearly as big of an issue online, so cases are offered in just about every material and color. For example: Agent18 cases offer full protection without the clunk-factor of silicone cases, while Gelaskins make your device look like a piece of art.

Keep it yours: Theft-protection is one of those things you never think about until 20 minutes after some dude just walked off with your laptop.

There are anti-loss solutions for just about every gadget – especially laptops. Take Orbicule’s Undercover for example – a perfect solution for MacBook Pros and iBooks. Once installed, a quick call to Orbicule will tell the Undercover app to flag your laptop as lost; first, they’ll try to find it by monitoring traffic on the machine and firing off the built-in iSight every 6 minutes. If all else fails, they’ll simulate a machine failure in hopes the thief puts it under the spotlight on eBay.

Bonus Tip: Password protecting your crap makes it useless to a huge chunk of the folks that might steal it. Unlock passwords, login passwords, firmware/BIOS passwords – even if you use the same password across all your gadgets, it’s just enough to protect your data from the average grab-and-dump thief.

Make use of it: For every purpose a gadget comes with out of the box, there are three that people have added after the fact. If you’ve got an iPhone, install Evernote. If you’ve got a graphing calculator, throw some games up on it to help you get through this weeks 29th lecture.

Keep it clean: No one’s going to be impressed by your $500 dollar toy if it looks like you’ve been using it as a napkin. Keeping your gadgets sparkling helps you appreciate them longer – plus, the added attention might help you spot a defect or two that could be covered under warranty.

I’ve used the Klear Screen stuff up above with much success on a bunch of my gadgets – but it’s kind of pricey. If you’re on a budget, try a lint-free cloth (read: not a friggin’ paper towel) and a mixture of 30% isopropyl alcohol, 70% distilled water.

Ok, you’re supposed to be a grownup now. What are doing still drinking that Boone’s Farm Strawberry Hill? In fact, what were you doing drinking that ever? You should be ashamed of yourself. You probably clicked on this link thinking you would get some good booze advice. Well, you were right and you were wrong. Instead of telling you what to drink, I’m going to tell you what to stay away from.

Boone’s Farm and wine coolers

Yeah, these sickeningly sweet concoctions are totally the training wheels of booze. I ain’t saying it’s right, I’m just saying it is. These and other ‘alcopop’ beverages use sugar and fruit juice to cover up the taste of low-grade wine or cheap malt beverages.

Schnapps

More sweet stuff. American schnapps’ are made by infusing pure grain alcohol with fruit and other flavors. And of course, sugar. Like flavored malt beverages, they come in a wide variety of flavors, but peppermint schnapps might just be the worst of them all.

Jägermeister

This German 70-proof digestif is an herbal liqueur that is similar to other stomach bitters, but much sweeter. Meant to be had before or after a meal, oftentimes the sweet taste leads to over-imbibing. Not good for a concoction that was originally used for medicinal purposes. Like all alcohols, there is such thing as too much of a good thing.

Cheap fortified wine

Oh, Night Train and Thunderbird. You are the lowest of the low. You too, MD 20/20 and Cisco. I know all about you. You are all cheap and nasty and I hope I never see you again in my life. Ever.

Pure grain alcohol, like Everclear, etc.

No.
(see below)

Well, look at that. Off to college and suddenly it’s time to learn how to (theoretically) fend for yourself. You can’t fill up on nasty food court or cafeteria items all the time, but luckily it’s really not hard to cook up some down-home vittles right from your dorm or (hopefully) your first apartment.

Here are some basics that you’ll need to get you through mealtime.

Mini-fridge

You might think the mini-fridge would mostly apply to dorm-folk, but those of you with lots of roommates might want to think twice. The school year is just cranking up and I bet you first-time roommate people have already discovered that the fridge can be precious territory. Put five people in a house with only one fridge and things get messy and crowded quickly. It might be worth it to pick up a mini-fridge to keep your food safe. At the very least, it’s another line of defense between your roommates and your beer. For a hundred bucks (on sale), you can get this Kenmore 2.7 cu. ft. Compact Refrigerator.

Microwave toaster combo

Everybody knows how to work a microwave oven. It’s probably the first thing in the kitchen your parents let you operate. As such, it’s probably the first thing you thought about needing for school too. Ah, but what about pizza? We all know that nuked leftover pizza – while having its charm – lacks in the texture department. Most likely space is an issue, so getting a toaster oven and a microwave is probably out of the question. Well, good news, the Sharp R-55TS combines them both for $129.99.

Coffee maker

Yes, I know you love your coffee shop. Sitting around pretending to study is a good bit of the college experience after all. However, you may not know it now, but you will come finals time: easy access to coffee is essential. Just get yourself a cheap basic drip model and save the fancy drinks for the cute barista you are trying to impress/annoy. Oh, and if you get whole bean coffee, don’t forget to grind it. Otherwise you’ll be hammering those beans into oblivion one-by-one instead of cramming for your finals. For forty bucks (on sale) here’s a Braun KF580.

Silverware

Yeah, you wouldn’t think this is a biggie, but that’s exactly why it’s so easy to overlook. When I moved into my first place, I wasn’t much of a cook. I threw a frozen pizza in the oven and in 20-25 minutes it was done. Except I had no way to get it out of the oven. Forget spatula, I didn’t even have a fork. Which is why, I suppose, I was making a frozen pizza. Oh, and a cookie sheet or something? Forget it. It was right on the rack. Anyways, some basic utensils will save you from unnecessary burn blisters. At the least: fork, knife, spoon, a sharp knife and I guess, a spatula would come in handy. Here ya go: For nine bucks you can get the Chefmate Transport 13-pc. Flatware Set. You should still pick up a good knife, but this is a good start.

Salt, pepper, spices, hot sauce and of course, condiments

You’re not a kid anymore. It’s time to move beyond bland boxed food, (I’m looking at you powdered mac ‘n’ cheese) and into the world of spices. Rarely does anything that comes out of a can or box try to do anything but appeal to the lowest common denominator. You know how it is when you get a “spicy” anything. It almost always turns out to be just a shadow of flavor. Well, it is time to start building up your herb and spice knowledge, so at the very least you can sprinkle some basil over your pizza bagel. I know you probably aren’t ready for the big time yet, so, for a good general-use flavor enhancer, ditch the ketchup and pick up some Tapatío. It goes with everything.

Here are a few dorm room gadgets we think you might be able to use at school or home to keep yourself online, in-touch, and entertained without much set-up time.


zBoost YX110 – $119 – www.wi-exstore.com

We begin with the zBoost YX110, a personal cellular booster that will ensure you have a strong cell connection even behind heavy concrete walls. With more students using cellphones instead of landlines, the YX110 improves your reception without costing very much and it prevents dropped voice and data calls on almost every carrier and phone except Nextel. If you have no reception, give this a try.

Airport Express – $99 – www.apple.com

We all need a secure wireless hotspot but this wireless hotspot also streams music from your Mac or PC. It’s compact, powerful, and the set-up is dead simple. A great way to get local wireless and even share wireless in a conference room or at a study group.

StudioDock 3i Active Speakers – $149 – www.samsontech.com

While you might want to get a full set of surround sound speakers, these Samsons are pretty good. With a built-in iPod dock you can easy sync your iPhone or iPod with your PC without cables. It has great range and can get extra loud – or soft – if the mood hits. AUX-IN lets you play other devices through the speakers and a headphone jack let’s you game in silence.

[re]Drive Hard Drive – $159.99 – www.simpletech.com

The key to computing happiness? Back up, back up, and back up. This 500GB drive costs about $150 and looks great. It’s quiet so you won’t have to listen to hard drive noises all night either. We ran a full review right here but no matter what else you do, get an external hard drive.

Harmony Advanced Universal Remote for Xbox 360 – $99 – www.logitech.com

This looks pricey but it’s worth it. The Harmony for Xbox 360 controls your Xbox and up to eleven other devices and you can set up macros for various activities like playing movies, music, or powering up your computer from your bed. You’ll probably have a few devices in your room so do yourself a favor and get a universal remote.

Picking the right TV to pimp out your dorm is important. You don’t want to be the poor kid, sporting a tube TV but then again, you don’t want to spend all that open house cash just on a plasma. I’ve got a few solutions that will work nicely with your understandably low budget.

EyeTV Hybrid

Already have a Mac and want to use it as your HDTV? Check out the EyeTV hybrid. Plugs into a USB 2.0 slot and picks up ClearQAM and ATSC signals. PC users might want to check out Pinnacle’s PCTV HD Pro Stick for a similar option.

PS3

What dorm room doesn’t have the latest gaming gear stacked up on milk crates? A few hundred dollars will certainly increase your popularity in the projects. Chicks dig guys with a PS3. Trust us, they do.

Insignia 26-inch 720p LCD with DVD player and PC input

Could this $449 Best Buy house name LCD be one of the best dorm room bargains out there? It features a space-saving DVD player, a PC input, and a decent size of 26-inches. 

Craigslist

Who cares if the HDTV is used. Your buddy is probably going to spill his beer on it anyways.

Kensington locks.

All of the above items have the Kensington lock port. This is the same locking solution that laptops have had for ages, and while the cable lock will not stop a serious klepto, it will prevent causal walk-offs. Spend $30 bucks and lock your crap up.

Bonus: SunBrightTV

If these LCDs can handle rain, insects, and extreme temperatures, they should be able to survive your frat house. The 32-inch run $3,299 so I don’t think they will make the dorm room though.

Before you go humping down to Best Buy to pick up a PC, let’s ask ourselves a few questions. The rise of desktop replacement laptops – laptops with full-sized processors, hard drives, and lots of memory – have essentially supplanted the desktop PC in dorm rooms every where. Why pay $500 for a big, noisy box when you can potentially drag your $700 laptop down the hall to watch a DVD in another room or even take it to class?

Then, we have to think about Mac vs. PC. We’re a bunch of Mactards here at CrunchGear, so we’re going to recommend seriously looking into Macs to folks on campus or in school. There’s something I like to call the “Day of Shame” when it comes to Windows machines. The “Day of Shame” starts out fairly normally – you install a new peripheral or try to format a disk drive and you end up trying various installations, reboots, and incantations in order to get the PC working again. This can happen to anyone – it used to happen to me pretty regularly – and it basically wastes a full day of troubleshooting before the PC miraculously fixes itself. I’ve never had that problem with OS X.

That said, here are our desktop picks for 2008. All pricing and specs are based on base configurations without add-ons. What are you looking for? Power and price. Most PCs are over 2-gigahertz right now and 2 gigabytes of memory is about right for the average user. The real draw is a bigger hard drive for movies and music.

20-inch iMac – $1,199 – www.apple.com

Just to get things out of the way we’ve decided to bring the 20-inch iMac front and center. This thing is beautiful and you might be able to get a student discount so don’t count it out just yet. In this configuration Apple includes only 1 gigabyte of memory and a 250 gigabyte hard drive – not much, but enough – but the screen is great and you get excellent reliability. If you’re buying one PC for the next four years – be it high school or college – you can’t really go wrong.

Acer Aspire X1200 – $450 w/o monitor – www.acer.com/us

I’ve been recommending Acer recently simply because they’re offering cheaper desktop PCs with quite a bit of power. At $450 for a model with a monitor – the monitor is about $200 more – you get a 2.5GHz processor and 4 gigabytes of memory.

Dell Studio Hybrid – $699 – www.dell.com

Dell had students in mind when it designed the Studio Hybrid. This ultra-small PC comes in bright colors and contains a 1.86GHz processor and 250GB of memory. What you lose in power you make up for in style and Dell even offers a matching 19-inch monitor with the $699 package, ensuring your PC will match your accessories.

HP TouchSmart IQ504t – $1,299 – www.hp.com

I stuck this 2-GHz PC in here for those who might be considering forgoing a TV entirely. The TouchSmart has a 22-inch touch display with a few sexy features like gesture based controls and a special video mode. It’s great for watching movies and it’s compact enough to fit on a desk without requiring a fat CPU buzzing away at your feet. This is a niche product, but it might work well for some students.

eMachines S3649 – $499.99 – www.emachines.com

If you’re paying your own way or use the PCs on campus more than your PC at home then feel free to pick up this $500 gem. It comes with a 19-inch monitor and 160GB of hard drive space… and not much else. eMachines makes great, cheap machines without many add-ons. This is a solid machine that will last maybe two years without an upgrade.

I’ve tried to run the gamut from low to high with this round up. What kind of PCs have you guys enjoyed working with at school? Do you even still use desktops?

Over-the-ear cans are clunky and if you wear glasses or sunglasses then you know how annoying they can be after 15 minutes of wear. Besides you’ve got enough crap in your bag since Amazon hasn’t rolled out their college-edition Kindle.

Oh, and don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about the gamers.

I have yet to receive my review unit of the SE102MPA’s, but based on the Shures’ I’m using right now to listen to Led Zeppelin’s How the West Was Won, I’m going to go out on a limb and say they’ll do you just fine. If you’re like me and listen to tunes or watch videos on your mobile phone, then they’re the perfect solution for your iPhone or BlackBerry Curve, and the 3.5mm jack ensures you’ll be able to use them with just about every device. They’re coming next month, so hold out a bit longer if you can and set aside $120.

I also have a set of Ultimate Ear monitors and they’re by far the best in-ears I’ve ever encountered. But they were hand-me-downs from a friend who’s a professional sound engineer and I couldn’t justify paying for them, which is why I’ve selected the super.fi 4’s. They pump out some nasty bass but don’t skimp on the mids or highs and bestow -26dB of isolation and passive noise isolation. They include a custom case and a wide range of foam and rubbery ear tips to ensure a perfect fit. Musicians and sound professionals alike pimp Ultimate Ears so rest assured you’re getting what you pay for, which happens to be $130.

Rounding out the in-ear recommendations are the 6i Isolator earphones from Etymotic. These are made specifically for the iPod, but I doubt any of us would know the difference if they were used with your Zune or Zen or whatever you’re using. However, I’m not the biggest fan of long-ass cords and the 6i Isolator’s come with a five-footer, but they do come with a shirt clip. These are a bit more at $150.

And now for the gamers in the audience, let’s all take Devin’s word and grab the Razer Piranha’s. I’ve grilled him about these and he assures me they’re great and cost effective. Check out his review here in case you missed it.

“You’ve got a lot of studying to do, young man/lady. If you keep playing that damn Nintendo I’m going to throw it out the window!”

Sound familiar? Yeah, I thought so. Ever since the birth of home game consoles, academic performance has suffered (at least if you ask Mom). Back in the day, it was Metroid keeping me from finishing my homework, but these days I have quite a few distractions that keep me from finishing posts or writing up reviews. Read on for a few games that you, as a hardworking student, should probably avoid.

Any Final Fantasy Tactics game

Believe me when I suggest you not buy this one. I came through a strong Tactics addiction and now I’m stronger for it. The series is so portable and so addictive that you will find yourself playing it at “Don’t Walk” signs. The danger, of course, is that you’ll start playing it between powerpoint slides at a lecture. Don’t be like me.

Any Rock Band or Guitar Hero game

The issue here is not so much that it’s addictive, but that at any time, anyone may walk into your dorm room and say “let’s just play one song.” And we all know what lies down that road. Seriously, when you’ve got a Rock Band setup in your room, I guarantee someone will be playing it at all times.

Any PSP game

A PSP may not affect your studying ability too much (unless you get a Tactics game for it, see above), but it’s just a little too gamer-ish. A DS is not an uncommon sight these days, or someone playing Bejeweled on their cell phone, but a PSP says to those around you, “I need serious games everywhere I go.” Now, there’s nothing wrong with this per se (and let us work to overcome stigma!), but let’s just say that it implies that you want to sit alone, and the ladies will take care to respect your wishes.

Any unbelievably complex indie game

I’m looking at you, Dwarf Fortress and La Mulana. These are the types of games you see some really nerdy guy playing at a coffee shop (probably me) and decide on a whim to give a whirl. Next thing you know you’re gridding out your Dwarven caves’ layout on your remedial trigonometry graph paper. College does strange things to men, and one of them is making you want to stay at home alone in front of a bunch of ASCII characters for hours and hours.

Any… World of Warcraft

Do I really need to spell it out for you? This will be you in two months.

So what am I supposed to play?

I will tell you. Here is what you do. Get yourself a Wii. I don’t care what your position is on how hardcore it is, whether you want any of the games coming out, or whatever. Get a Wii. Because it doesn’t take long for “the guy with the Wii” becomes “the guy we keep stocked with beer so we get preferential treatment when it’s Mario Party time.” If you’re unpopular, you will become popular. If you are popular, you will become unstoppable. This is the Wii’s power. For all its shortcomings, it will make you the man on your floor. I’m just trying to set you on the right path here, young one.

For some reason a lot of my friends have really old point-and-shoots that are the size of…well, really big mofos. You might be in the same boat, so why not get something that catches everyone’s eye and will certainly make him or her your next subject. Enter the Fuji Finepix Z20fd. It boasts an ISO of 1600 for those oh so important low light girl-on-girl make out sessions, face detection and auto red-eye correction. There’s even a handy one-touch movie recording for fast uploads to Youtube. You can get it for as low as $147.95.

If you’re a trust fund baby then take a gander at the Panasonic Lumix LX3. It’s equipped with a 24mm F2.0 Leica lens. ‘Nough said. Well worth the $500 price tag and my brother really wants one. He owns, like, 20 cameras, so I trust his judgement.

So you’re over the point-and-shoot shenanigans and you’re ready to step up to a real camera are you? Good to hear. You just put a smile on my face and the face of SLR manufacturers the world over.

First up is the Olympus E-420. This thing is tiny weighing in at 13.4 ounces but powerful. It’s a pretty good entry-level DSLR that’s easy to use. I had a chance to demo this and the E-520 last week at the US Open and images came out surprisingly well or maybe I’m just that damned good. I can’t stress to you how tiny these DSLRs are, so they’re perfect to tote around campus and parties. But it all depends on your skill level. Either are great choices for only $530 and $700, respectively.

If you’re looking for an even beefier setup with all the features you might find in a more expensive package then take a look at the Pentax K200D. I don’t condone the mistreatment of gadgets, but the K200D was overhauled with all new weather sealing so some side spray from the beer bong (serious water sports enthusiasts should check out the Pentax W60 or the Olympus 1040 or 1050 with the latter being shock resistant as well) likely won’t render it useless. The 18-55mm kit lens covers the basic focal lengths needed by youngsters like yourself unless you plan on perving out in the alley of the Kappa Kappa Gamma house. Alternatively you can find the older K100D Super for much cheaper than the $620 you’ll dish out for the K200D.

The latest Rebel from Canon, the XS isn’t a shabby competitor in this arena either and it has live view as does the Olympus. It all comes down to personal preference and which UI you feel most comfortable with. The Pentax is pretty straight forward, but that might come from having used one for the last few years. The Olympus takes a bit of extra time to figure out, but it’s not the science of the rockets by any means. I can’t personally attest to the ease of use on the Canon XS, but I’m sure it’s not too difficult based on my experience with previous generations. You can snag one for $700.

More of a cinematographer are you? How about the Samsung MX20? It is, after all, Youtube ready and comes in at $280. Or you can just go with that Flip thing we reviewed a while back.

Well, kids, that should do you some good this year. Have fun and send us some of those girl-on-girl pics. Heh. JK.