Laptop for graduate engineering program

wpirobotbuilder · January 16, 2013

I'm graduating this may with my bachelors and will be going back for my masters in the fall while I work full time. I will need a laptop while doing this so I can take my school work with me back and forth (I only have a desktop at the moment).

I am looking for something with at least 8 gigs of ram (preferably 12 to 16), and an i7 with good single-threaded performance. I need performance as I will be using applications like Solidworks, Matlab, and various other modeling and programming envrionment software. I am also looking for a solid state hard drive for general snappiness.

After grad school, I expect to still have the laptop and would like to repurpose it for gaming, so I want a dedicated graphics card in it (gt650 or 660M). I don't expect this to replace my desktop, but I would like a relatively powerful computer. Since I want to use it for this, I'm not looking for a laptop with a Quadro or Firepro, as they're not good for gaming and I won't use them often enough with schoolwork to justify getting one.

I would like it to be under $1500, but around $1200 if possible.

I have been looking at three in particular, two from MSI and one from HP:

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_prod...x?cid=6&id=370

http://www.msimobile.com/level3_prod...cid=100&id=384

http://www.shopping.hp.com/en_US/hom...on-Notebook-PC

The first one is an MSI gaming laptop for about $1100, and has an i7-3630QM, 8 GB ram, a GDDR5 GT650M, and a 1 TB hard drive. I would, in this case, remove the hard drive, restore the OS to an SSD, and install the hard drive into the optical bay as secondary storage. It also has a nice full 1080p screen.

The second is an MSI notebook for about $900, and also has an i7-3630QM, 6 GB ram, a GDDR3 GT645M, and a 750 GB hard drive. While it is significantly cheaper than the first one, the RAM is a bit low for what I need, and I'm not sure how the GDDR3 GT645M stacks up against the GDDR5 GT650M. According to Nvidia they're very close, but they didn't specify if their tests were on at GT645 GDDR3 or GDDR5. I would throw in an SSD and use the HDD as secondary storage, but I don't care about the hard drive size.

The last is an HP notebook for about $880 (currently $730 on sale), which also has an i7-3630QM, 8 GB of ram (upgradeable to 16 for $200), a 750 GB hard drive (upgradeable to a hybrid drive for $60, same size), and uses intel HD graphics (but can have a GT650M added for about $175). Obviously I would go with the GT650M, but I'm torn over getting an SSD or just using the hybrid drive.

In all cases, I'd want to upgrade the RAM, but the HP one allows for it to be done in-house for a lot of money. I could probably do it myself for $80, but how hard is it to install RAM in a laptop, and are there compatibility issues that might come up? In addition, would a hybrid drive be worth it, or should I just get a 120GB SSD and keep the stock hard drive as secondary storage?

If I could upgrade the RAM and get an SSD, I'm thinking the MSI notebook or the HP are the best choices as long as the HP is on sale, but if I were to go with the hybrid drive and ram upgrade then I'd definitely go with the HP for price.

Also, can anyone tell me how the 3630QM stacks up against the top tier dual-core i7 (3520M) in terms of single-threaded performance? The 3630QM is clocked about 500 MHz lower at stock speeds, but the turbos are within 200 MHz of each other (3.6 GHz for the 3520M and 3.4 GHz for the 3630QM).

If there is another option out there that is suitable for these needs, does anyone know of one?

EYCEthebest003 · January 20, 2013

This is the second time I've written this so its not as complete as it would have initially been because i pressed backspace and it went back a page ;-;

Anyway...

The engineering program in my university required us to have a laptop with wacom pen input support. Most of us got the lenovo x220t or x230t because it has good battery life, is durable, and isn't too bad. We need it for a few programs like dyknow and whatnot, but Im still not that happy with it. I am hoping to ditch it for the asus transformer book when it comes out IF it has wacom support (i am praying that it does)

As far as laptops for gaming goes, i wouldn't get anything with less than a 660m in it. My friend has a notebook with an i7 and a 650m in it and it chugs when it plays simple games like minecraft. If i were getting a gaming notebook, i would get something like this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152365

I like that one because it doesnt have stupid huge heatsinks and is supposed to have fairly decent sound which with laptops is hard. Plus MSI is so good about keeping bloatware to a minimum. If i could recommend two brands of notebooks to you it would be Asus and MSI I'd stay away from manufacturers like HP, they load up their products with a lot of bloatware and update software that only half works. Remember when you buy from manufacturers like Asus and MSI, you're buying from someone that manufactures most of their hardware so in theory it should be a little cheaper because there is no middle-man.

Also I would like to apologize to linus and crew for using a newegg link, but looking for products on their website is easier than on NCIX .-. Also its just who ive always used here in the states.