Must have accessories for college laptop?

Which accessories do you think one should have along with a laptop computer?

Thanks

 

Second battery (does it count?), some sort of bag or something to carry it in.

 

portable speaker
to play wild while everyone's studying

 

a mouse ?

 

Maybe some good quality headphones?

 

Hm.

A Laptop bookbag (I say bookbag cause you can't fit much else in a sleeve)
Mouse
Headphones
USB Flash Drive
External Hard drive
And depending on what kind of laptop you get, a cooling pad (I personally wouldn't bother if the laptop you have has an intergrated graphics card only)
Maybe a second battery if you're looking at unplugged all day use.

 

That is the perfect list I would say.I would also add a second battery charger.I always have a second one.It may sound redundant but in case of failure it's game over....

 

a) Proprietary docking station (note: you'll also need a laptop that can handle such) so you can head back to your desk, and within seconds, be all hooked up to your peripherals, hard drives, networks, etc.

b) Good quality WUXGA (or 1080) external LCD.

c) Bluetooth mouse.

d) Mouse pad

e) Kensington lock (note: your laptop will also need an appropriate slot to support this).

 

First and formost: LOWJACK! This is good in case your laptop is stolen you will be able to track it as long as you can remember all of your log in information to the website.

2.) A bookbag was padding for your computer

3.) A 2GB or higher Flash Drive

4.) Noise canceling headphones (I enjoy studying with music so it is nice to not have any excess noise from your roommate or any other shennanagans.

5.) A USB/Bluetooth mouse

6.) (Optional) USB keyboard. I find external keyboards are a little easier than my notebook's.

7.) Some nice 2.1 logitech speakers so you have rage in your dorm room

8.) An extra battery if your notebook lasts less than 4 hours

That is what all I took to college last year and it served me well

 

Must have?
None.

What might be useful can be a protective sleeve if you stuff it into a bag with other stuff - I stopped using mine on my Vaio though - too much hassle.

Other people mentioned a mouse - might be useful too.

There is no simple answer - if you feel you have all you need then you have, buy something when you find you NEED it, not because it could be useful.

 

1.mouse
2.external hdd portable one
3.some kind of bag/case

 

Thanks for all the suggestions. Not sure if I want to get an external monitor, but it's always an option. Lojack sounds good... I'll have to look into that.

Thanks

 

Some things I found very useful living in the dorms:

• Kensington lock (assuming your laptop has a slot for it)
• A backpack with a laptop pocket, or a sleeve if your backpack does not have a laptop compartment.
• Headphones/headset: you'll grow tired of the poor quality of laptop speakers very quickly, and sometimes it's impractical to have sound playing out loud.
• Mouse: touchpads aren't great for everything. If you only intend to use a mouse while sitting at your desk, perhaps look at something full-sized and wired or wireless. If you intend to take it everywhere your laptop goes, you'll probably be better off with something more compact, and with a small USB dongle or Bluetooth.
• Mouse pad: in my experience, desks provided by universities tend to be in pretty rough shape, and mousing directly on them is painful.

 

I'd say you need a philosophy more than you need any accessories. The philosophy are two fold. 1) Never leave it unattended. 2) Trust no one. More than anything else, your laptop is likely to be damaged by roommate shenanigans, or stolen by roommate friends. The moment you let your guard down, you'll wish you hadn't.

After that, I'd get a keyboard and mouse. I call these, my gorilla protection.

 

maybe 2.1 speakers for good parties, and some loud music...umm...flash drives?

 

Headphones, mouse, flash drive(s), and an extra charger. Those are the only real accessories I recall using throughout college (fit just fine in a normal backpack), and I must say that the extra charger was extremely convenient. That way, I'd always have one with me in case my battery decided it wasn't going to last the whole day, and I'd also have one that never left my desk. It was annoying to have to constantly unplug it and plug it back in. Of course, this was with a HP from circa 2005, which I'm pretty sure never broke 3 hours of battery life even when it was new.

 

I'm in university and I have

1. Swiss Army bag with laptop compartment
2. Zalmann cooling pad (if your temperatures are higher than desired)
3. External HDD (extra content, backups, etc.)
4. USB flash drive
5. SD card (like a USB drive but stays inside my laptop so it goes wherever I go)
6. Logitech MX Revolution mouse
7. Extra charger (so I can leave 1 plugged in at home)
8. Extra battery

 

The best 2 accesoires I have are an external keyboard and mouse so I have a bigger distance between myself and my laptop, to save my weak eyes a bit.