I second the MBP. I picked one up last September and while it isn't quite what I want (I want a smaller laptop is all), it is lightning fast, very reliable, gets great battery life, and runs games amazingly. With an educational discount you get like $200 off so that helps too.

Wow! Thanks for all your input.

@Oluseyi
I want a notebook because I won't be home alot when I start school, and I can't really lug around my desktop with me.


@daviangel
Of course I know that notebook isn't meant for gaming, although some maybe built for it, but the most gaming I'll be doing on it would probably be StarcraftII in Nov.


@NickGravelyn
Where can I get this educational discount?


and I'm also wondering how well does BootCamp work? Are there any kind of limitation/restrictions?

Thanks again so much for all the input.

-Tony.

If you go to the online Apple store and scroll to the bottom, there is a link for the Education store. You just tell it whether your work for a school or are a student and what school it is. Then you'll be taken to the educational store where the prices are a little lower (about 10% on the hardware I believe).

I have a macbook pro 15inch 2.5ghz 4gb ram 512 vid card 200gb 7200RPM drive I bought in the very end of march and I LOVE it. Its my first mac ever and its great.

To answer some questions:

Bootcamp is exactly like running windows on a normal machine because, well, it is. Bootcamp sections off a partition of the harddrive just for windows and you install windows just like you do on a normal machine, windows has 100% access to the hardware so if you want to play games you can, or run any programs you want. Windows drivers come on your Mac OSX restore disk no no need to go hunting for them. Boot camp is NOT an emulation of any sort, you are natively running windows on your mac hardware.

Now, heres the setup I have and I rather like it. I use my mac for all my graphics work and everything else, but I love visual studio to code in, so I bought a program called "VM Ware Fusion" (its not necessary but it makes things easier) but it creates virtual windows machines on my desktop so I can code in visual studio without rebooting into windows. Not to mention I can share files between the two no problem. Without vm ware you will need a software for windows to see mac drives. Mac can see windows drives.

I am really happy I switched to mac and now I see why the mac freaks go nuts over them. They are really a nice machine with a nice OS. Perfect for school in my opinion because you can run both OS's on one machine. Its nice. If you have any questions about anything I said feel free to PM me (although sometimes I dont notice the PM) but as soon as I see it I will reply.

Be sure not to miss out on Apple's back-to-school promotion. Basically if you get a Mac you'll get a free 8GB iPod Touch.

Quote: Original post by xShrimp
@Oluseyi
I want a notebook because I won't be home alot when I start school, and I can't really lug around my desktop with me.

Are you going to be a commuter, or living on campus? If you're living on campus, a desktop is still a viable option. It's only if you're commuting long distances that it becomes impractical.

My first year at Stony Brook University I was commuting, first from Brooklyn (2.5 hours each way) then from Huntington (about an hour), and having a laptop really wasn't a significant advantage. On campus there are computer labs, and at times I was actually frustrated with having to carry the laptop and power cable around.

YMMV. Portability is more of a priority for some, and laptops are cool. Just be sure that you really need the notebook, because it has no intrinsic advantage as far as programming goes. (In fact, you can argue a disadvantage due to the small screen and a form factor that means you have to bend over more to focus on the screen.)

Good luck, whatever you choose! [smile]

If you are not sure what you need get a notebook and a nice 22inch monitor. You can use the notebook in extended desktop mode so you have two screens. This is what I do at work and its great. That way, I can travel from my room to my office (ya it sucks living where you work) and connect it just like a desktop.

If you don't want two screens you can always use the notebook in clamshell mode (lid closed) and just have one screen. That way you have the portability of a laptop with the larger screen of the desktop.