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General discussion

Need Help Selecting a Laptop for a Computer Science Major?

by mdalcm Jul 16, 2006 12:07PM PDT

Hello everyone,

I need some help here. I am starting to look for a laptop for college, i will be studying Computer Science so i want a powerful notebook. I have been looking all around from the new Apple MacBook Pro to most of the PC ones. If anybody could give me some insight on what to buy it would be greatly appreciated. I am willing to spend to about $2000.

Thanks

Discussion is locked

7 Posts
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hmm...
by mtf612 Jul 16, 2006 5:08PM PDT

What are you going to use the laptop for? i have a very fast laptop(3.8ghz 2mb l2 cache , 2 60gb 7200rpm, 8mb buf, 2 gb 533mhz ram, geforce 6800 256 mbp, etc) but its not very portable and also cost 3.5 grand lol.

I reccomend HP as they have some good portable notebooks that have some power...but if you need a gaming pc, alienware is the way to go (but there is supposively bad support, but since your a computer science major you can probably handle yourself)

PS. What college are you going to? Im in going into 10th grade and want to be a computer sience major myself (MIT or caltech if SATs are good enough). I am becoming A+ certified this summer and love computers. What career are you planning on taking?

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answer
by mdalcm Jul 16, 2006 10:36PM PDT

I am actually going to Suny Institute of Technology, its a state school here in NY. I will actually be getting both my masters and bachelors degrees in 5 years. But i just mostly want to use it for my programs, my music. So when i go to the library i can have my work with me. Doesnt have to be too amazing buti want a nice piece to keep up with my desktop

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not a direct answer, but...
by linkit Jul 16, 2006 8:39PM PDT

Look at the website for the particular CS department, contact them, or make a visit to see what they recommend for the upcoming semester.

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My recommendation :
by Ghost26-20878886633866019035262628200812 Jul 17, 2006 1:29AM PDT

I recommend to students who have a budget like you the Dell XPS M1210. It is small ( 12.1 " ), light and delivers good performances. It also has the nVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 to run the future AERO Glass Interface.

Look at this model !

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not a 64-bit CPU
by linkit Jul 17, 2006 11:43AM PDT

Dell XPS M1210 is a nice portable computer in general, but not necessarily the best for CS students. The Intel Core Duo is not a 64-bit capable CPU, which is likely to be helpful to CS and EE students.

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What program usage
by jelgert Jul 17, 2006 1:44PM PDT

Are you just going to be using Java or C++ because if that's the case then you don't really need a monster of a computer to do it if your going to use the computer for something more along the lines of 3D rendering say like AutoCAD your going to need something a bit stronger and to my knowledge if its going to be doing some number crunching a 64 bit processor would also probably not be to bad an idea. That said the new Core Duo chips are outperforming the AMD chips this round through so yes if you want the best performance and better wireless I'd stick with Intel. Although if you want that 64 bit processor and are willing to wait Intel should release their Core 2 Duo chip for laptops (Merom) next month I believe since in their news conferance they noted that they would be releasing the chips for servers, desktops and laptops all about a month apart from each other and since the new Core 2 Duo chips are showing up in desktops now I'd suspect in my opinion to see them in laptops by the end of next month. Anyways though this is just speculation if you need the laptop right now and want a 64 bit processor you need an AMD processor.

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answer
by mdalcm Jul 17, 2006 11:01PM PDT

I will be definetly running some java and c++, i just want something powerful so if i have to do something, it will have the cabalilty of doing it. Ill admit my choices are down to Sony, Dell, and Apple, just dont know what to do about it.

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