What Laptop should I get?

[Bryan031301]

I am a visual arts major in college. I am realizing that I need to buy a laptop for portability reasons (I already have a somewhat good (enough) PC).

All of my classes use Mac instead of windows. I run windows on my home PC, but I'd like to learn Mac because it seems I am going to be needing that knowledge. Also, I built my home PC, so I am somewhat PC savvy. I know nothing about laptops, though.

Anyway, I am wondering how good of a laptop I need to get. I will be doing a lot of Photoshop and will eventually start doing some 3d work using either Maya of 3ds Max 8 (not sure what they use, but I here Maya is the more popular at my school).

My main question is: How good of a video card will I need? My PC at home has a ATI 2400 HD, and it seems to run everything well enough (I game a lot and I have also done some limited Photoshop stuff as well as experimented with 3ds Max 8). I don't want it become obsolete anytime soon, so an upgradeable one would be best, especially the video card.

Any suggestions?

[pam123]

Outside of adding more ram or a larger hard drive laptops aren't "upgradeable".

In this instance you get your recommendations from the school and there's a good chance (virtual certainty in fact) that they have major student discounts on hardware so get a price list from them for MAC laptops.

Now about the software, you can transfer files between a MAC and a PC but I don't really know enough about programs like Maya to tell you what's necessary so you'll have to check that out with the school's IT staff as well. Again the student discounts should put a dent in the price you'll have to pay.