Windows 7: Studio XPS i5 For CS Student?

Hi everyone,
I have a 13" Macbook Pro, 4GB, 320M, 500GB HDD, etc... Its a little long on the tooth for some things already.

I was planning to get a Studio XPS from the Microsoft store, do you think this is better for a CS Student (despite losing OS X)?

-Core i5 450M
-6GB DDR 1333
-640GB 5400RPM
-ATI 4670, 512MB VRAM
-16" WLED HD+ 1600x900 Screen

Thanks,
SMC

CS?

computer science or (adobe) creative suite?

either way, is it better if you upgrade your machine to something much better?

of course!

(unless you really need osx - but you'll still have the macbook to fall back on)

- and is the microsoft store really the best place to buy it? i don't know any better offhand, but i hope you've checked.

Ah, my bad! I meant Computer Science.

So is this machine really that much better? I could go either way on OS X.

And the MS Store is $150 cheaper than anywhere else I could find it

If you're a student, could you get a better deal through your educational institution?

It's up to you if you want it. Don't think it will really benefit you as a computer science student. I study computer science myself, and I have the system I've got in my system specs in my room, and the computers in the computer science labs are still running Pentium 4s and they're still enough for what I need to do on them.

I'm a CS student too, and yes, the XPS should be a good bit faster than the macbook pro, and would probably make things a little easier if you're doing programming.

Using my universities computers (slow core 2 duo's) for the programming labs isn't very nice. They crash kinda frequently with bad code using Microsoft Visual Studio, and it gets annoying. I have Visual Studio on my laptop (ASUS G50vt-X5) and it will just stutter and spit out an error rather than crash.

I don't know if you can still do it or not, but if you buy a computer for educational purposes you can (or used to be able to) claim it back on your tax return.

I had ordered a Studi 1458, which had
i5 460M
4GB DDR3
7200 RPM 500GB HDD
ATI 540v 512MB
for only $599

But.... Crappy 1366x768 display.

So I'm thinking of canceling that and going for the Studio XPS 16, though the hard drive is 5400 RPM. I hear that doesn't make that much of a difference.

Not sure who you heard that from....my a 7,200RPM hard drive would be my first (and really only choice), for anything where performance mattered. If you are going to bottleneck a PC with a slow hard drive...might as well go with a slower processor and everything else to go along with it.

Stick with the 7200rpm, it can compliment the i5 and ddr3, where as the 5400 will slow you down, especially when it comes to loading up programs.

Hello. Have you considered ordering the computer from Dell's website? I'm currently looking at the computer on there and they have a lot of options for customizing it. I see under harddrives they have a 500GB 7200RPM drive and a couple SSD's you could choose from. The 128GB SSD cost an extra $130 compared to the 500GB HDD but it would increase performance even more. The link below takes you directly to the customization page, where you can build the exact computer you want and see how much it will cost you, with the total price changing automatically whenever you change a selection.

The Dell Online Store: Build Your System