What computer should a physics major choose for their studies?

[zpconn]

Yeah, you really shouldn't be buying any laptop just because of the graphics card. Laptops are just not gaming machines. My Macbook Pro actually can play current games pretty well (I've tested out Oblivion and Unreal tournament 3), but there's no way it will keep up with games like a desktop would. Dell makes laptops that have dual 8800s in them, but the battery life is under an hour on average and the machines have heat issues.

Some magazine (I don't remember which one unfortunately) was only able to get one of the Dell laptops with dual 8800s to run for an hour on the battery while merely surfing the internet--no games or anything.

 

[robphy]

If you want a decent laptop that will be of use scientifically (to a physicist, mathematician (I see a lot of Macs at conferences) or even a geneticist), then a Mac is a good choice. It's BSD underpinnings mean lots of useful things like good CLI tools and a proper LaTeX distro exist, and are easy to obtain. Check out surf for fancy graphing, for example, too, or some of the gene sequencers that are written for Mac.

XP is also a good choice.
I use Cygwin for my CommandLineInterface needs and MikTeX for my LaTeX needs.
As I mentioned earlier [in reference to Math software... but it also applies to computer platforms], it's probably a good idea to be compatible with what your professors and classmates use... especially if you are new to using a computer.