|font:Courier New||B:0|I remember September of my school years as a month of shiny new dress shoes (or sneakers that still had a blinding-white gleam), shirts with collars so stiff you risked decapitation if you turned your head too fast, and spotless new binders filled with stacks of crisp loose-leaf paper. New shoes and clothes remain part of the back-to-school ritual, but technology has transformed the contents of the modern student's book bag from a three-ring binder to a notebook computer.|CR||CR||B:1|1/9^|font:Courier New||B:0|Gone are yesterday's 3-by-5-inch file cards--today's students use PCs to organize notes and later to search the notes for term-paper material. Almost any type of desktop PC can handle these tasks, but notebooks are a particularly nice format for students. You can take a notebook to the library you and even into the classroom with you to record notes and observations. A computer also cuts the time required to create a lab or other research report to a fraction of what it takes with pen, paper, and typewriter.|CR||B:1|2/9^|font:Courier New||B:0|And then there are the network resources. Many colleges now have network hookups in dorm rooms: students can access library databases on campus, across the continent, or around the world via the Internet; participate in online study groups; and use e-mail to turn in papers.|CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||B:1|3/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|All of this has turned late summer into a special time for computer writers, too. When I go to social gatherings, it's as if I'm wearing a giant name tag that reads "Hello! My name is Alfred. Ask me anything about computers for your kid!" This year I decided to do some extra preparation for the back-to-school season in hopes of finding the best answer to the inevitable question from friends and neighbors: "What notebook computer should I buy for my college freshman?"|CR||CR||B:1|4/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|I looked for notebooks that would remain useful for at least four years, with enough processing power to handle whatever most students face, which means at least a 486 processor and a color LCD screen. I also sought Windows preinstalled, and for adequate performance a system had to include at least 8 megabytes of memory. (Don't skimp on RAM as a way of cutting the cost--8 megabytes should be your minimum.) To make it easy to add peripherals or connect to a network, the machines had to have at least one PCMCIA card slot.|CR||B:1|5/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|Finding a computer like this may sound more difficult than achieving an A+ in Organic Chemistry, but it turns out that there were more than enough candidates to fill the field. From these I picked out a lucky seven that seemed to provide a good cross section of features.|CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||B:1|6/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|In looking over the field, I made some general observations that may help you in making a choice. First and foremost, there is the question of the notebook's processor. My sample group includes everything from the moderate 486SX-33 to the frenetic 486DX4-100. While the SX-33 machines didn't post benchmark results that challenged the faster models, this may not be a big concern for most students. The majority of college work involves word processing, communications, and simple database and spreadsheet tasks.|CR||B:1|7/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|Everything else being equal, an SX-33 processor can probably handle these jobs about as well as the faster machines. The only area where the slower machines will have a handicap is in engineering and heavy math applications; the DX-model processors have built-in math coprocessing circuitry that the SX models lack.|CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||CR||B:1|8/9^|font:Courier New||B:O|Which notebook is the best? The answer depends on your needs and preferences, and as you'll see, each unit has its particular strengths and weaknesses. To pick the machine that's right for you, take a look at our performance comparison graphs, as well as the system details for each notebook. While you may not be able to guarantee that your star scholar will graduate cum laude, you can at least be sure that you'll get the kid through college cum computer.|CR||CR||B:1|9/9|CR||CR| |CR||CR|
