Buying a new laptop for Programming.

tatrman

Media999 wrote: »

Hi folks

This is kind of a once in a couple of year event if not more. Just started a Degree course in Software Development and have the funds for a new laptop. Have about 1100 now but can save more if needed. Have a dual core Dell laptop now that does the job but i want something a lot more powerful that will last 4 years in College.

Now the question is do i really need a Macbook pro or would a i7 samsung Chronos do. Ive always been a PC person but is a Mac better for programming?
Fully understand that you can code on pretty much anything also.

Should i get a Macbook pro or i7 Samsung

Thanks in Advance

Mac? PC? This really depends on what you want to specialize in. When it comes to specification go for the option with bigger max RAM. I currently have 12GB and I find it quite tight when I need to use virtual machine, emulator etc... Imagine what 6 or 8 GB will be in 3 years.

Media999

Just to remind people i have to spend a grand or i lose out. Its part of a redundancy package. No need to be getting a second hand laptop. 1000 euro plus.

If it was out of my own pocket id spend no more than 500.

Sparks

Media999 wrote: »

Just to remind people i have to spend a grand or i lose out. Its part of a redundancy package. No need to be getting a second hand laptop. 1000 euro plus.
If it was out of my own pocket id spend no more than 500.

Can you spend it on more than one machine? If so, grab something cheap to go out and about and have a better machine at home; with that kind of budget, you could have a pretty comfortable working environment at home and a decent work platform away from home...

tony81

Minimums of 320GB harddrive, 3GB Ram, a 15" screen and as light as possible.. dont go for a bluray disc drive. Also bluetooth built in, a number pad and an good touchpad. You probably won't need a serious spec.

Media999

Sparks wrote: »

Can you spend it on more than one machine? If so, grab something cheap to go out and about and have a better machine at home; with that kind of budget, you could have a pretty comfortable working environment at home and a decent work platform away from home...

Unfortunately not.

Exactly what it is, is 1000 euro to spend on laptop and books BUT my course doesnt use books at all.

Therefore i have 1000 just on a laptop. If i only spend 500 they just take back 500.

Very tempted now to just buy a gaming laptop for home and buy a cheapo laptop myself for college. Bit of a waste spending a grand on an ultrabook or anything like that im starting to think.

I was looking at this site here about a custom laptop. Check out the power of this for 1000.

Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3610QM (2.30GHz) 6MB

Memory (RAM)
16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (2 x 8GB)

Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 660M - 2.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11

Memory - Hard Disk
128GB KINGSTON V200 SSD, SATA 6 Gb (300MB/R, 190MB/W) (Special Offer)

conor.hogan.2

BostonB wrote: »

An Macbook would be thief magnet no?

If you are careless yes it will get robbed like any laptop. I never had a problem with my macbook or pro.

Of course it is more likely to be noticed by anyone who is on the look out to rob like any nicer phone, car or anything else.

Media999

conor.hogan.2 wrote: »

If you are careless yes it will get robbed like any laptop. I never had a problem with my macbook or pro.

Of course it is more likely to be noticed by anyone who is on the look out to rob like any nicer phone, car or anything else.

I would say any laptop is a target. Most are robbed from houses so there not gonna leave anything behind.

Sparks

Media999 wrote: »

Very tempted now to just buy a gaming laptop for home and buy a cheapo laptop myself for college.

I think that's exactly what I'd do in your place; but it'd be a funny programming course that couldn't use a few books (what languages will you be using? Get their main reference book - K&R for C, there's a few for C++, and so on. And there are some nice design-level texts as well that earn their place on a shelf; just get things you want on your reference shelf, not just what the course dictates).

Media999

Sparks wrote: »

I think that's exactly what I'd do in your place; but it'd be a funny programming course that couldn't use a few books (what languages will you be using? Get their main reference book - K&R for C, there's a few for C++, and so on. And there are some nice design-level texts as well that earn their place on a shelf; just get things you want on your reference shelf, not just what the course dictates).

Theres no books for now but another thing is it has to be spent this year so cant wait until we are using books. Everything we need is online for now.

Id rather just spend it all on laptop now and ill have the money myself next year to get books.

Sparks

Media999 wrote: »

I would say any laptop is a target. Most are robbed from houses so there not gonna leave anything behind.

Yeah, but it's like the way I don't worry too much about someone nicking my now-rather-worn-down citroen when I've parked it beside a shiny new porsche or Merc S-class

And stuff walks all the time in college - wallets/purses/laptops/you name it, usually out of bags in the library or a coffee shop or bar. And of course, there's stuff getting nicked on the train, or just plain old-fashioned muggings.

It's not so much that when you're a student you've got a big sign painted on you, it's just that you're carrying something that's moderately expensive and easily resellable in public; and that combined with you possibly being quite dependant on the data you've got in the machine means that you should think about theft when specing and setting up the box.

I'm more thinking of losing that data (the project due in tomorrow, the notes in the weeks before an exam, that sort of thing); but there's also the concern in some cases of not wanting others to get that data even if you lose it - you will, for example, be using whole-disk encryption, right? Or will you let whomever walks off with your laptop get into your bank account using cookies and saved passwords?

But it doesn't need to be fancy to sort that - the little s205 I'm using here has whole disk encryption and it doesn't slow it down to the point where I notice; and it runs dropbox quite happily for sharing some stuff and rsync and mercurial for others. Natty little box, and they've sorted out most of the linux hardware support issues with it now. Just goes to show that even netbooks can do this sort of job (granted, the original EeePC might be pushing it, but the later, beefier models do the job nicely) and they're fairly cheap - this one ran to €350 new a year or so ago; if you can't find it for half that price now, you're not trying hard enough

Sparks

Media999 wrote: »

Theres no books for now but another thing is it has to be spent this year so cant wait until we are using books. Everything we need is online for now.

So don't wait. Ask on here what books are useful for specific topics and I'd be surprised if you don't get a list long enough to blow the full grand on

And if you decide to wait the year anyway, well, what harm? A books recommendation thread's usually fun anyways
Just specify what the course is on and what language it'll be using...

Media999

Definitely rather a laptop than a grand worth of books.

Gaming laptop it is!

sethasaurus

Since you seem to be so hesitant to tell us what you're actually going to be programming...

I've got a nice Toshiba 440CDT, which runs linux and vi quite happily (even runs X and has a browser and everything).
Sporting 133MHz CPU, 800x600 res, 144MB RAM, a 1.4GB HDD and the original 1.0x CDROM, it's great for all those popular programming languages like PHP, Javascript, Python, etc.

It's tough, like a rock and super-retro-cool, and nobody will steal it (well, a geek might steal it, but you can usually spot them in a crowd).
The battery is a goner but heck, I'll throw in a new one - no extra charge.

It's yours for a measly grand

Media999

Sounds like a beast.

Mostly Java for now. Laptop needs to be new with receipt.

Trojan

If you have to spend a grand, then I'd look at ultrabooks - light and powerful. Gaming laptop might be good if it's not too heavy, and would be great for gaming obviously (but you don't need much more than a 486 SX to run Quake so power ain't everything).

Stuxnet

your going to be writing mickey mouse code in the grand scheme of things for the first 3 1/2 years, no need to go mad