Electrical Necessities

This article continues from What to Take to University: Electrical.


Alarm Clock

Definitely a necessity, if you want to make those early 9 o clock lectures then you are going to need an alarm clock. You don't need anything expensive and can't go wrong with the Sony Easy Alarm Clock Radio, though for iPod users with money to throw away the JBL OnTime Time Machine lets you wake up to your own music and doubles up as a stereo.

Camera

Taking pictures is a good way to catalogue your first year at university. With social networking websites such as facebook you can upload your pictures to show all your friends, and so owning a camera is a good idea. Cameras are not cheap but if you look at it as a 3 year (or more) investment then it is definitely worth the money.

There are many cameras to choose from and it worth doing some research on the internet before you buy. If you have some money to spend then the Canon IXUS 70 Digital Camera is a popular option, being light and small so easy to carry around in your pocket. If you want something cheaper you might consider the Fuji FinePix A610 Digital Camera, while your picture quality won't be so good you do save quite a lot of money.

Floppy Disks/CD's

Depending on whether or not you have a floppy disk drive on your computer you will need to either purchase some floppy disks or CD's as eventually you will be asked to submit a hard copy of some coursework. You can buy 50 CD-Rs and put your favourite music on to disk as well, or 10 floppy disks for 50 pence and just hold on to them until they are needed.

Headphones

If you want to listen to music or watch films at night without disturbing your fellow students then you will need some computer headphones. It is worth getting them with a microphone built in so that if you want to talk to friends from home without spending a fortune on phone bills you can do so online.

Logitech are a good brand and make some good headphones, I personally use the Logitech 250 Stereo USB Headset and find they work very well and do everything I need. For a cheaper option you could consider the Labtec 242 Stereo Headset. The Logitech Premium Stereo USB Headset 350 is a slightly more expensive upgrade to the Logitech 250 but for most people's purposes should not be necessary.

NOTE: if you have a Windows Vista laptop make sure that the headphones you are buying are compatible.

Mobile Phone

A mobile phone is a must have accessory for any student. Although most people will already have one it is worth finding out whether your current provider has good reception around the university, as often times one or more operators do not function very well.

You can either go for Pre-Pay or Pay Monthly phones (normally the former is cheaper if you don't think you will be using your phone much and the latter if you will be using it a lot). It is worth exploring the types of phone available and deciding what you want to use it for before making a purchase (you don't need a phone with a state of the art camera and GPS device in it if all you want to do is make phone calls and send texts!).

Network Cable

If you want to connect your computer to the internet at university you will need a network cable. Your university most likely requires the use of Ethernet RJ45 Network Cables (also called Cat5e cables) - to find out type the name of your university and RJ45 into the Google Search Engine (for example "University of Cambridge RJ45") to see whether your university mentions it. If this doesn't work try the same but using Cat5e to replace RJ45.

Although you can get these very cheap I recommend spending a little extra and either getting this 5 metre or this 10 metre Belkin cable for the improved quality. Go for the longer version if you want to use your computer anywhere in your room.


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