Laptop for college freshman (or something else)?

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: mdahc
So drivers have ZERO to do with GPU programming? Then why did my brother's desktop Geforce 4 MX die on him when I recently installed 71.89 WHQL's and then I suddenly got a message from the card's BIOS upon reboot saying that it wasn't programmed properly? Have you ever programmed in OpenGL or DirectX? Writing drivers has EVERYTHING to do with programming their respectable hardware counterparts. Have you ever heard of API's? What does that stand for...oh yeah, Application PROGRAMMING Interface. It's a common interface for hardware manufacturers to program for a certain platform. Um, yeah. Drivers do not alter the video card's BIOS or "programming." If your brother's GF4MX blue screened from ITS OWN BIOS with a "programming" error, something tells me it had nothing to do with the drivers. Was it a Windows blue screen? If you can't reformat Windows and have it work again, it WASN'T the drivers. Thanks for playing though

With Longhorn a little more than a year from release, and this guy, who I'm assuming wants his son's machine to last as long as possible while supporting as much software as possible, about to purchase a machine, it would be rather foolish not to buy based on what you know is coming. Planning for technology requirements five or six years from now is also foolish because no one can gauge what hardware and software will do that far in advance, but a little more than a year, come on. Again, no one is disputing you. But as I said: Longhorn is fully functional w/any notebook you buy today. A Centrino notebook will run Longhorn fine, integrated graphics or otherwise. A machine with decent discrete graphics would be better, but not everyone has that kind of money to spend on a laptop that will be used to check e-mail between classes.

 

[mdahc]

I'm not saying that it altered the BIOS. I'm saying that the drivers altered its programmable interface to Windows. Again, when you write a driver, you're programming the hardware to interface with a certain platform. What do you think is the point of driver updates? You program a piece of hardware to interface with your OS differently (hopefully for the better). So your contention that drivers and programming GPU's has nothing to do with each other is completely wrong.

Another thing, why don't you run Longhorn on your T42 next year and let us know how functional you are?

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: mdahc
I'm not saying that it altered the BIOS. I'm saying that the drivers altered its programmable interface to Windows. Again, when you write a driver, you're programming the hardware to interface with a certain platform. What do you think is the point of driver updates? You program a piece of hardware to interface with your OS differently (hopefully for the better). So your contention that drivers and programming GPU's has nothing to do with each other is completely wrong. And I'm saying that using unofficial drivers has zero risk of screwing up your computer permanently. Modded drivers are just official drivers w/tweaks. If they work, they work; if they don't, they don't. Don't like the risk of modded drivers? DON'T USE THEM Moving on....

Another thing, why don't you run Longhorn on your T42 next year and let us know how functional you are? OK, wanna buy it for me? I'd be willing to bet it'll be just as functional as XP, only I might not be able to run all the eye candy. And if its not, GASP, I'll upgrade something. CPU, RAM, whatever. Or, since XP will be a perfectly viable OS for the next SEVERAL years, I will JUST KEEP XP :Q *GASP*

 

[Gigantopithecus]

Erm, back to the OP's question:

Find out if he has a computer lab in his dorm, and how common computer labs are on campus. If there's one (or more) in the dorm, and lots on campus, wait until he's been there a few weeks, settled into his routine, and knows how much space he has in his room, how often he finds himself wishing he had a laptop, etc.

I bought a laptop before my freshman year, and rarely if ever used it because there was a lab downstairs, and didn't want to lug it around with me since pretty much everywhere I went there were labs I could use.
I bought a desktop when I moved out of the dorms, further away from campus, and had lots more space!

Tell him good luck. We need all the natural scientists & engineers we can get! 🙂

 

[Tiamat]

His major would be a part of your decision as well. If he is in 3d animation, desktop is the only way. If he is into lib arts, laptop is good. If he is engineering, both a desktop and laptop would be good. Laptop for the labs (doesnt have to be powerful, just good enough for excel) and desktop for crunching numbes in things like matlab and maple.

 

[Lord Banshee]

Well my first two years of college i didn't need anything but a desktop (so thats what i have) (Athlon64 ~$1000 total system cost)

My next to years (starting this fall) i will be transfering to another college and they require you to have a laptop. So i will be buying myself an IBM T2. Can't go wrong with IBM.

I am majoring in electrical engineering.