<p>I'm an incoming student in Pratt (BME/ECE) and in the midst of the "which laptop should I get?" struggle. So, for anyone with knowledge on the subject, what do most people use? I'm thinking that what most people use must function reasonably well, and at least if breaks there will be a whole host of people that can help me quickly fix the problem. I'm not really trying to follow the crowd here, just get a feel for what works and doesn't work. So, operating system, manufacturer, specs, whatever is important. Thanks!</p>
<p>Practically anything you can buy that’s better than a netbook is probably good. Idk specifically about BME/ECE since I was a BME major, but from the ones I met, they seems to be doing fine with whatever they got and I’ve seen Apples, PCs, OS X, Windows, Linux, etc etc. So go ahead and buy what you want and if it can run a few basic programs like Office, LabVIEW, a NI Daq Card, and maybe Matlab, then you are pretty much set. (none of those programs barring matlab is very memory intensive at all, and matlab is only really intensive because you could program it wrong and slow down your system).</p>
<p>I had used a Lenovo Thinkpad for my first 3 years in Pratt, then switched to a MacPro and never looked back. The thing about a Mac is that you can easily bootcamp in Windows 7 (for free I might add since you can install MS products straight from Duke OIT website). So, even when I needed a program that required windows (i.e. SolidWorks for ME), it was never an issue, plus I had the convenience features on the Mac side. Plus, Macs just work. All the time.</p>
<p>I’m also taking a Lenovo ThinkPad (T510, in case your were interested in specs).</p>
<p>I had an IBM Thinkpad X61 for working on the go and an HP dv6000t at home as a “desktop” both machines ran everything just fine.</p>
<p>Oh no doubt, the Thinkpad will be just fine, and I’m enjoying the Windows 7 experience on my T61 now, which is the computer I use at work. The real kicker for me though is how long the damn thing takes to start up, and how it can easily get “bogged down” after hibernating. After a while when you’re running from class to class or in a hurry to print out an assignment 2 seconds before its due, it’s REALLY nice to have a comp that fires up reliably in under 5 seconds (which has been my experience with the Mac, running either OSX or Windows). Maybe it’s just me, but that alone is worth it to chose one over the other.</p>
<p>^</p>
<p>I have a ThinkPad R61 from mid-2007 with 64-bit Windows 7 Pro. It “fires up reliably in under 5 seconds” for me, but then again, I do have 4GB of RAM. If your Mac can do the same when it’s running Windows 7, then it might just be that your Mac’s specs are superior to those in the T61. A Mac running Windows is a PC, plain and simple.</p>
<p>I just put my machines to sleep, usually fires up in 5 sec or so.</p>
<p>^In regards to that, is there any disadvantage to putting laptops to sleep? I was always under the impression that while leaving computers technically “on” when computers are put to sleep, the computer constantly uses more energy (even if it is a little bit) than a computer that is completely off, so in the long run, those kinds of computers wouldn’t last as long as laptops that are always shut down. On the other hand, it might take the computer more energy to turn off/on laptops and I’m not sure if THAT would lessen a laptop’s longevity than just putting a laptop to sleep. Any laptop advice would be appreciated!</p>
<p>Sleep uses a trickle of juice so that your computer wakes up faster, it sort of like putting your computer into suspended animation. That way, your computer isn’t really “booting up” from the off state but rather from a lower power state so that it can hit the ground running. The down side is that if you are low on battery, it’s likely that your computer will die on you if you put it to sleep for a long time (a few hours). </p>
<p>Hibernation, on the other hand, actually saves whatever you are working on onto a temp file on the hard drive then turns your computer off, meaning you save power but it take a bit more time to boot up. </p>
<p>As for laptop longevity, I’m not actually sure what you mean? The “longevity” of a laptop will probably depend more on the quality of the physical hardware more than on whether you sleep or hibernate as the energy usage difference between the two mode for normal use is almost negligible. </p>
<p>If by “longevity” you mean battery life, then yes, hibernating will probably let you go longer without having to plug it in, which might be important if you take your laptop to classes. </p>
<p>If, on the other hand, you mean battery “longevity” as in the how long the battery can last you through repeated charge/discharge cycles, then I doubt it makes a huge difference. All laptop batteries are rated for a certain number of charge/discharge cycles after which the effects of battery deterioration will become pronounced. While sleeping does use power, leading to more frequent charging/discharging, in normal use, you probably won’t see a significant discrepancy in how often you have to charge your laptop when you put it to sleep versus when you put it on hibernate. By normal, I mean you put it to sleep in between classes, when you are not using your computer during the day/night, etc.</p>
<p>Yeah, I was referring to the latter. I think that makes more sense now, if it doesn’t really make that much of a difference long-term whether I shut down or hibernate. Also, if I just close the laptop screen down, does that sleep or hibernate it?</p>
<p>You can set that action to do anything from nothing to completely shutting down your computer.</p>