Light Storm

In my first year of engineering the programs didn't seem to demanding, though I don't know what programs your college will require you to run in the first year. A slightly more powerful laptop may be beneficial to have for the programs you will need to run in the following years, though that may depend on whether the college wants you to be able to run the programs in class or whether they will provide computers to use during the class. If the classes that require more demanding software provide computers in class, along with you owning a decent pc, you could get by with less as far as the laptop is concerned. I would advocate that the precision 5520 served me well last year, providing excellent performance along side a portable form factor, but the price is somewhat high, so I would not necessarily say that is the right choice for everyone. There are less expensive computers capable of running the programs adequately enough. I personally have never liked Apple's pricing, design, or user interface. If I were recommending a computer for engineering, it would be a windows machine, but I would not necessarily say there aren't Macs out there capable enough to use for engineering, and for some people who really like the Mac interface, it could be the right choice.

Thank you for the advice. I chose to spend the extra money on the motherboard based on my opinion of the aesthetics. If I were recommending a motherboard that balanced features and aesthetics to the price, I would recommend the strix z370-e, though I didn't listen to my own advice. Thank you for the information on the ssd. I will be changing my choice of storage. Storage: ADATA - XPG SX8200 240GB

The target budget is 2000 $US, though it may go a little over. The use case is initially going to be for gaming, though I plan to also use it to run engineering programs for school in the near future. This upcoming sophomore year will be unlikely to have any engineering software too demanding, though the extra power may be advantages in the following years. CPU: intel i7-8700k Cooler: Corsair - H100i v2 Motherboard: Asus ROG Maximus X Code (Amazon Used-like new $244. fulfilled by amazon from amazon warehouse) RAM: G.Skill - Trident Z RGB 16 GB Storage: Samsung - 970 Evo 250GB GPU: 1170* (pending release information) Case: Phanteks - Eclipse P400s Tempered Glass Power Supply: EVGA - SuperNOVA G3 750W 80+ Gold OS: Windows 10 pro Monitor: Asus - MX27AQ 27" 1440p 60Hz (Amazon new $399.99) Peripherals: Currently using a G602 mouse For a keyboard I have been using a G413 carbon. This was my first mechanical keyboard. Though not 100 percent satisfied with the Romer g switches, I plan to stick with this keyboard for now. I could have spent less on the motherboard but was attracted by the aesthetics and chose to spend a little bit more. I have currently been using a precision 5520 for school and gaming with an i7-7820HQ, Quadro m1200m, and 16 GB of ram. Though this computer runs fairly well, I decided I wanted a computer with a little bit more power to play around with. I plan to finish most of the build in the next month and wait to purchase and install the gpu until after the release of the next generation of Nvidia GPUs.