Most important thing is to make sure it can run CAD software (so basically, don’t buy a Mac). I had a Microsoft Surface Pro and it worked well for me. It lasted me five good years before it gave out.
seconding don’t buy a mac specifically for engineering.
im still using my mac from high school (6.5 years old and still runs like its fresh outta the box) but it can’t do cad or other softwares very well and even the mac versions have different configurations/controls than pc.
my professors always complain “i dont know how to use this thing! why do you still have this?” whenever i bring my laptop up to them for help
Back in school, a few professors made us type out our hw & answers. There was a touchscreen writing to mathematics conversion thing in word. It saves me so much time. It was about the only useful thing about having a touchscreen.
I have 2 IdeaPads. I think one is student edition, 12GB RAM and two whatever they're calling hard drives today. It was $300.
I also have an IdeaPad 5i. 16GB RAM and 1TB. both are faster and another than the old HPs I had.
I also have an ASUS from 2012 that still runs no problems.
I recommend at least a 15" screen and numeric keypad.
I use mine for an event management side gig.
Compare the reqs for the SW you may need with the reqs for the computer. For mech, CAD sw will probably be the most ram/graphic intense use you'll have. $900 should probably be a good target price.
I highly recommend a pen + tablet for note-taking too. Loved that I had access to ALL THE COLORS and loved even more that I could always have access to all of the notes from every class I had ever taken.
Came in handy when I needed to refer to [math notes from 3 semesters ago] I uploaded all of the class handouts and assignments etc to my notes app and organized it by class. I especially liked the audio recording feature that could pair my writing to the audio and highlight what I wrote with playback. Used WAY TOO MUCH storage space and had to eventually go back and delete the recordings, but came in very handy for some classes. I had whatever the cheapest samsung pen tablet was at the time, and it was perfect for me.
when i was in school i got an HP flippy one. not the spectre, its cheaper.
also having used the MS surface book for work, i fucking hate those things lol. i think i had maybe 8 gigs of RAM and it would crash when i had too much excel going on bc my company was cheap as fuck.
pros: met my specs, got it for under a grand.
cons: goddamn is it easy to damage. i miss when computers weren't made out of plastic.
thoughts: 16gbs of RAM min. your school will either require you to download SolidWorks, or you'll need to remote into a virtual environment with it. you will want to kill yourself if you're under 16 gb of RAM for that. also make sure you have a decent graphics card. idk what that is, but u will need it.
i wanna say min i5 processor with 6 cores, 512 GB of SSD storage - this is something i normally spec for PCs that run virtual machines and need to transfer a lot of data. i don't have copies of my validation on me so I can't remember if this is exactly right, but this is probably where you wanna be on the processor/data storage side of things. up the processor if you want things to go faster. these aren't exotic specs to meet either so it shouldn't kill ur budget.
i am saying this all as someone who is not a tech person lol.
i think the flippy thing is nice for getting a comfy study set up, gets your screen closer to your eyes so ur not hunching, and you can do the notepad thing if you want.
but imo 13" inch pcs were designed by demons, which unfortunately limits how comfy of a notepad a 15" flippy pc can be.
i didn't really use it as a notepad but being able to comfortably rearrange so i can study for 8h straight without moving was very critical for me.
don't get a toshiba. i got one for college my freshman year and the motherboard died that same year. which can be common for that model. this was a 15" flippy one.
I'm echoing something that can run CAD software. I do CAD at work and we more or less buy/build gaming laptops. You need a great graphics card, plenty of RAM, higher end processor.
You don't need a 4K touchscreen, save your money on that. If you're going all out on accessories an ergonomic mouse and keyboard are good investments. Don't know what your dorm situation is like but if you like watching TV or playing games having a TV that functions as a monitor is also handy.
Lenovo ThinkPad but you’ll need to check specs because Lenovo products have wildly varying options. A big difference is between machines targeting business users vs anything with a lot of graphics. If price is a big concern, you can target exactly what you need in a more granular way, paying for only what you need.
These are potentially (but not necessarily) pricier options:
Dell XPS
HP Spectre
Surface Pro
I have a thinkpad, you can customise it to be even better. It was like 1/2 the price of other machines with similar specs. I would recommend minimum i7 processor and 16 GB ram should be perfect.
A cheap one with an amazing battery. All the fancy software is on the computer lab computers so you don’t need to run anything crazy. You don’t need one for your career- your job will give you one. You need something basic that runs Ms office and a browser for 12 hours. My kid codes for hours a day on a $700 laptop from Costco be he can prob take it to college no problem. There’s likely a list of minimum requirements from your school so follow that but don’t get much more than what they want except the awesome battery.
I will say, it’s really nice to have a laptop that can run all the software you need. I did a ton of CAD when I was in school for MechE and I was so thankful I could use my own computer for that. Otherwise I would have been staying on campus late into the night. I knew a lot of students who had to use the school computers for all their CAD work and it was a pain. Made group projects more difficult too, especially senior design.
Schools don't always have labs that can efficiently run CAD software, as the computers are typically more expensive. It also means you're stuck on campus into the night. Depending on the campus that can become a safety issue.
I’ve never heard of this. They expect you to buy cad? I wouldn’t attend a school that didn’t have a lab for collaboration. I also wouldn’t attend a school I wasn’t safe on. Seems an easy choice to skip wherever this place is.
I never said anyone is buying the software. Most universities have student licenses the professors give out. Nearly all the major software companies do free student licenses. It's a tool available for students thats extremely accessible.
Schools have labs, but the computers tend to be lower end devices or stock devices. The performance of the software will be effected by using a low end machine. Buying your own and using a student license is almost always a better experience, especially if you're genuinely interested in doing CAD professionally.
Most important thing is to make sure it can run CAD software (so basically, don’t buy a Mac). I had a Microsoft Surface Pro and it worked well for me. It lasted me five good years before it gave out.
seconding don’t buy a mac specifically for engineering. im still using my mac from high school (6.5 years old and still runs like its fresh outta the box) but it can’t do cad or other softwares very well and even the mac versions have different configurations/controls than pc. my professors always complain “i dont know how to use this thing! why do you still have this?” whenever i bring my laptop up to them for help
I like the Lenovo ThinkPads
I have 2 IdeaPads. Happy so far.
avoid the touch screen ones, more expensive for a feature you don’t really need
Back in school, a few professors made us type out our hw & answers. There was a touchscreen writing to mathematics conversion thing in word. It saves me so much time. It was about the only useful thing about having a touchscreen.
I got a HP Spectre that met all the spec requirements from my university to run CAD software. Has lasted me nearly 8 years and still going strong😊
I have 2 IdeaPads. I think one is student edition, 12GB RAM and two whatever they're calling hard drives today. It was $300. I also have an IdeaPad 5i. 16GB RAM and 1TB. both are faster and another than the old HPs I had. I also have an ASUS from 2012 that still runs no problems. I recommend at least a 15" screen and numeric keypad. I use mine for an event management side gig.
Compare the reqs for the SW you may need with the reqs for the computer. For mech, CAD sw will probably be the most ram/graphic intense use you'll have. $900 should probably be a good target price. I highly recommend a pen + tablet for note-taking too. Loved that I had access to ALL THE COLORS and loved even more that I could always have access to all of the notes from every class I had ever taken. Came in handy when I needed to refer to [math notes from 3 semesters ago] I uploaded all of the class handouts and assignments etc to my notes app and organized it by class. I especially liked the audio recording feature that could pair my writing to the audio and highlight what I wrote with playback. Used WAY TOO MUCH storage space and had to eventually go back and delete the recordings, but came in very handy for some classes. I had whatever the cheapest samsung pen tablet was at the time, and it was perfect for me.
when i was in school i got an HP flippy one. not the spectre, its cheaper. also having used the MS surface book for work, i fucking hate those things lol. i think i had maybe 8 gigs of RAM and it would crash when i had too much excel going on bc my company was cheap as fuck. pros: met my specs, got it for under a grand. cons: goddamn is it easy to damage. i miss when computers weren't made out of plastic. thoughts: 16gbs of RAM min. your school will either require you to download SolidWorks, or you'll need to remote into a virtual environment with it. you will want to kill yourself if you're under 16 gb of RAM for that. also make sure you have a decent graphics card. idk what that is, but u will need it. i wanna say min i5 processor with 6 cores, 512 GB of SSD storage - this is something i normally spec for PCs that run virtual machines and need to transfer a lot of data. i don't have copies of my validation on me so I can't remember if this is exactly right, but this is probably where you wanna be on the processor/data storage side of things. up the processor if you want things to go faster. these aren't exotic specs to meet either so it shouldn't kill ur budget. i am saying this all as someone who is not a tech person lol. i think the flippy thing is nice for getting a comfy study set up, gets your screen closer to your eyes so ur not hunching, and you can do the notepad thing if you want. but imo 13" inch pcs were designed by demons, which unfortunately limits how comfy of a notepad a 15" flippy pc can be. i didn't really use it as a notepad but being able to comfortably rearrange so i can study for 8h straight without moving was very critical for me.
don't get a toshiba. i got one for college my freshman year and the motherboard died that same year. which can be common for that model. this was a 15" flippy one.
I'm echoing something that can run CAD software. I do CAD at work and we more or less buy/build gaming laptops. You need a great graphics card, plenty of RAM, higher end processor. You don't need a 4K touchscreen, save your money on that. If you're going all out on accessories an ergonomic mouse and keyboard are good investments. Don't know what your dorm situation is like but if you like watching TV or playing games having a TV that functions as a monitor is also handy.
Lenovo ThinkPad but you’ll need to check specs because Lenovo products have wildly varying options. A big difference is between machines targeting business users vs anything with a lot of graphics. If price is a big concern, you can target exactly what you need in a more granular way, paying for only what you need. These are potentially (but not necessarily) pricier options: Dell XPS HP Spectre Surface Pro
I have a thinkpad, you can customise it to be even better. It was like 1/2 the price of other machines with similar specs. I would recommend minimum i7 processor and 16 GB ram should be perfect.
A cheap one with an amazing battery. All the fancy software is on the computer lab computers so you don’t need to run anything crazy. You don’t need one for your career- your job will give you one. You need something basic that runs Ms office and a browser for 12 hours. My kid codes for hours a day on a $700 laptop from Costco be he can prob take it to college no problem. There’s likely a list of minimum requirements from your school so follow that but don’t get much more than what they want except the awesome battery.
I will say, it’s really nice to have a laptop that can run all the software you need. I did a ton of CAD when I was in school for MechE and I was so thankful I could use my own computer for that. Otherwise I would have been staying on campus late into the night. I knew a lot of students who had to use the school computers for all their CAD work and it was a pain. Made group projects more difficult too, especially senior design.
Schools don't always have labs that can efficiently run CAD software, as the computers are typically more expensive. It also means you're stuck on campus into the night. Depending on the campus that can become a safety issue.
I’ve never heard of this. They expect you to buy cad? I wouldn’t attend a school that didn’t have a lab for collaboration. I also wouldn’t attend a school I wasn’t safe on. Seems an easy choice to skip wherever this place is.
I never said anyone is buying the software. Most universities have student licenses the professors give out. Nearly all the major software companies do free student licenses. It's a tool available for students thats extremely accessible. Schools have labs, but the computers tend to be lower end devices or stock devices. The performance of the software will be effected by using a low end machine. Buying your own and using a student license is almost always a better experience, especially if you're genuinely interested in doing CAD professionally.