<p>Hey guys, I will be majoring in Computer Science this upcoming fall semester, and am thinking about getting a laptop. Top on my list, is a Lenovo Thinkpad T-series... Are these laptops good for college work, especially my type of major, and if not, what else would you suggest... The basic specs are as follows... </p>
<p>Intel i7 - 2.80
6 GB RAM DDR3
500 GB HDD 7200 RPM
Intel Graphics 3000
9 Cell battery</p>
<p>The T-series will be just fine for CS. Main issue you may have is about screen size. I do alot of coding work with my thinkpad (L412 - 2010 model, 14" screen), but when I deal with a large amount of code and files, I tend to want a larger screen. I bought a 23" monitor last year to supplement my thinkpad just for this reason. I come in from class, hook it up and instantly I have a much better handle on my project. I’m not sure what the native resolution is for your particular model, but thinkpads sometimes come with a much higher than average resolution ( > 1366 x 768). This is obviously an add on feature and will cost extra, but if you can find one with it I doubt you’ll complain once you start getting into more complex cs projects haha. I’ve been using my thinkpad for a while now and I love it. Used to be a mac user, but switched over a little while back. Macs are great computers by the way. I just had some trouble with buggy tools that i needed (particularly QT 4) and decided I’d rather just have a working windows/linux set up than have to mess around with issues. If I wasn’t a CS major though and I didn’t need any of those programs, I’d be Mac all the way haha. Just an opinion though. Hope this helps.</p>
<p>I think my previous post may have come off a bit one sided, sorry. I should’ve said that CS is cross platform and all the work that can be done on windows/linux can be done on a Mac as well. I just had a personal preference for using windows/linux because I had a past knowledge of it and could move through the bugs easier. Mac is a great platform, just not what i wanted to use. You’ve certainly got that option though if you’d like to look into it.</p>
<p>Yea, I will be bringing my 22’’ monitor with me perhaps, and will just double screen when I am in my dorm… Also thank you for the resolution tip, I will invest the extra $50 to get a better screen…</p>
<p>Invest in a dock, too. Thinkpads have that advantage over other laptops. Just slap it down and you’re connected to a monitor, power, external keyboard, mouse, etc. Advanced ones even have an option for an external graphics card!!</p>
<p>Yea I know, I heard about that… But it may become to expensive at that point. I will worry about getting the laptop 1st, and then getting add-on’s such as the dock, and external keyboard… Also what does the Lenovo dock do? Is it really worth it…</p>