<p>Hi, my parents just bought me a new laptop not knowing RPI has a mobile computing program. It actually a very good laptop and returning it would entail a 15% restocking fee.</p>
<p>Anyways I want to know how hard would it be acquiring all of the software and stuff necessary if I was to bring this laptop, versus just eating the 15% fee and getting a RPI laptop anyways?</p>
<p>The software is free to all students here:</p>
<p>Yeah some people bring their own laptop. It just entails getting everything downloaded and installed, which may require visiting the computing center. They have some deal worked out where students get the software basically free. In the case of MATLAB you need to be connected to the RPI network to use it.</p>
<p>thats a big relief!</p>
<p>thanks for the info, Also, I dont know the demands of engineering software, but
how long do you think this laptop will last me (in terms of being able to run latest engineering software) I am hoping atleast 2.5 to 3+ years</p>
<p>T61p</p>
<p>T9300 2.5ghz Dual Core
4GB RAM
120gb HDD
Nvidia FX 570M 128mb vid
Vista Ultimate x64</p>
<p>thanks</p>
<p>You won't have any problem running any of the software with that. </p>
<p>The RPI laptop this year was the T61.. so the laptop next year might be the T61 again or it might be the one you mentioned, I don't know. 4GBs of RAM seems a little excessive to me, but lots of people are getting that much for gaming and running Vista. </p>
<p>But anyways, it should definitely last you a few years. You wont be able to run the latest games (eg. Crysis, Bioshock, etc) on high graphics, but I don't think there are any laptops that can. </p>
<p>Also, Vista Ultimate sucks. I've heard the Ultimate version is a waste of money.. Also, the x64 version has additional bugs over the x32 version. But they will probably be fixed in time, and a machine like that should be able to run Vista fast and smooth with no problems.</p>
<p>trash the Vista ==> for XP professional. IMO...but that is a great laptop.</p>
<p>
[quote]
Also, Vista Ultimate sucks. I've heard the Ultimate version is a waste of money.. Also, the x64 version has additional bugs over the x32 version. But they will probably be fixed in time, and a machine like that should be able to run Vista fast and smooth with no problems.p
[/quote]
</p>
<p>Depends on your needs. I have Ultimate x64 on a custom desktop setup. Needed the capability to fax (a lot of 3rd programs still don't work with Vista and there are companies that make you fax stuff, it's more of a specific need). Moviemaker might be important for some, and there are random features. Mainly, I have a combination of some needs of the Home Premium and the Business, so I wanted and bought Ultimate. Most people don't need these features and could probably go with Home Premium.</p>
<p>Maximum RAM is 8GB for Home Basic, 16GB for Home Premium, and 128GB+ for any other edition. It may sound insane now, but when XP came out in 2001, 128MB as the minimum was considered high end, 256MB was considered very high. Now 2GB is considered decent. Stuff changes.</p>
<p>The main limitation is that x32 OSes (many Vista installs by big name manufacturers and XP) are limited to addressing 4GB of memory, including any graphics card. Microsoft "fixed" this in SP1 by making Vista display the amount of RAM installed by reading it from the DIMMs, but it'll only use 4GB. 2GB is too low for Vista, 4GB is pretty good. Vista will also prefetch the apps you use the most in RAM which may make RAM usage appear high, but it lets go of it instantly if you load a rarely used app or a high memory usage app.</p>
<p>As an x64 user, I'll tell you that there is incompatible software. These are mainly hardware utilities (hard drive testers, some nonstandard Snanning software), but most older applications install fine. And the world is moving to x64... there are a few, but I've also used x32 vista and x64 is more stable in my opinion. x32 has less 3rd party software errors, but x64 is better as an OS (less issues).</p>
<p>Certain companies include "downgrade rights" (may be an upgrade depending on your opinion) to XP with their Vista licenses, if you don't like Vista this may appeal to you.</p>
<p>thanks for the input everybody, decided to keep the laptop</p>