Desktop PC Vs Laptop For Computer Engineer /or Computer Programmer

[Superskull85]

methodoxx @ Mon Jan 04, 2010 6:49 pm wrote:

x30Jx @ Mon Jan 04, 2010 4:57 pm wrote:

What would be wrong with, for example, wolfram alphaing the graphs/equations and importing them into the document you were working with, or using another software that you could create the diagrams and equations in and then just import them?

Because in the time it takes you to do that for one formula, you will have missed the rest of the example. Instructors move very quickly and usually won't wait for you to keep up.

Get a laptop for written notes, but don't bother trying to trick yourself into thinking a computer will help you take math notes.

You can use a laptop to take math notes (I do). You just have to approach the material a little bit differently.

You can enter equations and such in a word processor quite easily if you make use of some programming skills and convert them to more visual equations after class. You can most likely find similar diagrams in your textbook(s), and, after class, you can either add in a reference to that diagram or a replica of the diagram into your notes. You also need to read the textbook before and/or after class to stay on top of the material.

So far I am able to use a laptop in every class at university (McMaster). Also, for me, there are a lot of advantages (and of course some disadvantages) of using a laptop to take notes and bring to class.

Pros:

You do not have to worry about not having paper, your pencil breaking (or your pen running of ink) nor having to worry about where to place your notes when you binder/clipboard gets full.
If you lose your physical copy you are able to print another copy easily (assuming you have a printer, or you are willing to pay)
You are able to produce well organized and legible notes. Because your notes are digital you could upload your notes to your friends or back them up in the cloud.
If you need to look up something fast, you can easily connect to a hotspot and find the information (may not be usable for essays or similar, but you are able to find answers to questions that you may have quickly). This pro doesn't really help in fast paced classes though.

Cons:

Depending on your laptop it may be a bit heavy to carry around and/or may not fit well on your lap/desk. I would get a 15-17 inch notebook (or any netbook) as they fit reasonably well on your lap and on most desks. Anything bigger than that will be a pain.
You may actually type slower than you can handwrite.
Depending on where you sit within your lecture hall/classroom you may not be able to use external power sources, though if you only have 1 hour classes you should be able to go through the entire class on minimal power. My HP Pavilion stays about 50 % battery live on minimal power during my hour lectures. In between classes (if you have time) try to plug in your laptop so that you can charge your battery a bit. Also try to sit in seats near walls so that your can plug in your laptop during a class.
You will most likely have to operate on minimal power during class, which, depending on the class, you may need more than to run applications (though you usually only have to do this in tutorials).

When I go to class I always bring two things: my laptop to type notes, and a clipboard with paper, a pen and a pencil if I really need to handwrite notes, or my laptop stops working for some unusual reason and cannot fix it during class (or do not have time to do so). I will also carry any textbooks that I really need to bring to class (usually slower classes require you to bring a textbook to class to do exercises).

The laptop I use is the HP Pavilion DV7-3060CA. Pretty cheap laptop (under $1000), 500 GB hard drive space, 4 GB of memory, 2.40 GHz AMD dual-core processor, 17 inch display, Windows 7 Home Premium and about 7.69lbs. Little bit on the heavier side, but the job. You can get the laptop here: http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/cat_sku.asp?CatIds=&webid=830067&affixedcode=WW

[Alexmula]

i use a laptop (lenovo t400.. very durable.. 6+ hours of battery life.. 14 inch screen) for all my university classes aswell

for my history classes i typed pretty much everything since it was very fast paced

for math classes i used a wacom tablet (costs about $60-80) very accurate handwriting. onenote is pretty good in terms of organizing all your notes

for CS classes i used both the tablet or just typed the notes. most of the time we were given PDFs, so i just copied them over to onenote

if you have a question, you can just google it real quick wolfram alpha for math classes

some of the cons of using a tablet is that your hands might get tired faster because youre not used to it. you also have to write on the tablet while looking directly at the screen

[wtd]

Superskull85 @ Tue Jan 05, 2010 11:22 am wrote:

The laptop I use is the HP Pavilion DV7-3060CA. Pretty cheap laptop (under $1000), 500 GB hard drive space, 4 GB of memory, 2.40 GHz AMD dual-core processor, 17 inch display, Windows 7 Home Premium and about 7.69lbs. Little bit on the heavier side, but the job.

With the exception of the DanBook, I cannot think of another laptop more poorly suited to life at school.

Poorly built, heavy, terrible battery life...

[syntax_error]

Call me old fashion, but man I love my pen (ink) with thick quality paper.

It works.

If needed for you to have a digital copy have no fear, Evernote is there.

[Brightguy]

Superskull85 @ Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:22 pm wrote:

You can enter equations and such in a word processor

Do yourself a favour and look into LaTeX.

[Vermette]

I tried writing latex notes in one class (Computational geometry). It was fine for the proofs, but I still had to go back later and revise it after the class to make it readable... and I was making enough doodles off the blackboard that I still needed a sheet of paper. I started doing \ref{paper3} in the latex notes and numbering the drawings on the paper.

I DO however fully endore using LaTeX+XFig for written assignments.

I found the best system to be a 5-subject notebook. If the course is using lecture notes I also print them out and write in the margins.

[chrisbrown]

Off-topic, but DanBook? Now I'm curious...

[andrew.]

methodoxx wrote:

Off-topic, but DanBook? Now I'm curious...

DanBook:

Dan @ Fri Jan 01, 2010 3:29 am wrote:

Personally i went with a desktop replacement style laptop (very low mobility but lots of power and a big screen and keyboard). It's had it's ups and downs. Lakehead has outlets for laptops in most class rooms so battery power is not an issue (i get about 1 hour to 3 hours depending on the cpu, gpu and other power settings) however it's size and wegth have been made it a pain to move around and unuseable in class rooms that have cheap plastic notebook tables attached to the chairs. On the plus side i only need A laptop and not a PC for all my needs and i can use it any where there is a power outlet (the battery is relay more of a very good UPS). In terms of usefulness to the academic side of things, it has helps a lot for running servers, high graphics programs and simulations during presentations and demos.

[[Gandalf]]

I highly recommend against taking notes in any math related course (this applies to almost all theoretical computer science) with a laptop. It's slower, you'll spend more time tinkering with the tools than with understanding the material while you write, you don't gain the muscle memory you do when writing stuff out (which is after all what you do during tests), you're more prone to distractions from an IM or whatnot, etc. But, if you don't believe me, gain your own insight by trying, I won't stop you.

Tablets are a different story.

[Brightguy]

Personally I don't think you are being fair, Gandalf. Typeset notes are simply more useful overall. The biggest downsides I've found are recording diagrams and that you have to compile the notes before studying them.

[Superskull85]

Brightguy @ Tue Jan 05, 2010 6:40 am wrote:

Superskull85 @ Mon Jan 04, 2010 10:22 pm wrote:

You can enter equations and such in a word processor

Do yourself a favour and look into LaTeX.

For me it's a lot easier to simply use Microsoft Word and type equations as if they were an expression in programming code.

I also find it faster to type as I pay attention to the lecture more actively and type more passively (instead of focusing a lot on the paper to make sure I am writing on the lines). As for diagrams, I find it easier to use words over diagrams, and if I do need to find a diagram my textbook provides the resources I need. Also I do not do math exercises using my laptop as it is faster for me to work out answers that way.

To avoid the distractions simply do not launch any programs that may distract you; just a word processor and/or a web browser if you need to obtain quick answers.

You can use a laptop to take any kind of notes, for any class, as long as you know the software you use, its shortcuts and anything that will make your input to the computer fast and understandable. Also instead of typing word for word, take bigger chunks of material and type that out at once. You will be able to type faster if you already know what you need to type. Another skill to have is being able to type without looking at the screen or the keyboard (I find that this really helps).

Each person has their own needs and likes, but you should be able to use a laptop to take notes effectively, you just need to find a way that works for you.

[Brightguy]

It may be easier, but Word is really not a good tool for dealing with complex equations.

Incidentally, I moved from Word to LaTeX because of Word's poor mathematical formatting, but now I think LaTeX is more logical and useful even for documents with no math. Instead of typing into a rich text box, you open a text editor and type programming commands. This might seem obtuse to those who have never used a programming language, but those who know and love programming languages probably see the power and flexibility that this offers (and complexity, which is probably the main reason LaTeX isn't as popular as it should be).

[jdubzisyahweh]

get a Sweet gaming desktop and a net book, much better idea than getting a crappy gaming laptop that would be less powerful than a desktop.
AMD based desktop can handle motherboards and ram with 2.6 ghz of front side bus, lapttops and intel based systems handle only 1.3ghz.
Want power( though is WAY OVERPRICED) get intel, want blinding speed and more powwer than what u need anyways, GET AMD!!
AMD's best vprocessor is their 3.2ghz black edition quad (wich is overclockable) and has a fsb of 2.6ghz, most new motherboards handle this.

[DemonWasp]

Front Side Bus speed is not everything. Nor is CPU clock rate. Neither actually tells you much about the speed of the device (there are 1.6Ghz CPUs that outperform 2.2GHz CPUs, and so forth).

The memory architecture for AMD is very different from Intel's. Blindly comparing a single number is lies, damned lies. There are a lot of factors that make 1.3GHz vs 2.6GHz mean less than nothing.

Both AMD and Intel produce powerful CPUs that will be able to handle pretty well all your computing needs at reasonable prices. As always, don't buy the super high-end stuff, buy something that's about 6-12 months old and you'll get a vastly better deal.

[Dan]

jdubzisyahweh @ 4th March 2010, 9:01 pm wrote:

get a Sweet gaming desktop and a net book, much better idea than getting a crappy gaming laptop that would be less powerful than a desktop.
AMD based desktop can handle motherboards and ram with 2.6 ghz of front side bus, lapttops and intel based systems handle only 1.3ghz.
Want power( though is WAY OVERPRICED) get intel, want blinding speed and more powwer than what u need anyways, GET AMD!!
AMD's best vprocessor is their 3.2ghz black edition quad (wich is overclockable) and has a fsb of 2.6ghz, most new motherboards handle this.

The new intel CPUs are 3.2GHz (3.46GHz Trubo): http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37151

Also the new intel motherboard's FSB is acuataly clocked closer to 3.2GHz however intel is mesuring FSB is transer rather then clock, eg. GT/S (gigatransfers per second).



Gaming laptops can offer simular specs to desktops however the cost is singificantly higher, they are rather large and have almost no batterly life. Persoanly i like the desktop replacment style laptop as i can bring my main computer with me to the office, class and home as well as use it for games, servers and other CPU or graphics intensive tasks (which is usefull if you need to do a persentation that invloes a protype of a server, game or visualization of some kind).