I'm looking to buy a new laptop. Here's what I'll do with it:
-Some programming (C, C++, MATLAB)
-Tons of music - I have a huge collection and a modest home studio set-up
-A sweet optical drive would be nice (DVD-R/RW, Blu-Ray?)
-I will do no gaming at all on this laptop so as long as the video card can keep up with the optical drive and MATLAB I don't care much about it
-A nice wireless card is absolutely crucial
-Durability, I drag my laptops around with me everywhere
-Price < or = $1250
So what do you all use/recommend?
Laptop Suggestions - Help Me Spend My $600 From Uncle Sam!
I'm a fan of Dell as you can find cheap deals and they have good customer service: you may have to try a bit to work the system, but if your machine is defective they'll replace it for free, on occasion even with a better model.
Macs are great but I can't see it worth it to pay the price premium for a Mac Book Pro when I can get something like a Dell XPS M1530 with essentially the same quality for a fraction of the price.
Macs are great but I can't see it worth it to pay the price premium for a Mac Book Pro when I can get something like a Dell XPS M1530 with essentially the same quality for a fraction of the price.
I'm thinking of switching to a Mac myself, when I get myself my first good laptop. And by good, I really mean a MacBook, not a MacBook pro.
My main concern would be compatibility issues. Does anyone know about problems with connecting macs to a school's network? What about if I have to use it to do any programming or Matlab or Mathematica?
Any advice would be appreciated.
My main concern would be compatibility issues. Does anyone know about problems with connecting macs to a school's network? What about if I have to use it to do any programming or Matlab or Mathematica?
Any advice would be appreciated.
I worked with a guy who used a Macbook in the lab. He would just run a virtual Windows desktop for programs like Matlab and Mathmatica. You could also set up a dual partition, but I hear that is difficult with man and windows OS, easier with max/linux or windows/linux.
My only problem with the macs is that I find it difficult to justify the cost. They do look good and seem nearly invincible though.
My only problem with the macs is that I find it difficult to justify the cost. They do look good and seem nearly invincible though.