Laptop suggestions?....

asphyxiac
Wed, 14 Mar 2012 00:31:59 +0000

I use a MBP for my day to day stuff that requires heavy processing power. I also have a Dell PC for gaming that I bought for ~$750 with a monitor. Intel i7, 8 gigs ram standard, and I upgraded the gfx card separately/added more ram (sooo cheap on amazon, omg). It came with a decent-ish one, though.

I love my MBP, but it was expensive ($2k), and the gfx card is crap compared to a desktop gfx card (obv). I use it for everything, it’s light enough to lug to class (I walk 2 miles to school, and it’s a 15 incher), and I have all of my textbooks on it.

I haven’t had an issue with software compatibility, but I have Windows installed (dual boot via bootcamp) just in case I need to use it.

Software I use regularly: ChemAxon to draw chemical structures, LaTeX for writing up formal labs, Mathematica, Office - all run natively on OS X. Also, you can’t beat TextMate for old fashioned coding. XCode is a POS. If you need to use Visual Studio… dual boot Windows. They offer it for free for students (VS is free, Windows is $49 for students AFAIK).

If you can afford it, go Mac. Else, go Dell. Just my 2 cents.