<p>Well, I have decided that I want an Apple laptop. I'm going to be a BME at Duke in the fall (about a week now). And I'm still debating the iBook vs. Powerbook question. The price of the iBook would make me feel less guilty even though my parents are willing to pay more for the powerbook. I'm just wondering if the 32 mb video card on the iBook is enough for the CAD that a BME may encounter. Any ideas of which laptop is better for a BMEs workload?</p>
<p>You don't need either for a BME. All the CAD software you need will be available in the computer labs, so there's no need to get a computer just for that, unless you want to pay hundreds or even thousands for the software as well.</p>
<p>(1) I own and powerbook, my neighbor owns an iBook. I cannot stand using his laptop. The processor gets bogged down and runs into issues. You'll be paying for speed if you buy the powerbook.</p>
<p>(2) I think that any software you will need to use will be easily installed on the many cluster computers around campus so you won't even need the laptop for those kinds of things.</p>
<p>What kind of programs do you run that make the processor get bogged down? Just curious if it would apply to the things I'd be using it for. At most I'd have iTunes, Safari, Mail, a Chess program, Adium, and Microsoft word open at a time. I don't do much with photos or video.</p>
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The processor gets bogged down and runs into issues
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<p>Most likely he doesn't have enough RAM and you're seeing the effects of massive page swapping from the hard drive.</p>
<p>i like the powerbook, if for no reason other than that it looks better.</p>
<p>get the ibook. if you want to run CAD and all those programs that require a lot of system resources, just build a desktop and bring that along.</p>