Eldest Miss K has changed form maths A-level over to I.T A-level. No problem there, however she has been advised that her nice laptop won't be an easy option for I.T and a desktop would be better (after giving away a perfectly good 'un). So my question to those in the know, is what spec should be a minimum for A-level I.T.

I can't imagine you need anything too fancy, unless they have vastly changed the course since I did it. What's in the curriculum nowadays?

When I did A-Level Computing, we just used some old Pentium II 200Mhz PCs that the IT department had spare. Did the job, and even coped with Quake II.

Edit: Just realised you said I.T. and not computing.

I did A-Level computing which was mainly programming, and also did an I.T. course worth an A-Level, which was mainly office apps. What will Miss K be doing?

i did mine on a p3 nothing fancy with 512mb ram and had no problems what so ever

...she has been advised that her nice laptop won't be an easy option for I.T and a desktop would be better...

I guess if they are advising against a certain machine, then they must have a required spec. somewhere. Ask them for a copy of it.

I guess you need to find out what's on the syllabus to decide whether the laptop will be up to it, for example they might recommend using the latest and greatest version of MS Office, whereas in reality older versions are perfectly acceptable.

Chris

I really can't see A level IT being that resource intensive - I did an IT degree and ran the latest MS Office, Goldwave (audio recording/editing), Macromedia Flash & Director (multimedia ceation/animation) and some music creation software on a venerable P3 450.........

BUt as has been suggested, see what the course actually requires in terms of software programs - my A level IT only used office and *cough* Foxpro (yeauch) and I was suck with using the colleges Apple Mac LCII's.........

Most schools can't afford the latest kit so I can't imagine that a fairly new laptop would cause a problem. I wonder if the comment was aimed more along the lines of the amount of time she'd have to sepnd on it would make a desktop easier from an ergonomic viewpoint. I doubt they would need a floppy disk drive as USB sticks would suffice, although the school may have a policy against any auto-running media to limit the possibility of viruses getting onto their systems.

Find out the exam board and the specification number and pay a trip to the exam board website to find out if they have a minimum spec for the system. I'd expect Win XP, IE6 and a reasonably up to date version of office to be needed.

Certainly when I teach GCSE ICT online we find office 2000 is OK for most of what the students have to do.

Laptop should be fine unless they want her playing with the gubbins on the PC.

I would suggest p4/Althlon etc of 1.8Ghz(ish) or better.

512Mb RAM minimum.

60GB HDD

DVD ROM/CD Writer

Installation of windows and if you can do it a nice linux such as ubuntu too as this contains all the tools you need for programming in almost all languages.

The spec of the PC i put up there is not high and should be able to cope with anything they reasonably want to throw at it. We still use lesser machines for some software engineers at work.

when i did a level it all we did was fiddle about with word and excel. so you dont need anything too speccy....

Cheers guys, apparently it's to do with eye strain, as they feel a laptop is too much work on the eyes. As it happens, this thread has thrown up a promising option.. , so the final resolution may be desktop at reasonble price.

Cheers guys, apparently it's to do with eye strain, as they feel a laptop is too much work on the eyes. As it happens, this thread has thrown up a promising option.. , so the final resolution may be desktop at reasonble price.

Wouldn't it be cheaper just to get her an external monitor

FWIW, I use a laptop all day everyday and have not suffered from eye strain....

Chris

Cheers guys, apparently it's to do with eye strain, as they feel a laptop is too much work on the eyes.

Not really much between laptop screens and TFT monitors these days... :confused:

More likely to be back/shoulders/wrists that go through it from being hunched over a laptop for hours on end...external keyboard and mouse are less than a fiver and a couple of old phone books to prop the laptop up to a decent height cost nothing...

Rob.

Agree with Rob M; buy her an external keyboard and rodent.

C As it happens, this thread has thrown up a promising option.. , so the final resolution may be desktop at reasonble price.

Whats that then?

Whats that then?

Was going to be a pc from a member here. However my daughter drcided against it just before the deal was done (she is paying so her choice), so option 2 will probably be enacted (already have new spare keyboard in the loft).

ATEOFD..her money so her choice.