Computer for PhD?

[peternewman89]

What sort of computer do you guys have and use? I'm looking to pick up a new system at some point in the next few months before I start my program.  I have a 3 year old Macbook Pro that would be my workhorse, but I've also put it through quite a bit of use and abuse over the years and, if I can, I'd rather keep that guy at home for the most part, doing heavy writing and work on it but I'd like a convertible tablet to carry with me on a day-to-day basis.  I've been looking at the new Windows tablets floating around and trying to figure out what level of power I need for the work I'll be doing, as I've never done any real statistical work in the past (as a theorist).

 

Would a machine with an Atom processor and 2 gigs of Ram be able to run Stata and R and do statistical work? Or should I step up to an i5 level processor to avoid wanting to tear my hair out?  If feasible I'd prefer the lower-power machine as it would be easier to carry around and have longer battery life, but I'm not going to sweat a difference of a few hundred dollars if it makes a big difference in my actual use.

[ThisGuyRiteHere]

Can you even run STATA on a Mac?

I know you cant use excel plugins on a mac

[peternewman89]

Can you even run STATA on a Mac?

I know you cant use excel plugins on a mac

 

I've got Windows on the Mac as well for any issues of that sort, and my school furnishes a free copy of Parallels and a copy of Windows to virtualize if need be, so that's not an issue.  

[ThisGuyRiteHere]

I would definitely take the statistician's word for it

[Mnemonics2]

STATA for Mac definitely exists. I've been using it for the past three years. Works like a dream. Feels smoother.

[shavasana]

Something also to think about: most universities have central computing that you can get into from you personal computer, so you don't have to have a lot of power with you as long as you're on campus or can hook up a VPN.

[catchermiscount]

It's nice if you can parallelize, but certainly not required.  R takes your computer's specs into accounts for some of what it does.  This generally comes into play only if you're doing something non-standard, but hey, maybe you'll be doing something non-standard.