<p>For current Cornell Students: We all know the laptop vs. desktop argument and the pros and cons of each style. In short, it's portability versus power.</p>
<p>However, taking into account trends in the student body like the amount of students who actually use laptops to take notes, the amount of wireless availability on campus, if the weather is actually nice enough for a significant portion of the year to want to use a laptop outside, etc., is a laptop worth it for someone who thinks portability might be better than power.</p>
<p>Also, in what particular majors/programs do you see students really need, or use in high percentages, desktops?</p>
<p>I bought a laptop over winter break for the sole purpose of portability. I spent a few all nighters at Clark where I needed to do problem sets using Mathematica and other analytical programs, and I had to borrow a friend's laptop for it. Wireless availability is very good all around campus so it's worth the investment. I'm in AEP and I can imagine chemists/physicsists/some engineers getting better use out of desktops. I have a desktop in my room when I'm running numerical simulations for my research.</p>
<p>If it's a nice day and you're outside with a laptop I think you have bigger problems to worry about. Once it hits April, everyone should replace their laptop with a frisbee.</p>
<p>So you can get wireless in the quads and outside the dorms?</p>
<p>My plan is either a niceass, new desktop from a store and a cheap, relatively light, used laptop from ebay (in case i need to take a computer with me somewhere on campus)</p>
<p>OR</p>
<p>Just a niceass laptop. It all depends on the usefulness of the portability. You're making me lean toward laptop, but I'll see what others say. Plus a laptop in general makes me lose the ability to run a PC as a media center w/ TV tuner and all.</p>
<p>In terms of price, I figure with computers money spent now is money saved later, especially if you buy one notch below the cutting edge.</p>
<p>I love my desktop and I used to be a desktop junkie but the portability of the laptop is simply unparalleled. </p>
<p>I'm not sure if you can get wireless access in the quads or in the dorms. I haven't lived in the dorms in two years and I never use my laptop in any of the quads. I don't think there is wireless in the dorms and I doubt it reaches to the quads. I do know that wireless works in almost every library and it also works in my department's building.</p>
<p>What school are you entering? If you are going to use a laptop for Word and internet, then I would personally go for a new desktop / cheap laptop. The only reason why I got a nice laptop is because I use my laptop for some heavy simulations which take a lot of time to run.</p>
<p>I'm going into CAS undecided, but probably for music, which would involve composition programs like Sibelius 3. I also like to run my Firefox browser, email, trillian messaging, a jukebox, and filesharing simultaneously haha. But yeah, that means primarily for word and internet.</p>
<p>On a regular basis I use programs like Photoshop CS, Reason 3, Sound Forge 7, Acid Pro 5.</p>
<p>Thats why I like the desktop power. Plus I could consolidate all my media (Music, Radio, TV) into the computer. Not as feasible with a laptop.</p>
<p>A used midrange laptop can still do plenty, just not as much and not as fast, so I think that might make the most sense. If I end up spending (lets pick a high figure) 2Gs on a desktop, 2 or 3 hundred for a laptop wont be much more.</p>
<p>The drawback is that transportation home issue, but I don't have my own computer at home anyway, so perhaps that nullifies things. I use a family computer, and everyone else (including my 12 year old brother, haha) has at least one of their own.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how system intensive your music programs are, but if you don't mind lugging around a heavy laptop then you might try an all-in-one package? I have a Dell Inspiron which came pretty cheap through lots of discounts and what not. I'm not an audiophile so I can't judge sound but it can play games rather well and most importantly, the battery lasts a good 4 hours.</p>
<p>Another option is to postpone the decision until later. Once you get here you'll know what you'll need and then you can buy whatever you need at Xmas time.</p>
<p>Also, I don't think I've only ever seen a person take notes with a laptop once. Then again I've had the same people in my small classes for the past two years so that's not necessarily indicative of anything.</p>
<p>Sparticus- you can solve your multimedia confusion with an Apple laptop. You can run any aux. cables you can imagine off of them, and the graphics on them is amazing for watching DVDs, or even jst playing a game. The Apples have immense power and reliability, and they are perfectly capable of being networked with PCs, so you don't have to worry about not "fitting in" in the PC world... you will just have a better, more reliable computer! Take a look, and I'm sure you will be surprized at their capabilities... Also, don't be scared of the prices, they are well worth the money!! and when all is said and done, they run just about the same as a Windows PC laptop. But of course, that's just my opinion, but when I tried an Apple only a few months ago, they sold me, a die-hard Windows guy, on their reliability and performance. They are simply beautiful machines... And the coolest part is- They Just Work!</p>
<p>not at all!! there are over 30,000 software titles for the mac! Besides, if there is one program you want that you can't find for the Mac, you can purchase a program which will let you run any Windows application on the Mac, it's called "Windows for Mac" or something to that extent. However, I really doubt that you couldn't find a program for the Mac... For example, there is a Mac version of Microsoft Office, which includes all the programs you know, including Word, Excel, Power Point, and Project Center... Trust me, if software limitations are your concern, Forget Them! Apple has done an amazing job over the past few years to be sure that everything you could possibly want to do with a pc can be done with the Macs, and you can do most of these things BETTER than if you were using a Windows PC! Take a close look at Macs and I assure you that you will not be disappointed!</p>
<p>also, Sparticus: remember Macs also make desktops which are extremely reliable... Don't overlook their desktop options if you are leaning that way. <a href="http://www.apple.com%5B/url%5D">www.apple.com</a> will tell you everything you need to know, but if you still have questions, you can ask me, or call their customer service centers with questions about which computer application will best suit your needs... They are very personable and will be able to answer any questions you have. The number is 1-800-MY-APPLE. Trust me, it won't hurt to at least take a look at them, but you be sure that if you do decide to purchase a Mac, you will be purchasing a very reliable macine.</p>
<p>How about compatibility? My concern with macs is that many programs don't have mac counterparts. I am concerned that many science/engineering type programs will not. Of course, there is always virtual pc, but... $$!</p>
<p>ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS LAPTOP or you'll regret it. All the dorms are wireless and have common areas that are always buzzing with people. If you ever want to show people something or chill out, do some homework or fool around in the common areas with your computer, you'll love having a laptop.
Even if you don't plan on taking your computer to class, laptops are soo much better, and considering today's powerful processors, unless you have a serious Doom 3 habit, even most laptops have adequate resources to play games when you want to and have a fast, reliable computer.</p>
<p>and consider an apple too ;) windows majorly sucks...</p>
<p>Well, think of it this way... you get Virtual PC for $250 directly from apple.com, and you've purchased a second computer! You can run everything a Mac user would run because they have the capability, as well as the convenience of the PC which will run any software programs which may not be compatable with the Mac... However, at a University like Cornell, I really doubt that any science/engineering programs that are used will only be available to the PC user. One would think that they would HAVE to make things available to ALL students, regardless of computer choice. But I would check with a professor as to what the specs are on the software being used. Again, if worse comes to worst, you shell out $250 for a PC with the reliability of the mac. Its not that much money when you consider the price of the software you're talking about... Mathematica runs for over $1500 (and is available for the Mac).</p>
<p>Bluirinka- Sibelius (I assume you're talking about the music software) runs for about $150... If you are going to write music, you may want to look at Finale... But I'm not sure exactly what you're going to be doing, so Sibelius may be right for you're application. If you are speaking about the Sibelius Music Academy in Finland, I'm not really sure how much that would cost :p..................</p>