PC or Laptop for Grad School?

anisotropic

I find a notebook makes the most sense for any sort of academic purpose. The ability to be productive virtually anywhere and at anytime is extremely useful in such a setting. Not to mention the ability to access the Internet (i.e. all the information you could ever need, and more) so long as there is WiFi available, which this day and age is pretty much everywhere, whether it be free or a paid service.

So in short, have a notebook to be your on-the-go productivity workhorse. It doesn't need to be beefy or have the latest chip. On the contrary: pick something light, dimensions no bigger than 14", and good battery life. Remember: you're buying it for productivity and "getting sh*t done", not to play around... that's what your desktop back at home is for.

Mark512

I personally prefer a desktop due to being able to have a large screen size. I really find myself more productive with a 20 or 22 inch screen as opposed to a 14 or 15. You can, of course, have the best of both worlds and (eventually) buy a separate monitor for use at home.

Also, I've got to mention that having some sort of backup solution in place is vital. I've personally lost two laptop hard drives over the years (even being very careful with them), but never lost a desktop one.

Whether you use a desktop or laptop, my point is the same - ensure you keep copies of things because you don't want to lose your data.

derek e

Here's what I do: I have a desktop that runs Vista. On it, I have VirtualBox and a virtual Ubuntu machine that is my Linux workhorse. I also have some kernels that I can dissect. For portability, I have a net-book with a copy of Ubuntu on it. The net-book was $300 and does everything I need it to, which is mostly access to the internet, programming small files, playing with root, documentation and as a portable reader. PC, portability and cheaper than a top of the line laptop.