Computer Engineering major in need of laptop

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - San Diego
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<p>Hi, I am new here and I was wondering if any current or incoming UCSD students can help me in buying a new laptop. I do not know how much processing power or whether or not I need an dedicated graphics card for computer engineering, so I was wonder if any CSE students at Jacobs could give me some input. I am considering a Thinkpad T400 as I can get one within my budget of 1100. Though any other laptop I will look into</p>

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<p>It doesn’t matter. You don’t even need a dedicated graphics card.</p>

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<p>I heard we mostly do work in the lab and don’t really need a special computer. </p>

<p>But Thinkpads are awesome. <3 my T500.</p>

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<p>Thinkpads rule, I bought a Thinkpad T500 BTW for only $683 from on of Lenovo’s summer sales O_O</p>

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<p>A laptop is not really needed. The only reason to really need a laptop is to use to it type notes on it during class or to type up the computer science programs that are used as examples in lectures. Other than that, the CAL-IT^2 building has tons of computer labs available to computer science majors. I would just recommend getting a netbook for use in lectures.</p>

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<p>Programming?? If so, get a monitor with the highest resolution you can afford unless you love scrolling and hitting the alt-tab combo. Only problem is high resolution=big monitor=heavy laptop=sucks to carry around campus.</p>

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Or get an operating system with workspaces. It gives you the capability of having multiple desktops that you can easily jump back and forth from. What I typically have is email/web in one space, edit sessions in one another, build and debug sessions in another, virtual machines in another.</p>

<p>Mac, Unix X/windows and Linux have them built in. Windows XP and Vista do not, but I read somewhere that there is software available to have a similar capability. Don’t remember the cost, I think it might be free.</p>

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<p>That’s a nice feature, but doesn’t come close to making up for poor resolution. Virtual machines are nothing new to Windows. There are a couple good free solutions. I run one of them. I’d still rather have a lot of pixels, and I do, on each of two screens.</p>

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<p>It’s all personal preference ;)</p>

<p>I’m just saying it is perfectly possible to develop software with the built in screen of a laptop without juggling windows using alt-tab.</p>