Buying a PC or laptop

There are many factors to consider when purchasing a computer for Applied psychology.
The first one is should it be a desktop PC or a laptop?
I would probably prefer a laptop as obviously it`s portable and would allow you to bring it into college to do work.
Also it`s essential that it has USB slots to accomodate memory sticks and other gadgets.
A good hard drive with a minimum of 30 gigabytes would be needed but ideally it should be much higher(some computers these days have as many as 250 gigabytes storage space).
After all the more space you have the more files and important lecture notes you can save to disk.
You can never have enough RAM on a computer either as the more you have the faster you`re computer will be.
6-8 gigabytes of RAM should suffice though.
As for operating systems I personally would prefer Windows XP or Vista as I don`t have much experience with Linux and find Macs a bit less intuitive and harder to use.
Since we use programs like Photoshop and Illustrator on our course a high performance graphics card would be advisable.
Something like an Nvidia Geforce will do the trick.
Since someone on our course will undoubtedly be on the internet a lot while doing research or accessing blackboard, a good internet browser like firefox would be needed.
Also a security system to protect from internet viruses is essential.
I`d say there`s no real need to waste money on an expensive one as in my experience the free one AVG works just fine.
It`d be worth purchasing a mouse to plug into the laptop as I find using the built in one can get a little frustrating after a while.
Battery life is another concern.
No matter how good the laptop is it`s no use if it`ll just die in fifteen minutes.
That`s why it`s important to ensure you always have a charger handy just in case the battery runs out while you`re typing up an assignment.
For a laptop that has all this I`d recommend a Dell or Toshiba but at the end of the day it comes down to two things, personal taste and affordability.