Laptops for a Biz/CompSci/BIM major? Thinkpad 430s vs. Macbook Pro

Colleges and Universities A-Z University of California - Irvine
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<p>Hi!</p>

<p>Incoming freshman here. I'm going into the fall as a Business Information Management major at UC Irvine (so basically business and computer science major). I'm hoping to also minor in Digital Art as well.</p>

<p>I'm debating on Thinkpad 430s vs Macbook pro 13" inch. I wanted to ask what may be necessary in terms of my major. I want a computer that is fast, reliable enough to last me at least 4 years, and will be compatible with for whatever biz/comp sci stuff I may encounter.</p>

<p>Right now I'm debating between a Macbook Pro and a Thinkpad T430s. But I wonder which will be better when I start working on my management and computer sci courses--- which will make it easier for me. Any other brand / model suggestions would be great! </p>

<p>BIG Questions:
Intel processors i5 vs i7?
GHz -- 3.6 necessary?
How much memory -- 4 GB vs 8 GB?
Anything else that will definitely be necessary in a computer?</p>

<p>Money is not a serious issue IF long term it will make school easier for me and it will last. Because I'm working with loans, the cheaper the better! (:</p>

<p>(fyi, apologies in advanced for those who noticed i posted this question in 2 other forums. for some reason cc won't let me tag any of my threads! if anyone knows how to fix this let me know! otherwise-- sorry in advance for having to post this in the biz, comp sci, and uci forums!)</p>

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<p>I survived my first year fine with like a 2 year old asus. (core 2 duo 2.1 Ghz, 4 GB ram DDR2) I’m a BIM major with an accounting minor. Almost any computer with an i processor should last you for 3-4 years.</p>

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<p>I think you should also look at the respective video cards as well… i5 vs i7 won’t really matter unless you’re doing some crazy stuff on your comp. Ram wise 8gb is nice but 4gb is what you probably only need.</p>

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<p>@chazik what year are you now? I’m looking for a computer that will help me in the long run. I can’t bring the one I have now/: it’s pretty much dead (old hp netbook). Is a mac worth investing in? or a lenovo thinkpad (looking at either the t430s or thinkpad x230 convertible tablet).</p>

<p>@junshik define crazy? lol i just want to understand clearly the differences. ive been looking it up, but no clear definition besides speed. </p>

<p>which matters more anyway in the speed of a computer… total memory or processor?</p>

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<p>

You’re doing BIM…
I knew this when I was 12</p>

<p>You should rethink your studies if you don’t know the basics of computers.</p>

<p>Computing speed depends largely on the speed of the weakest link. In recent years, this is the end user - YOU. This is true even for myself and I’m an advanced user.</p>

<p>CPU <- CPU cache <- Memory < Disk/Nand</p>

<p>the CPU essentially processes all information.
RAM holds information which helps the system avoid disk caching(this kills performance)</p>

<p>The CPU does all the work. It’s up to the rest of the system to keep it fed with data to process. If it’s not being feed, it’s sitting there idle and is doing nothing. If your computer’s CPU doubles in speed, but it spends most of it’s time idle, then your bottleneck will be disk/memory access speeds.</p>

<p>A computer essentially loads data from a Harddrive or SSD, places it into memory and then feeds it to the CPU to be processed. If you’re out of memory, then the CPU has to read from the HDD/SSD which is slow. You want to keep the CPU feed.</p>

<p>For all intents and purposes, for general use, the CPU speed doesn’t matter much, memory usually matters more. More memory doesn’t matter much if you aren’t using it.</p>

<p>
[quoteI’m looking for a computer that will help me in the long run.
[/quote]

Computer… long run? are you crazy? These things are technologically obsolete 6 months after you buy them. If you spend $1million, they still are obsolete within a year. They might still be usable, but they aren’t GREAT.</p>

<p>Don’t spend $1000 on a facebook machine. You can do that for $250(heck the phone I got for FREE from microsoft does that). Then every year you can take your $250 computer and go into the middle of campus and drop it from a tall building and buy another. At the end of your senior year, you can sell your remaining $250 laptop for $200. The person who spent $1000 will probably also be able to sell their system for that much, but they wouldn’t have had the divine pleasure of smashing 3 laptops and laughing at the idiots who insisted on spending a lot while simultaneously laughing because their system was better faster and cheaper during their junior and senior years.(or you could sell the others for $600 instead of smashing them all and come out having spent only $200 on computing over the course of four years)</p>

<p>Check here, basically treat your purchase as though it’s a commodity item - because it is.
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