I am absolutely terrible when it comes to computers, so please forgive me if these questions sound ridiculous!
1) I've decided on a 13 inch MacBook pro (vs. the 15 inch that was recommended) because the 15 inch just seems way too big. From what I can tell, there doesn't seem to be much of a difference other than it being about $1000 cheaper if i order the 13 inch from the apple store than buying the 15 inch from the school and instead of a intel core i5- 520 processor it has a Intel Core 2 Duo (I have NO idea what the difference is here). Good decision or bad decision?
2) How are we supposed to go about purchasing the graphics card on macs? Is it already built in to the computer or do we have to buy it separately from NVIDIA?
3) Is VMWare Fusion sufficient for making all programs compatible with my mac, or do I also need Bootcamp or that parallels program?
Any help is appreciated!
I recently bought a 13" notebook (Toshiba T135D-S1325 ~ $550) for school as well, and it doesn't quite live up to the recommendations provided. I'm convinced someone is getting a kickback from these manufacturers, as the models they recommend are massive overkill. They were suggesting top-of-the-line laptops for those without another computer and/or for those with lots of extra cash.
1) 13-inch notebooks are much more portable than the 15-inchers and are sufficient for daily computing. You won't be able to fit as much information on the screen as you be able to with a 15 inch, but the trade-off is worth it (at least to me, as my priorities were low weight, high portability, and long battery life) As to the processor, the core-i5 is one of the most recent CPUs released by intel, and so is very expensive. Functionally, the Core 2 Duo will do everything you need, but won't be as fast as the core-i5 (for a variety of reasons). This speed difference will be neglible for school purposes - just go with the cheaper Core 2 Duo.
Generally speaking, the amount of RAM will more directly effect your sense of the computer's speed than the processor itself (in terms of ability to multitask) - the 4GB of RAM recommended by the school is sufficient.
2) The video cards in laptops are just chips integrated into the motherboard (main circuit board). You don't buy it separately, you need to look for it in the specifications of the laptop. nVidia is one brand of many that make video processors, with another major video processor brand being ATI Radeon. Just look in the specs for "integrated video card" and the brands ATI Radeon or nVidia.
3) I don't know anything about Mac/PC virtualization.
From what I can gather, we only need the computer to type a few papers/notes, to get online, and to use the histology hard-drive (virtual microscopy). The computer you described, the 13-inch macbook pro, should be more than sufficient.
