Computers for school?

[Goldberry]

Due to a peculiarity in research funding as an undergrad, I have the opportunity now to purchase a computer that I will receive in about a year for personal use (which is a little while before I plan to start a phd program in physics (theory/computational)). 

So: I need to choose a computer by Jan 2016 to receive in Jan 2017. 

Any advice on what to get? I have a sizable amount of money for this (~$1000 plus personal funds and a few other funding sources I could pull from). Things to take into account: I have a functional 3 year old macbook, will have to deal with moving to wherever I go to school if I get a desktop, I have several terabyte+-sized external hard drives lying around, I have no brand loyalty to apple in particular (but think that sometimes their design is nice), I have no familiarity with linux but also am presumable more than capable of figuring it out (and I'll have time before grad school starts).

[avflinsch]

Need more details before this question can be answered -

Do you need specialized software of any kind?

If so, then whatever specialized software you need will determine the operating system Mac/Windows/Linux, it the software you need is just not available for foo-OS, then foo-OS needs to be eliminated from your choices. If your department absolutely insists on using obscureWare-II for something, then you need to make sure that your new computer can run obscureWare-II.

Do you want a laptop/desktop/both?

Are graphics important?
Is speed important?
Is portability important?

 

[TakeruK]

It says (on the left) that you are in Physics. This means that, more likely than not, you will receive a work computer for your office/desk/lab! So, I don't think you need to worry about getting a computer that will run ObscureWare-II because if they want you to run ObscureWare-II, they will provide such ObscureWare . Also, some programs will give you money to buy a computer when you get there (the Astro program at my school grants every incoming student $1500 for research supplies and the majority of them use it to buy themselves a nice laptop).

However, it's also more likely than not that your new department will be mostly using Linux computers. At least, the computing clusters you'd connect to and the workstations at your desk will very likely be Linux. 

Of course, your work habits aren't the same as mine. When I started my MSc (on an Astronomy thesis in a Physics department), I was doing computational/theory work. My desk computer was an iMac that my supervisor bought but the majority of my work was done on a linux computer part of a big computing cluster. I found that Macs, with their Terminal and Unix based OS, are very very good at interfacing with Linux computers and it makes things very very intuitive. 

So, if you are planning to do some work on your personal computer (whether you prefer working at home [or want the option] or want to be able to work when traveling [if you go with a laptop]) then I would highly recommend staying with Mac. However, if you are not planning to do any work on this computer whatsoever, then you should go with whatever operating system will meet your personal needs.

And whether or not to get a desktop or laptop: Personally, I am okay with only using a laptop at home (desktop at work). I don't need to own my own desktop computer because I don't do things that need one. I can't afford to have both a laptop and a desktop and since a laptop is portable and more useful, I usually just buy a laptop. 

Some things to note:

1. You may or may not know that Macs computers format their hard drives differently. If you have been using your external hard drives formatted for your Mac, they might not work on other non-Macs until you reformat them (i.e. lose all content). But I think there is a format compatible with both Macs and others (however, the optimal and default format is the Mac-only one).

2. From my and my friends' experience with Macbooks, 3 years is when problems will start to appear and they won't last much longer than 5-6 years. So, your current laptop is closer to the end of its life than the beginning. It may or may not last through your whole PhD. So, it might be a good idea to replace your laptop at this point.

3. Apple's education discount can get you Macbooks for a pretty good price. Definitely within your price range. 

4. Apple computers cost about 30% more than other computers that are about the same power. I'm generally willing to spend about $1000-$1200 on a laptop and the computing power that buys me in a Macbook is good enough. Even though the same money can buy a more powerful computer, I'd rather pay for the aesthetics and the conveniences detailed above than extra computing power (since I need the former but not the latter).

Overall, your description of the work you do sounds a lot like me and if your preferences are like mine, I'd suggest one of the 13" Macbook Pros. Scrolling to the very bottom, there is a model without the retina display that retails for $1100 but buying through a school can get you a price between $950 and $1000. If you have more money, as it sounds like you might, the $1300 Macbook Pro with retina display is really nice.