Computer Science - which laptop?

[cyberfish]

Get the highest-resolution screen you can. When you're programming, you don't want to have to constantly scroll and switch between windows. Having screen height to have as much as possible of a long program displayed and width to have a second program or a browser to the page of some API is extremely useful. Avoid netbooks like the plague. You don't want to be stuck spending 40% of your time just scrolling because you've only got 600 pixels in screen space.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I have a ~1366x768 screen and while it's marginally comfortable, I would much prefer coding on my desktop.

I can't imagine doing it with anything less.

 

[SuperMiguel]

Get a dual core netbook. Books are heavy enough, might as well laugh at everyone carrying around 10lb laptops.

very good point... books are heavy!!! i had an xps 1530 and that combined with books it was super heavy... I ended up selling it and pickign up a 13" MBP... why? because for when i got it, the MBP was the only 13" that had a real CPU not a low power SU sh*t, also i get 6 hours battery life... and most of the problems i use work on it...

 

[neonblingbling]

very good point... books are heavy!!! i had an xps 1530 and that combined with books it was super heavy... I ended up selling it and pickign up a 13" MBP... why? because for when i got it, the MBP was the only 13" that had a real CPU not a low power SU sh*t, also i get 6 hours battery life... and most of the problems i use work on it...

My friend has a 13" MBP, and for whatever reason, the 4.5 pound MBP feels significantly heavier than my sub 4 pound (3.95) SZ650. The half pound difference in such a small package does make a difference, although it's only really noticeable when carrying either laptop around in one hand, not so much in a backpack.

 

[ctrl_alt_del_]

Thanks a lot guys - I will keep my current laptop and buy a new DSLR instead. =)

 

[neonblingbling]

That's getting your priorities straight!

PS:

 

[Kibokun]

Thanks a lot guys - I will keep my current laptop and buy a new DSLR instead. =)

Or a nice chair. Programming for more than 2 hours in a crappy chair sucks.

 

[ch0b1ts]

Or a nice chair. Programming for more than 2 hours in a crappy chair sucks.

I think I spent more time pacing back and forth and talking myself through the problem as I developed the algorithms and wrote the code in my head. Usually by the time I sat down at the computer to code, I already had the entire problem solved and most of the code in my brain. It didn't take any time at all to type it up, fix a couple syntax errors, and compile.

 

[aaaaaaaaaa]

Do you really need that much power for programming? It's going to be a pain hauling a big laptop to class everyday.

I'm a Computer Science and Computer Engineering Major. All you need is a $500 laptop. Save the money and take advantage of the opportunities around you at University.

 

[Luie]

+1 on getting a nice chair.

 

[jhonnyD2]

laptop's great what ever the brand is.

 

[Moto7451]

I think your best best it a CULV CPU equipped laptop. It's a good step up from a netbook but offers similarly long battery life/low heat and noise and you can get a decent screen size. Power isn't that important. In high school four years back we used 500MHz Celerons and they were fine for doing Java 2D GUI stuff. I'm currently using a 2.4GHz P4 HP laptop and the biggest issue with it is battery life (and noise but thats universal with these laptops).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146709

This laptop has a rated battery life of 10 hours while using a full Core 2 Duo type CPU (albeit at a slowish speed). Even assuming they're lying and it gets 8 hours, thats way more than a work day. Granted, you may want a little faster CPU for other tasks and maybe even a mid range GPU for light gaming... but this is pretty much the best small laptop you could get for computer science purposes. They have some of those with 2GHz CPUs and even some Core i5s if you want something more bleeding age... but again... that would have no affect on CS related work.

I don't 100% agree that you need a huge screen for CS. I definitely need a bigger one for my own at home projects but for CS you usually are looking at small code snippets more than pages and pages of documentation. My laptop has a 1024x768 screen and it runs Visual Studio just fine. It just depends on if this is going to be your main work machine or not.

 

[SeanBest]

Get a big comfy chair and a huge monitor to hook your laptop up to. Lots of screen retail space is a huge plus. Nothing like having the compiler open, your assignment on your school site, and the APIs up at the same time.

 

[mbentley]

just to throw it out there, did you check with the school to see if they have and recommended specs or requirements for CS? some schools (depends on the university) require a certain laptop. it would be horrible to buy a laptop and have to turn right around and buy another one just because it isn't the approved laptop. one of my friends ran into a situation where they had to buy a specific model of laptop and you would buy the laptop, give it to the school where they would image the hard drive with a pre-built image that included all the software that was required for classes. of course, this was a pretty expensive private school so it probably isn't a typical situation but it certainly doesn't hurt to check.