<p>Hi guys, quick question:</p>
<p>I am a prospective electrical engineering concentrator. I’m assuming that it will be necessary to download certain programs. Would buying a Macbook (or a macbook pro) make life any more difficult for me at all, or would it make very little difference if I were to get something that runs Windows 7?</p>
<p>Any suggestions would be much appreciated :)</p>
<p>^I have the exact question in my mind, but only with one slight modification: What would be the case if someone was to eventually concentrate in Computer Science?</p>
<p>No. About 70% of Brown’s population, including in the sciences (even computer science, if you discount the professors, who typically run linux, or the students who dual-boot a mac or PC and linux), has a mac. If you’re going to go for a PC, basically, try and get one with a little better than the specs of the base macbook. As for CS: you won’t HAVE to do any programming outside of the sunlab. Our computers are probably faster, and more luxurious (dual monitors and comfy chairs!) than your personal set-up would be. So, get a laptop that is light and has a long battery life. If you plan on working in your room, save some money for a second monitor (working on a laptop can be done, but coding on two monitors is much, much, much nicer). And you probably want something a bit more substantial (especially in screen size) than a netbook, but less huge than a gaming laptop. Personally, I recommend something in the 13-16" class, although some people love their 17" laptops (personally, I think they’re too heavy).</p>
<p>Thanks for the walk-through chsowlflax17!</p>
<p>You said that the ideal size for a laptop would be between 13 and 16 inches. I am caught between 2 very good machines, namely the 13 inch Macbook Pro and the 15 inch Core i7, as of now. The former gives me a fantastic battery life and portability, but the latter gives me longevity and a better feature set. If you were in my position, which one of these equally classy machines would you have gone for?</p>
<p>Personally, I’d go for the macbook pro (if the 15-inch is a PC), because macs tend to be durable, reliable, and slightly more versatile in a college setting. But, 15 inches is a good deal larger than 13, and so it WILL be easier to code on a 15-incher, but if you’re coding at home/in a lounge, and writing essays in the library, battery life is really important. Maybe the feature set would make it worth it: personally, I picked a 14-inch dell over a similarly priced 13-inch macbook (not pro). I liked the aesthetics of the dell more than the macbook, though, so eh. I don’t like this year’s batch of dells</p>
<p>Actually, if you’re going to go for a PC, and have macbook-pro-like money riding on it, just go for a lenovo. You’ll get something even more durable (and more waterproof!) than a mac, with better innards. But if aesthetics and chic-ness matter to you, the mac’s a quality build.</p>
<p>The 15 inch Core i7 is also a Macbook Pro, chsowlflax17. It has an extremely fast processor in the Core i7, fairly decent storage capacity at 500 GB, a top of the line graphics card (512 MB Nvidia 330M) and a battery life of 8 hours. Although it costs a fortune at $1999, it gives you a great shelf life of approximately five years.</p>
<p>The 13 inch-er, on the contrary, is the best intersection of portability and battery life. Weighing a meager 4.5 pounds, it lasts an outstanding 10 hours on a single charge. My only concern with it is that it runs on a somewhat antiquated Core 2 duo, and has only 256 MB of graphic memory. Looking at the rate of computer advancement, I doubt if it will stand the rigors of software demands in the coming years. Oh, and it starts at $1099!</p>
<p>Looking at the aforementioned, which one do you think is the best laptop for a college student? I am really stuck between these two. Sometimes I long the portability, but, at other times, I seem to desire the power. Since you have already experienced a year of education at Brown, could you please give me an opinion on this?</p>
<p>Edit: Having used Windows all my life, I have gradually grown tired of its security issues and the eventual slow-less-ness. A lot of my friends have Macs, and they are very happy with their experience, as of now. Keeping all this in mind, I am not in the least interested to go back to a Windows PC. But, if my CS major demands it, I might change my thoughts!</p>
<p>Thanks for the help chsowlflax17!</p>
<p>harvard17, I was actually considering the same laptops as you are, and have decided to go for the 15-inch. I guess I’d rather just have a laptop that can last really really long, because I don’t plan on getting a new laptop for quite some time now.</p>
<p>I’m also planning on study something in the engineering/compsci fields, but I decided to get a PC. It’s 14", pretty light, and has an i5 processor. Best of all, its maybe half the price of a comparable macbook pro, so if I wanted to get another one in 2 years that much better than what is out there now, i could and it would still be cheaper than getting the mac. And I’ve been a PC person all my life and have a bunch of things like Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Premier Elements for my PC that I wouldn’t want to have to buy the Mac version.</p>
<p>8 hours is a really long battery life. Expect to only actually get 5 or 6 hours, though. And yeah, I might upgrade the 13-inch, because the cost is so much less than the 15 inch one. And with your 15-incher, go with the 320 gb version, rather than the 500 gb one, because 200 gigs of space is NOT worth $200, nor is .1 gHz. Just get an external drive if you need more space. And I don’t really think an i5 is worth $800 more than a core 2 duo. But, if you can i’d maybe try and go to best buy or an apple store, and play around with both computers, to see which is better for you, before buying. Whichever you pick won’t be the wrong choice.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot again!</p>
<p>I think it would be in my best interest to play around a bit with both of these machines once I get to Brown. Based on my experience, I can buy the machine that best fits my interests and expectations!</p>
<p>On a similar, but somewhat discordant note, why are prospective CS majors discouraged from buying a Macbook Pro for their time in college? I have come across this argument many a times, but have never been able to understand its very foundation!</p>
<p>The argument is, basically:
<p>However, those people making that argument don’t typically go to Brown. Your computer pretty much just has to last your 4 years here. And many, many more people here have macs than PCs. And about 1/2 your classes won’t be CS classes anyways, so why WOULDN’T you want the additional perks of a mac? Plus, from my experience, the support here is actually better for macs than PCs (unlike in the working world/online), because so many people have macs. And, if you go with the last argument, you lose the stability, support and build quality macs offer, which is definitely worth something.</p>
<p>As a CS-dabbler with Linux on a netbook (and previously XP and Win 7), I have gotten by just fine. If I ever needed to run Matlab or compile a lot of code or use Photoshop… I could run to the nearest Brown-owned computer cluster.</p>
<p>But for taking notes/storing data/writing homework/reading online PDFs/surfing/web programming… my netbook is more than enough.</p>
<p>Then again it has more GHz and RAM than my old iBook (at $330)… so maybe that explains why I’m so satisfied.</p>
<p>Also: I have an enormous screen and a wireless keyboard and mouse that I use in my room.</p>