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Looking for a laptop for college, need some guidence.

I absolutely love my Macbook Pro (which is a bit older than that one, I got it in November 2009) and it's been very useful for the relatively small amount of programming I had to do for my Master's degree. It's also a really sturdy machine, and honestly things get beat up when you're at college. I would recommend getting the warranty with it, since towards the end of the first year my trackpad stopped working (still under the 1 year warranty) and I saw the price it would have cost to fix without it, so I bought the additional 2 years. Then, at one point my computer wouldn't turn on and it was apparently a small wire connecting the motherboard to the hard drive, and if I didn't have the warranty that would have cost a small fortune. The computer is a total win otherwise, and it's actually worked better for longer for me than other laptops. If you are majoring in computer science, you may need to carry it with you often, and the 13 inch is relatively light...even my small female self with a back injury was able to carry it around with little issue. I also find it very easy to keep clean, and even after almost 2 years the battery life, which originally lasted around 6 and a half hours while being connected to the web, still lasts about 5 and a half.

Just my $0.02 until someone with more computer science knowledge jumps in (most of my work/projects/etc that relate to that field are in computational linguistics)
 
you're majoring in computer science but you can't specify a computer for yourself? does not compute...

what are you going to doing with it? will you just be using it for academic tasks - researching, writing and such? or will you be developing applications on it? if so, which platforms are we talking about?

alasdair
 
alasdairm said:
you're majoring in computer science but you can't specify a computer for yourself? does not compute...

what are you going to doing with it? will you just be using it for academic tasks - researching, writing and such? or will you be developing applications on it? if so, which platforms are we talking about?

alasdair
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I'm assuming I'll like computer science. Watched a few MIT python tutorials and it all seems interesting. Haha, most people don't know much about the small details of their field until they're actually in the class. But, to be more on subject, I assume I'll be doing all the basic stuff and then programming as well. I think they said it was C++ or C for the first class. All I want to know is whether or not a macbook pro would be easy enough to program on and, if not, which computer would be better. Also, I'd like to know if there is a better laptop on the market for about the same price of the macbook.
 
macs are fine for coding on, plus you can install *nix or windows if you want.

Apple generally has a back to school special that is your best bet for scoring a deal on a mac.
 
kaywholed said:
macs are fine for coding on, plus you can install *nix or windows if you want.

Apple generally has a back to school special that is your best bet for scoring a deal on a mac.
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Yes, they do a 10% student discount also with a valid student ID, which at least cuts the tax off in most places.

And, if you want to run windows as well, be warned that it takes up a TON of space, and the computer you're looking at has a rather small harddrive...I know I wasn't willing to lose about 50gigs/a third of my HD just to dual boot windows on here.
 
purple_cloud said:
Yes, they do a 10% student discount also with a valid student ID, which at least cuts the tax off in most places.

And, if you want to run windows as well, be warned that it takes up a TON of space, and the computer you're looking at has a rather small harddrive...I know I wasn't willing to lose about 50gigs/a third of my HD just to dual boot windows on here.
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Haha, Ok. So what would you suggest instead?

What do you think of the 13.3 inch dell lattitude e-series. http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/l...=1474301&acd=s6W6p6wTc,12953747140,901qz26673

Also, I went here . What do you think of them. Remeber that I will be going for computer science so a cpu that I can eventually tinker with and have fun with would be better than an easily operable mac.
 
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major philosophy said:
I'm assuming I'll like computer science. Watched a few MIT python tutorials and it all seems interesting. Haha, most people don't know much about the small details of their field until they're actually in the class. But, to be more on subject, I assume I'll be doing all the basic stuff and then programming as well.
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you're making a lot of assumptions...
major philosophy said:
I think they said it was C++ or C for the first class. All I want to know is whether or not a macbook pro would be easy enough to program on and, if not, which computer would be better.
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easy enough to program on? what does that mean? it has a keyboard and a screen so if you can type and see, should be as easy as any other computer :)

does your course prescribe a specific environment? perhaps you should find out, in a little more detail, what you're going to be doing and which tools that will require before you make a decision. it may be unlikely in practice but you're going to feel pretty stupid if you get a macbook and your course requires something which is windows-only.
major philosophy said:
Also, I'd like to know if there is a better laptop on the market for about the same price of the macbook.
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better how?

alasdair
 
alasdairm said:
you're making a lot of assumptions...
easy enough to program on? what does that mean? it has a keyboard and a screen so if you can type and see, should be as easy as any other computer :)

does your course prescribe a specific environment? perhaps you should find out, in a little more detail, what you're going to be doing and which tools that will require before you make a decision. it may be unlikely in practice but you're going to feel pretty stupid if you get a macbook and your course requires something which is windows-only.
better how?

alasdair
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You're making me sound very stupid. I know very little about computers man... thank you, though. I thought there'd be a pretty simple answer. So let's see, I basically wanted to know what laptop 'computer guys' like (if you could get any laptop for under 1500, which would you choose? I'm also assuming that I'll be good with computers after taking cpu sci, so that's why I'm wondering if a less user-friendly, but maybe more expert friendly laptop is the one that i should go with. and if so, which should I look into.) Asking alot. My bad about that
 
when you ask a vague question like "which computer is better?" without even beginning to quantify or qualify your requirements, it's impossible to give an answer. it also suggests that you haven't put much thought into the question yourself.

poor answers are often nothing more than a reflection of a poor question.

if i could get any laptop for under $1500 i'd get whichever lenovo thinkpad i could for the money. that said, how does hat information help you? my needs and your needs could be very different.

alasdair
 
I wouldn't get a mac, that's for certain. But like alasdairm said, your needs may differ from mine.
 
Hehe yeah, me neither! And I wouldn't spend $1500 on a laptop, I'd spend around 1,000 on a kick ass desktop and the rest on a smallish, portable laptop - I find a 12" screen is fine. Oh wait, I did that already!
 
skillet said:
Hehe yeah, me neither! And I wouldn't spend $1500 on a laptop, I'd spend around 1,000 on a kick ass desktop and the rest on a smallish, portable laptop - I find a 12" screen is fine. Oh wait, I did that already!
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The downside of this, however, is if he needs to carry his computer around with him. Being in college, having a desktop is a pain in the ass if you wanna go home for breaks and take all your work with you, or even carry your work to the library. Having a good laptop has served me well.

And yes, all of our needs are different...I didn't expect you, OP, to have known much about computers, you just find them interesting enough to want to learn more about them! Computer science is a good field...lots of jobs out there for it, at least from what I can see. Once you take a couple classes, you'll know if it's for you or not...often people enter college with one thing in mind, and walk out with a degree in something totally different!

And, macs aren't as easy to mess with as PCs, so you might want a computer you can experiment with a bit more yourself. You can run a unix OS on a windows machine (or a mac machine) and get yourself used to using the command line to move things around...that might be useful to learn a bit about before getting to college.
 
Exactly my point purple cloud. I've been watching MIT computation classes on their website, where they employ python and I like it so far. I ended up going with the thinkpad T420s which may be a bit overkill for just being a college student, but its a sick laptop so I figure I'll be able to keep it for 4+ years (in grad school and such). It's a 14inch screen so it shouldn't be too heavy for college. Thanks for all the info.
 
alasdairm said:
you seemed to be headed for a mac - what changed your mind?

alasdair
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I'll be going into computer science so I figure I'll get something other than a mac because they're more for non-computer savvy ppl and ppl doing stuff with graphics. Then I looked at the thinkpad. It has good reviews, the keyboard is liked (important for a programmer, right?), the graphics are nice, it has a 14 in screen, and its not too big. The specs are good, and it was under 1500. Overall, it seems to be a good choice for me. Hopefully I'll be able to take more advantage of its specs once I get more involved in comp sci
 
major philosophy said:
I'll be going into computer science so I figure I'll get something other than a mac because they're more for non-computer savvy ppl and ppl doing stuff with graphics.
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You're joking, right?

Yeah, Macs are great for graphics and whatnot, but Windows is by far for less computer-savvy "ppl."
 
addictivepersona said:
You're joking, right?

Yeah, Macs are great for graphics and whatnot, but Windows is by far for less computer-savvy "ppl."
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idk man that's what ppl have been saying. no big deal, I'm sure the laptop i chose isn't going to have a huge effect... they're both good systems, just a matter of choosing one.
 
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