(FORTUNE Magazine) – Attention, class. School hasn't even started yet, and already you have to answer some tough questions when it comes to technology. Yes, you need a computer at college, but which one? Windows or Macintosh? Desktop or laptop? Do you scrimp on the budget, knowing the low-end machine will almost certainly flunk out before graduation, or spend more for a machine in the hope that it won't be the class clown four years from now? And what other gizmos do you need in the dorm room? On the following pages we've created a cheat sheet of cool gadgets--a mix of electives and requirements--that can make campus life more productive and fun, not necessarily in that order.

The biggest lesson we've learned: Don't buy anything until you've checked with the admissions office. Schools, especially at the graduate level, may recommend specific brands and even specific models of computers, and many of them offer discounted prices to students. In some cases, computer support on campus is set up to fix only certain brands. And schools may offer better deals on software than you can get at home. Check in advance to see what kinds of network connections are offered in dorms and on campus. Dial-up? Ethernet? A growing number are moving toward campuswide wireless networks. What if the school leaves the computer choice up to the student? Here's my advice: Buy the most advanced computer technology you can afford today and recognize that it may be outdated well before graduation. Windows vs. Mac? Windows rules among people who wear suits, so if a student is headed toward a career in business, it's probably a better bet. (Gamers prefer Windows, too.) Macs are popular in creative arts, and they're typically in front of the curve for cool technologies like wireless networking and digital video. Laptop or desktop? Desktop systems offer more boolah for the moolah, and they're harder to steal. But laptops are the popular choice on campuses that are going wireless. The mobility is cool, but hang on tight: Lugging a notebook computer is like carrying around a briefcase with $1,500 cash in it.

Sound system: Philips FW-i1000

Now that Napster is toast, streaming audio over the Internet may be the next-best thing. This $499 mini-stereo system plugs into a high-speed Internet connection--the kind offered in many dorm rooms and in houses with cable or DSL modems--and delivers more than 1,000 Internet radio stations from around the world. Homesick foreign students can listen to their favorite back-home stations, and music lovers can tune in any time of the day or night to catch the latest tunes from London, Seattle, or Tokyo. It's push-button easy, and the stations can be selected by musical genre, language, or geographic region. (Here's how you sell it to your parents: It's a great way to develop an ear for whatever language you may be studying in school.) If the radio station provides them, the name of the artist and the song are displayed on the control panel. (As new Internet radio standards emerge, the FW-i1000's firmware can be updated online.) As a stereo, it pumps out an impressive 220 watts of power. When you want to listen to your own tunes, the three-disk changer handles store-bought audio CDs or homemade CD-R and CD-RW disks. This system rocks, in any language.

Pocket tools: Sony Clie organizer, Olympus voice recorder, DiskOnKey portable drive

Handheld organizers are definitely useful on campus. MP3 players are definitely cool. But one device in the hand is worth two in the pocket, now that Sony has introduced the elegantly designed but clumsily named Clie PEG-N710C (below right). The flagship of Sony's Clie family is a Palm-based organizer that comes with headphones and also plays MP3 music files. The N710C, $499, has one of the best color screens in its class, a 320-by-320-pixel, front-lighted display that is easily viewable in daylight. Like other handheld organizers, the Sony is handy for jotting notes, keeping calendars and phone numbers, and doing sneaky calculations in math class. It also comes with software for displaying photos and video clips. Alas, the N710C offers just 16 MB of storage, so if you have a big collection of tunes, you'll probably want to invest in an extra Memory Stick or two.

Along similar lines, the new Olympus DM1 digital audio recorder (far left; about $300) allows you to record 22 hours of class lectures or listen to one hour of MP3 tunes--you choose. (Actually, with an extra 64MB SmartMedia card you can do both.) It comes with MusicMatch MP3 software. If you can do without the music, the Olympus DW-90 is a remarkably cool, derringer-style digital voice recorder for about $100.

The clever little M-Systems DiskOnKey portable USB storage device (left, top) can't play MP3 files either, but it fits on a key chain and makes it easy to move MP3 or even (gasp!) schoolwork files from one computer to another. Plug it into the USB port of a USB Mac or Windows computer, and it automatically (except on Windows 98 machines, naturally) shows up onscreen as a separate hard disk. The 32-megabyte version is $100.

Desktop PC: Sony Vaio PCV-RX490TV

It's hardly the most economical PC around--the $2,499 price doesn't even include a monitor--but Sony's Vaio RX490TV Digital Studio is definitely the most fun. It combines a powerful processor (1.7GHz Pentium 4), a TV tuner card (for watching cable TV on the computer screen), and Sony's Giga Pocket hard-disk video-recording software, which will capture all your favorite soap operas on the 80-gigabyte hard disk while you're forced to attend class. (Unlike TiVo or Replay, it doesn't skip commercials. Bummer.) The Digital Studio also has an IEEE 1394 high-speed port for connecting a digital video camera, and comes with Adobe Premiere LE video-editing software. Your resulting video masterpieces can be recorded on DVD via the the built-in Pioneer DVD-R/RW drive (which also handles CD audio, CD-RW, and CD-R disks). In other words, this PC works hard and plays hard. But if there's extra room in your budget--and on your desk--consider the Altec Lansing speakers on the next page, because frankly, the Sony speakers bite. And don't get suckered into buying the matching 15-inch Sony LCD flat-panel display, ridiculously priced at $999. You're much better off buying a bigger, cheaper, 19-inch tube monitor, which shows off video much better than any LCD. Or if the idea of a flat-panel LCD display is too cool to resist, consider the 15-inch Samsung SyncMaster TFT, which costs just $399 after an $80 rebate--less than half the Sony flat-panel alternative.

Okay, so maybe the 'rents won't go for a $3,000 computer system. No sweat. Give up the video recording and DVD writing, and you'll get a better bang/buck ratio with the Dell Dimension 4100 desktop PC. For less than $1,500, you can get a system with a 1GHz Pentium III processor, a fast 40GB hard drive, a 17-inch Sony monitor, and an ATI All-in-Wonder card for TV viewing and video editing. An Epson 777i color inkjet printer is just $79 extra.

Digital camera: Intel Pocket PC Camera

Once you promise your folks that you'll send them e-mail postcards and point out that it costs only $99 (after a $30 rebate), the Intel Pocket PC Camera will be an easy sell. It works both as a digital still camera that you can carry around and as a Webcam that you can leave attached to your PC for making video phone calls back home. As a carry-around camera it can hold more than 100 submegapixel-quality photos or up to two minutes of so-so video without sound. When the memory is full, connect the camera to your PC's USB port, and the Intel software makes it easy to transfer and store images. Using the camera to make video calls over the Internet is surprisingly easy and delightfully cheap, as long as you use the school's high-speed Internet connection. Even though the picture quality is barely tolerable, Mom and Dad will be thrilled. (Be sure to remove your tongue studs before talking, however.) The Microsoft Net Meeting software that enables video calls is included. There are fancier cameras, to be sure, but for the bucks this one is a great addition to the dorm. You can even set up a live Webcast of regularly updated snapshots from your desk, so your parents can see what you're doing in your dorm room at any hour! On second thought...

Laptop: Apple iBook

Apple has always been strong in education, and with its new "iceBook" portable Macintosh it once again has a thing or two to teach the competition. Weighing about five pounds, the iBook packs a lot of features into its sleek design. Built around a 500-megahertz G3 processor, the rugged iBook ($1,299 to $1,799, depending on which kind of optical drive you want) costs less than half as much as the high-end, wide-screen PowerBook G4. The high-resolution 12.1-inch LCD screen is bright and sharp. Standard features include built-in Ethernet for connecting to a campus network, an IEEE 1394 FireWire port (for connecting a digital video camera), a 56K modem, and a wireless networking antenna that, coupled with an optional $100 Airport card, allows you to tap into a wireless network if your school has one. Get at least 128 MB of RAM, which is standard on all but one of the configurations. If you're determined to get a Windows laptop, check out the 3.75-pound Sony Vaio R505TL, which starts at $1,499. It ,too, has a 12.1-inch screen, and with a snappy Celeron 650MHz processor, a 15-gigabyte hard drive, and Windows ME.

PC Speakers: Altec Lansing ADA890

It's hard to fit a real home theater into a dorm room, but this, on a miniature scale, comes pretty close. Altec Lansing's five-piece, THX-certified computer-speaker system--four 15-watt satellite speakers and a 60-watt subwoofer--provides enough Dolby Digital decibels to make even a small-screen DVD sound really big. Attach it to a desktop PC or laptop equipped with a DVD drive, or a videogame console that has DVD movie playback, and this $350 speaker set will definitely get the attention of your dorm neighbors. It's also great for listening to your MP3 music collection, and if your PC has a "3-D positional" sound card, you can hear the bad guys creeping around you in a shoot-'em-up videogame. But the THX system, developed at the behest of George Lucas (Star Wars) to more accurately reproduce Surround Sound movie soundtracks, really shines on DVDs. There's a wireless remote control and a headphone jack for those times when everyone but you is studying.

Headphones: Plantronics DSP-500

Good headphones are essential for proper dorm etiquette. But the Plantronics DSP-500 digital signal processing headset ($139) is more than polite; its noise-canceling technology also keeps your neighbor's lame music taste from bugging you, and filters out your roommate's whining. The adjustable boom microphone comes in handy for speech recognition, taunting rivals in multiplayer games, and making cheap voice calls over the Internet. Just plug them into the computer's DSP port and wrap your ears around your games and music.

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