She is going to college. Should she get a lap top or desk top? What brand? I am hoping for cheap and some warranty, maybe a year.

i can't recommend a computer readily since i haven't been following them lately.

I can be sure a laptop is the better way to go though.

When my computer got fried after my first two years of grad school, I went out and got an averatec 3220. less than 900, had all the features (cdrw, good HD space, wireless) that a student needs and it is lighter than you could believe.

I have been working on it for 16+ months now and never had a problem. It came with a 1 year warranty and I got an additional 3 years from staples for 200 (I think).

I dont follow such things, but I have hand no problems with mine.

-Jus

For someone going to college, a laptop is much better than a desktop. I don't know what you're looking to spend, but I spent ~$1500 on my HP Pavilion laptop, and I've been pretty happy with it (I'm a software engineer and use my laptop for work, so my needs are probably a little bit tougher than hers would be). If you do get a laptop for her, make sure it's got built-in wireless networking. I think most of them do these days, but she doesn't want to be messing with a wireless card if she can help it.

Here's the specs I'd probably be looking for if I were in your shoes, buying a laptop for someone going to college:

Hard drive - 40GB should be more than enough, 60-80GB wouldn't be too bad if it doesn't cost too much extra. (My work laptop has 60GB)

RAM - I'd get 512MB. It may be overkill for what she's doing now, but if and when Microsoft ever releases a new version of Windows (supposedly next year), she'll be glad it has that much. Trust me. (I've got 1GB of RAM myself, but a college student doesn't need that much)

DVD burner - would depend on the cost - sometimes companies will throw this in as part of a bundle. I'd definitely get at least a CD burner - you want her to be able to back stuff up.

Wireless - definitely

CPU - unless she's a hard-core gamer (and you aren't buying a computer for her to play games, right?), I think just about any Pentium 4 or AMD processor they're selling today will be more than enough.

I would suggest getting 1 GB of ram, not 512 so that Windows XP has no problem running as well as anything else she might need.

Laptops are more practical, but keep in mind that:

1) the average lifespan of a battery is about 3 years, so that you should count on having to replace that at some point.
2) repairs can be very expensive (actually, if you damage the screen then it can cost over half of a new laptop), so get a good warranty from staples, futureshop or wherever. They cost quite a bit, but it is peace of mind for 3 years.

I really like the Dell Inspiron 6000 that I'm on now. I got this one because of the warranty/service agreement and I know Dell is fine with replacing stuff with out complaining.

I think Dell has them for half the cost of this machine when I bought it new. I only have 512MB of RAM and don't do much except play poker on it and wish I had 1GB.

It is probably going to be enough computer for the next 3-4 years, at least for me.

Dell or Toshiba laptop. My company uses both in field work. They both hold up very well to a beating.

I guess the deeper question is what is she intending to study?