[Welly Wu]

Surreal,
 
I already have a Toshiba NB205-N310/BN-G netbook so that is easy to tote around campus and on the bus (until I buy a used Toyota Corolla later on). NJIT recommends a Dell Optiplex 780 desktop PC which has the following features:
 
 
OptiPlex 780
Dell Standard Desktop Model A
For all majors except Architecture

1. Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor E7500 with VT (2.93GHz)
2. 3M Cache, 1066 MHz Front-side bus
3. 256MB ATI Radeon HD 3450 Dual Monitor
4. 2GB DDR3 Non-ECC SDRAM, 1066MHz, (1 DIMM)
5. Dell Professional P170S 17in HAS Monitor, VGA/DVI
6. 160GB SATA 3.0Gb/s and 8MB DataBurst Cache™
7. 16X DVD+/-RW Roxio Creator™ CyberlinkPowerDVD™
8. 3 Year Basic Limited Warranty and 3 Year NBD Onsite Service
9. Pre-loaded w/ Windows XP Pro

$879.00 + tax & delivery

 

It is over my budget of $700 USD, but I can afford to spend a little more on a desktop PC. The funny thing is that the Acer and HP DV6-3013cl notebook PCs are more up to date and powerful than the Dell. Both notebooks come with Windows 7 whereas the Dell is pre-loaded with XP Pro.

Is it just me or do the Dell computers that are recommended by NJIT overpriced?

I think that I will try out the Acer notebook PC in my local Costco store that has it in stock. If the build quality is as good as the HP, then I will take the risk and buy it. Costco has a generous 90 day full refund policy with the original receipt. They also give 2 years of technical support with the purchase of any computer they sell.

 

What do you think? 

 

[Surreal.]

Wow, I had to read that a few times over to see if any component in that spec list warranted the $900+ price tag. There isn't. It's not just you, that Dell is grossly overpriced. If you were to buy all those components separately it might run you no more than $500 shipped and each component would probably come with a limited lifetime warranty.
 
Do you have anything against building your own if you decide to look into the PC + netbook route? With the $900 you spend there you can potentially put together something rather nice, that won't have any problems at all running all of the programs you listed in the OP simultaneously if need be. You'd be set for the next few years, save the occasional HDD upgrade if needed. 
 
Does your school check up on the machine you decided to use for your curriculum? Because to tell you the truth those requirements aren't really written in stone and are there more to give you an idea of something that will be able to last you your stay there and run all of the possible software given to you by your courses for the next four years. There's a lot of room for flexibility.
 
As for the Acer v HP. I used to have a few HP notebooks but the keyboards on them were really bad. I'm not sure if that's been radically improved or not, but I doubt they have. Acer's have nicer keyboards but the build quality of the machine as a whole can sometimes be shoddy and aren't really popular for that reason. Mostly a low budget family laptop. Again I'm only speaking from ones I've had or used from friends, etc. But like you said it wouldn't hurt to go to Costco and just get your hands on some of them and see how you like the feel.
 
 

 

[Welly Wu]

 
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i3+Processor+/+16"+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive+-+Slate/9988697.p?skuId=9988697&id=1218205766312
 
My good friend and I are going to the Paterson, NJ BestBuy store to purchase this Toshiba Satellite A665-S6050 notebook PC tomorrow afternoon. I will help him setup the computer with Microsoft Office 2007 Enterprise Edition, hotfixes and patches for Windows 7 Home Premium, and Symantec Norton 360. In July, I will buy this Toshiba for myself. ASUS and Toshiba make the most reliable notebook PCs on the market according to SquareTrade at http://www.squaretrade.com/pages/laptop-reliability-1109/ . In fact, ASUS and Toshiba have a 16% failure or malfunction rate within the first 3 years of ownership compared to other brands.
 
It may not have the bells and whistles of the Acer or HP sold at Costco, but it is more affordable and I think it is adequate for my needs over the course of the next 3 years.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

The web designers for Best Buy are morons.  All of the Best Buy links are broken.  They take you to a page that says "Sorry, the page you requested was not found".  The pages must be tied to a session cookie or something "magic".  What morons.  So how are you supposed to send links to products to other people, or save bookmarks for yourself?  Imagine if you couldn't deep link to anything in Amazon?  Idiots.  An example of how not to design a web store.
 
I'll have to take a look at Toshiba.  They've got an ExpressCard slot on that one.  That means I should be able to add a FireWire card and get my M-Audio FW410 working.  That means good audio with the laptop.  Either that or I'll have to buy a USB DAC.  Even finding a laptop now with an ExpressCard slot is getting hard.  So many no longer have one. 

 

[grokit]

Just get an iPad; there are awesome chess games available in the app store, and everyone will want to be your friend

 

[revolink24]

I seriously hope you're kidding. They're rubbish for doing any actual work. He's a student, not just someone with too much time on their hands.

 

[jjinh]

Quote:

I seriously hope you're kidding. They're rubbish for doing any actual work. He's a student, not just someone with too much time on their hands.

Very true.

 

[demoNMaCHiN3]

Quote:

Just get an iPad; there are awesome chess games available in the app store, and everyone will want to be your friend

he's asking for serious recommendations not ways to waste money

 

[Welly Wu]

I just found out today that the price of the Toshiba laptop went up by about $80 USD. They are sold out at the West Paterson, NJ store. Oh well.
 
Costco has the best deal on that Acer Aspire notebook PC for $700 USD. Based upon my ongoing research, Acer and Gateway merged into one company and the quality control of the Acer computers have gone up over the past several years. Their technical support still has a long way to go compared to ASUS and Toshiba.
 
I am going to continue waiting until early September 2010 to buy my notebook PC. That will be back to school season and the special deals on notebook PCs will be plentiful. I will probably go and buy one from Costco because of their generous 90 day return policy and 2 years of technical support and concierge service.
 
My Toshiba netbook is too slow and anemic for serious mathematics and computer science work. When I get my new notebook PC, I am going to retire my netbook.

 

[grokit]

Quote:

I seriously hope you're kidding. They're rubbish for doing any actual work. He's a student, not just someone with too much time on their hands.

 
Of course I was kidding, just wanted to test your "defensive reflexes". Some people really need to lighten up

 

[Welly Wu]

 
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11534219&whse=BC&Ne=5000001+4000000&eCat=BC|84|56670&N=4017745%204294900030&Mo=3&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C&topnav=
 
This ASUS notebook PC has everything that meets NJIT's computing requirements, but it is $200 USD more than my original budget. I think that I can still make the purchase though it will take me until early September to do so. This is a pretty good deal for a high quality notebook PC. Based on my ongoing research, ASUS makes the most reliable and durable computers and their technical support is outstanding compared to their competitors. Plus, I get 2 years of technical support and a 90 day refund policy with receipt through Costco if I make the purchase with them. Unlike the Acer and HP, this ASUS is not a limited time offer that will expire soon.
 
My friend just bought an ASUS yesterday at BestBuy and I am deeply impressed with the build quality of the machine even though it costs hundreds of dollars less than what I am prepared to spend on mine for NJIT.
 
Here are the NJIT baseline computing requirements:
 
 
http://ist.njit.edu/compreq/current_fall/spec.php
 
Here are the Dell desktop and notebook PCs that they sell and officially support at NJIT:
 
 
http://ist.njit.edu/compreq/current_fall/comparison.php
 
So, this ASUS exceeds their baseline computing requirements and it is competitive with their Dell Latitude E6510 which sells for hundreds of dollars more, but the ASUS offers more higher performance components for less money.
 
What do you think?

 

[Welly Wu]

This ASUS K52JR-X4 is compatible with Ubuntu GNU/Linux 10.04 Lucid Lynx LTS out of the box as are most other ASUS computers too.

 

[Welly Wu]

 
http://www.costco.com/Browse/Product.aspx?Prodid=11538911&whse=BC&Ne=5000001+4000000&eCat=BC|84|56670&N=4017745%204294966821&Mo=5&No=1&Nr=P_CatalogName:BC&Ns=P_Price|1||P_SignDesc1&lang=en-US&Sp=C#
 
This looks like a good balance between price and performance. Toshiba is a good manufacturer and they make solid products in my experience. Toshiba has been a longtime GNU/Linux supporter too.
 
I hope this will continue to be available in September; perhaps there will be additional discounts available on this specific model.
 
I decided to revise my budget to around $1,000 USD as I need a powerful notebook PC to run Matlab and programming software alongside Microsoft Office applications concurrently.

 

[Ham Sandwich]

 
Quote:

I decided to revise my budget to around $1,000 USD as I need a powerful notebook PC to run Matlab and programming software alongside Microsoft Office applications concurrently.

Are you sure you need a powerhouse of a computer for school?  Even though you're doing technical and mathmatical stuff doesn't mean you actually need something like an i7 with all the goodies.
 
It's not likely that your school work will require running large models in Matlab that will drop the computer to its knees.  School work tends to be simplified with smaller models and simplified problems so to keep the concepts manageable and focus on the theory rather than the grunt work.
 
I graduated in computer science.  Nothing I did in school required a powerhouse of a computer or put any kind of a strain on even a modest computer.  Computer science is about theory and if it can be explained and demonstrated with simplified scenarios it will be.
 
For running Matlab and Office along side each other will be more dependent on having RAM than CPU.
 
If you're going to do things like run virtual machines though then things like more cores on the CPU can become useful.  Lots of RAM (lots) and being able to dedicate the VM to a core on the CPU is a good thing.  Then maybe the 4 cores on a higher end processor will be useful rather than the 2 cores on the lower end i3 and i5.
 
Are they going to cover anything in parallel computing algorithms?  More cores (like the 4 core version of the i5 and i7) is useful there.
 
Are you going to have to compile and modify huge software projects, like maybe modifying a large open source project as part of a homework assignment?  More CPU and RAM is good there, but not necessarily more cores (compiling isn't so parallel or multi-core friendly due to dependencies).
 
If you're going to do grad work stuff then you can get into larger problems that require more computing muscle.  But for undergrad stuff?  Nope, you probably won't be getting problems that require that much computing muscle.

 

[Welly Wu]

Ham Sandwich:
 
Thanks for your reply. I am just throwing options out there and seeing the replies. Yes, I know that computer science is more about theory and solving simplified problems at the undergraduate level.
 
Actually, the HP DV6-3013cl would suit my needs perfectly well even though it has an integrated GPU that shares with the system's DDR3 RAM. Perhaps I would indeed be better off by sticking to my original maximum budget of $700 excluding shipping, handling, and taxes.
 
By the way, which would you choose given the options that I have included within my thread?