• C++ Programming for Financial Engineering
    Highly recommended by thousands of MFE students. Covers essential C++ topics with applications to financial engineering. Learn more Join!
    Python for Finance with Intro to Data Science
    Gain practical understanding of Python to read, understand, and write professional Python code for your first day on the job. Learn more Join!
    An Intuition-Based Options Primer for FE
    Ideal for entry level positions interviews and graduate studies, specializing in options trading arbitrage and options valuation models. Learn more Join!

Wow! A lot of new laptops have come out!

  • Thread starter Thread starter MRoss
  • Start date Start date
Andy Nguyen said:
When you think that would be? 2015?
The iPad 3 screen is retina but its viewport is still 1024px.
It's a shame that the Samsung has such a mere 1600x900 resolution.
Click to expand...

I am hoping new iPad usher an era of ultra high def in 2013. Probably wishful thinking on my part.
 
Not sure how many students there are out there, but I recently bought a refurbished laptop- like new condition on Ebay for $500. A Dell Core i5 with 8GB RAM would normally retail for about $700 on Dell.com:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370606303201&ssPageName=ADME:L:OC:US:3160

The above deal might run out, but the same seller has a similar laptop on offer for $487- just with 6GB RAM and a smaller hard drive (faster processor):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Refurbished...07484066?pt=Laptops_Nov05&hash=item5649ed6ca2

This is probably not a high-end computer if you want to play Call of Duty on your laptop, but if you want to run historical backtests while also having Eclipse, Excel, and IE running, these two laptops will serve you well. For quantitative development and research applications that involve lots of data, the bottleneck is usually the RAM or the CPU's cache, not the processing power. So it's nice to have 8GB of RAM in your laptop.

Remember, a laptop is a capital expense with a depreciation period of four years, and it has applications for business. It's ok to spend $500, even $1000 on the right laptop if you need to. It's just nice to only spend $500 and save the other $200 for high-yield dividend stocks and/or pizza.
 
Andy, it must be said that the iPads are priced really quite cheaply for what is inside them, breakdowns of the parts and realistic costs for labour make it a relatively low margin product. Apple make their money on other things.
 
It cost apple about $300.00 USD to make the basic WIFI model(hardware and Operating system included) of the IPAD. They sell it for about $500.00, so there is good profit in it. They cant go higher than $500.00 because of competition
 
Katrina have you got a source ?
The breakdowns I've seen for parts+labour seemed pretty plausible, but if you have a better source, please share ?
 
$300.00 USD is only for the parts (hardware + OS) . I am not counting labor + shipping (logistics cost) + tech support ( 1 year warranty) . Apple charges for shipping seperately anyway unless they are doing free shipping .I am not sure on the labor end, i know about FoxConn the Chinese supplier for Apple pays its employees little under $300/ month (about $258 to be exact) for their work. Their cost may have gone up after a recent strike and i am not sure about the latest numbers. I have heard in some parts of Beijing labor rates have gone as high as $3/hr.

The other guys in the business Kindle Fire, Nook, etc who are selling at $200 are selling at a loss and are trying to make money by selling apps, books and other miscellaneous stuff.

I believe the price was quoted by an Apple spokesman, and was mentioned on CNN after Apple became the world's largest tech company. I dont have a source to post directly on the forum
 
I read a Gartner research note that confirms Katrina's numbers. The research firm estimates a total material cost of $269, accounting for 54% of the selling price of the WIFI 16GB iPad 2 model ($499). FYI DominiConnor
 
Even more laptops are coming out now as companies refresh their lineup with ivy bridge laptops and start a rollout of the touchscreen laptops. Do you guys think I should get a new laptop now or wait til Oct or Nov to buy one of the touchscreen Windows 8 laptops?
 
Well I need laptop for Baruch, though my current would suffice for a few months. Interested in being able to have a tablet for personal fun use, and I high powered laptop for programming and some gaming. All new laptops including the tablet hybrids will have ivy bridge and kepler graphics.
 
Rich, I am using Lenovo's X220T, I believe there is a new version X230(T?), it is a great laptop and the table form is very handy to take notes.
 
I would get a convertible over a regular laptop, especially if you are bringing it to school.
 
Unfortunately none of the convertibles are great. The Thinkpad SYau is mentioning is one of the best but I returned it very shortly after purchase because I found the screen way too narrow to write on; it's pretty small for programming as well. As of now the coolest 2012 laptop is this: Samsung Series 9 NP900X4B-A02US 15-Inch Laptop (Titan Silver)

Interested in seeing if any new convertible ultrabooks will be Wacom enabled.
 
Im liking the Asus Taichi and Acer Aspire S7. The series 9 is the nicest looking laptop out there though for that price you can get the series 7 i linked which has top specs.
 

Similar threads

Matachines
College sophomore very interested in being a quant! I have a lot of questions.
Replies
1
Views
2K
Jedison
Jedison
Back
Top