amd vs intel for education

[2bighorn]

Actually I haven't heard about them and I doubt most of the consumers either.

Silicon Graphics Inc, the legend of CGI. You as an IT professional you should have.

You must be talking about non-consumer products there.

Ah, define what is consumer high-end Ferrari desktop system. If you say top of the line Mac Pro, than this should apply to any other top of the line x86 workstation too.

Speaking about consumer products.
You surely are aware that Apple's computer business was dying (betting on the wrong horse too many times) and Apple would probably be just a memory if not for Microsoft bailing them out.

Their transition from computer manufacturer to consumer electronics company (icraplets, dumbphones, etc), and as Skuzzy mentioned, top notch marketing, is what made Apple what it is today, not some perceived superior computer OS or hardware it runs on.

Purely on technological merits, Apple computers (OS included) are not better nor worse than anything else on the market, claiming otherwise, just makes you a fanboy.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Oh, the hatred and fear. Oh!  

I was once just like you. It's almost sad when I look back.

Silicon Graphics Inc, the legend of CGI. You as an IT professional you should have.

Lol you're speaking about age old machines once used for movie rendering. It's not even remotely in my scope of interests.

Ah, define what is consumer high-end Ferrari desktop system. If you say top of the line Mac Pro, than this should apply to any other top of the line x86 workstation too.

And you would be so wrong. If it has windows it's average at maximum. Linux/BSD excels in anything but desktop use. A Mac is top of the line portable/desktop machine you can get from the shop today.

Speaking about consumer products.
You surely are aware that Apple's computer business was dying (betting on the wrong horse too many times) and Apple would probably be just a memory if not for Microsoft bailing them out.

Their transition from computer manufacturer to consumer electronics company (icraplets, dumbphones, etc), and as Skuzzy mentioned, top notch marketing, is what made Apple what it is today, not some perceived superior computer OS or hardware it runs on.

Purely on technological merits, Apple computers (OS included) are not better nor worse than anything else on the market, claiming otherwise, just makes you a fanboy.

Surely you were aware that once Apple booted Steve Jobs it lacked vision and leadership and it showed as inferior products. Once Steve took control back, things changed in a big way.

But you can keep on hating as much as you want and keep jacking the clumsy, malware ridden junk (don't forget to tattoo the IP of combofix download to your arm in case dns changer takes over your box) In the meanwhile I'll continue using my several Apple products and wouldn't have it any other way.

[guncrasher]

I love it when i get honest conflicting opinions it helps me learn.  I havent used an apple product since the appleIIc back in high school.  I loved that computer as I could make it do almost anything I wanted as long as I created the program.  have never used one since then.  only reason is price.  I dont really think any os is intuitive I look at them the way I look at ms word.  it always thinks that what is does is what I want.


semp 

[Skuzzy]

When Jobs was not there, marketing lost control and power.  Jobs was a marketing genius and that was why Apple was strong when he lead them.  Jobs could take a sublimely stupid idea and convince people it was the best thing ever.  He was one of the best.

Conversely, Microsoft is a lousy marketing company.  They just laid off 2/3 of thier entire marketing staff.  The bean counter running Microsoft today has no idea it is all about marketing.  His idea is to make Microsoft a patent holding company deriving the bulk of its revenues from its patent portfolio.

Who do you think will win, in the long run?

[2bighorn]

Lol you're speaking about age old machines once used for movie rendering. It's not even remotely in my scope of interests.

LOL? Age old? Well what ever suits you. You can buy OctaneIII directly from SGI brand new, today.

Current "SGI Toyota" specs:
Octane III OC3-2TY12
Two dual-socket (two trays)
One Intel 5500 per node
Four Intel Xeon quad- or six-core 5500 or 5600 series (two per node)
24 cores (12 per node)
384GB (24 x 1333/1066/800 MHz DDR3 ECC reg)
Eight 3.5" (max. 24TB) SAS or SATA II drives (four per node)
SAS RAID controller, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 10
NVIDIA Quadro FX1800, FX3800, FX4800, FX5800, Quadro 2000,
4000, 5000 or 6000
Compute GPU NVIDIA Tesla C2050 or C2070
Dual GigE (Intel 82576) per node
Two 1000W PS modules

OS:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 & 6 Desktop
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
Microsoft Windows 7

If SGI Toyota is still inferior to your Mac, how about SGI Lexus deskside cluster (20 Xeons)?

Yeah I know, not a Ferrari, I get it...

And you would be so wrong. If it has windows it's average at maximum. Linux/BSD excels in anything but desktop use. A Mac is top of the line portable/desktop machine you can get from the shop today.

See above

Surely you were aware that once Apple booted Steve Jobs it lacked vision and leadership and it showed as inferior products. Once Steve took control back, things changed in a big way.

Well, at least you recognize things didn't change because of OSX superiority.

But you can keep on hating as much as you want and keep jacking the clumsy, malware ridden junk (don't forget to tattoo the IP of combofix download to your arm in case dns changer takes over your box) In the meanwhile I'll continue using my several Apple products and wouldn't have it any other way.

For the record, we (my wife and I) own macbook pro among others, nice laptop, yet I don't see anything superior on it, especially not OSX.

As far as any serious work is concerned, choice is based on application and then platform, not other way around. If you don't get that, you should change occupation.

Just admit it, you're Apple fanboy.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

LOL? Age old? Well what ever suits you. You can buy OctaneIII directly from SGI brand new, today.

Current "SGI Toyota" specs:
Octane III OC3-2TY12
Two dual-socket (two trays)
One Intel 5500 per node
Four Intel Xeon quad- or six-core 5500 or 5600 series (two per node)
24 cores (12 per node)
384GB (24 x 1333/1066/800 MHz DDR3 ECC reg)
Eight 3.5" (max. 24TB) SAS or SATA II drives (four per node)
SAS RAID controller, JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 10
NVIDIA Quadro FX1800, FX3800, FX4800, FX5800, Quadro 2000,
4000, 5000 or 6000
Compute GPU NVIDIA Tesla C2050 or C2070
Dual GigE (Intel 82576) per node
Two 1000W PS modules

OS:
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 & 6 Desktop
Novell SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
Microsoft Windows 7

If SGI Toyota is still inferior to your Mac, how about SGI Lexus deskside cluster (20 Xeons)?

Yeah I know, not a Ferrari, I get it...





See above

Well, at least you recognize things didn't change because of OSX superiority.



For the record, we (my wife and I) own macbook pro among others, nice laptop, yet I don't see anything superior on it, especially not OSX.

As far as any serious work is concerned, choice is based on application and then platform, not other way around. If you don't get that, you should change occupation.

Just admit it, you're Apple fanboy.

Lol you're confusing astronomically priced professional clusters to consumer pc:s Surely the original poster will now run to buy a 20 node cluster to his niece after your apt and thoughtful recommendation! Surely! And yet get it full of viruses. Oh my, imagine the amount of spam a 20 node cluster can process! She will become famous at the campus, while others are slipping their macbook airs into their sleeves, his niece will have a horsecart full of computers and a generator running

You're talking about Ferrari F1 and I'm talking about Ferrari Enzo. If you can't see the difference it's your problem!

Just admit it, you see Apple as a red flag and immediately resort to attacks. If you can't see anything superior in OSX, again it's your problem!

It's pretty funny when you keep repeating the mantra about marketing and joyfully sidestep the fact that I have never EVER seen even one advertisement from Apple - not untill I became a user and they started to spam my e-mail that is. It seems you're scared of Apple products and users for some reason and go extremely defensive immediately when someone says they actually like the products for what they are!

What would be your windows equivalent to a Macbook Air? You'll notice the cost is already the same as with Apple. Once you equip the macbook with omnigraffle, iWork and the complimentary iLife suite she'll have a full setup for hobby and presentations. iWork combined with omnigraffle produces stunning visual presentations with unbelievable ease of use. Same goes with iLife suite for beginner level photo, video editing, music etc. For less than 200 bucks!

[hyzer]

Back to the original question.   

Many times a school will have a relationship with a company and will recommend a system with a hefty discount thrown in.  At my sons school they had a repair shop on campus, if a repair was going to take a couple of days they would give out loaners.

[cattb]

I will have to ask her about a discount, thats a good idea.

She does not start school till June.

As far as a notebook, I don't think I will be buying one. I still have to talk with her, or my wife will. She is not in the USA and kinda afraid of something like that being stolen, snatched from her possesion. She can carry a flash drive or 2 with assignments back and forth be much easier.

[guncrasher]

if a stolen laptop is a concern then go with the cheaper option. if you so decide to get her one.



semp

[hyzer]

I will have to ask her about a discount, thats a good idea.

She does not start school till June.

As far as a notebook, I don't think I will be buying one. I still have to talk with her, or my wife will. She is not in the USA and kinda afraid of something like that being stolen, snatched from her possesion. She can carry a flash drive or 2 with assignments back and forth be much easier.

We also found a pretty cheap insurance policy for his computer.  I think it was around a hundred bucks a year or so, it covered theft, breakage, just about anything that could happen to one. This was also recommended by his school.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

We also found a pretty cheap insurance policy for his computer.  I think it was around a hundred bucks a year or so, it covered theft, breakage, just about anything that could happen to one. This was also recommended by his school.

Hundred bucks a year cheap?

You can have all your house property insured for that price. That's a ripoff. If you're going to get a cheap laptop you're going to pay double the price in 4 years just because of the insurance.

[Bizman]

Hundred bucks a year cheap?

Take into account, that in America everything is bigger than anywhere else. 

[hyzer]

Hundred bucks a year cheap?

You can have all your house property insured for that price. That's a ripoff. If you're going to get a cheap laptop you're going to pay double the price in 4 years just because of the insurance.

Maybe you can cover your house for 100 bucks a year, I can't.   Who said anything about a cheap laptop, he got a pretty good, at the time, Lenovo thru his school.  It had to be beefy enough to run SolidWorks plus other CPU intensive programs his major called for.  Certainly it wouldn't be worth it to insure a $250 laptop. 

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Maybe you can cover your house for 100 bucks a year, I can't.   Who said anything about a cheap laptop, he got a pretty good, at the time, Lenovo thru his school.  It had to be beefy enough to run SolidWorks plus other CPU intensive programs his major called for.  Certainly it wouldn't be worth it to insure a $250 laptop. 

Yeah I have my garage contents (tools and stuff) insured for 20k net worth and it costs me 60 euros a year So I'd say that's pretty expensive for a laptop.

[Bizman]

Laptop and other item specific insurances don't usually have an excess of 150 to 300 like a regular cheap home insurance has.