$2000 laptop for engineering student

[Raif O]

Hi I’m starting college next year and am wondering what laptop I should get for school. I’m planning on majoring in mechanical engineering, so I would be using CAD software and the like. I grew up using Macs and really like them, but I’ve read that in order to use software like solid works, you need boot camp and your Mac won’t run as fast. Any suggestions for a laptop would be appreciated. I’m not opposed to Windows, just like Macs better.

[Enderman]

XPS15

 

Or you can go mac and use bootcamp, windows runs just fine on it, it won't be slower.

The problem is the MBP16 is like $3000 so a bit out of your budget, and the 13 isn't really great.

[Sorenson]

Just now, Enderman said:

XPS15

 

Or you can go mac and use bootcamp, windows runs just fine on it, it won't be slower.

The problem is the MBP16 is like $3000 so a bit out of your budget, and the 13 isn't really great.

Its $2200 with the student discount for the very capable base model. Also, the 13" is now a great option with the 10th gen intel CPUs and fixed keyboard. But the 6/12 core i7s would be a better option. 

 

There is nothing wrong with the windows alternatives, like the XPS 15 if you want to save a bit of money. 

 

6 minutes ago, Raif O said:

Hi I’m starting college next year and am wondering what laptop I should get for school. I’m planning on majoring in mechanical engineering, so I would be using CAD software and the like. I grew up using Macs and really like them, but I’ve read that in order to use software like solid works, you need boot camp and your Mac won’t run as fast. Any suggestions for a laptop would be appreciated. I’m not opposed to Windows, just like Macs better.

Bootcamp works great, I used it all throughout my undergrad days on my 2011 MacBook Pro. You can also use parallels, but you'll lose some performance because of emulation overhead. The only downside to bootcamp is you have to do a restart to boot into it and it takes some setup. 

[Raif O]

Thanks for your response! I will take a look at the XPS 15. Although If boot camp works without compromising the performance, I might go with the Mac. Thanks!

[Boomwebsearch]

 

You may want to get a Ryzen laptop with integrated graphics and build a more powerful desktop computer, you can use remote desktop control tools by Microsoft or third parties, laptops aren't really designed to handle high long-term loads such as those associated with rendering large models.

 

[LIGISTX]

I am not saying its the right choice, and I did Industrial Engineering (so I really didn't do much modeling, sims or CAD... AND I had a powerful PC in my dorm/apt/house), but I did use a 2012 13" Macbook Pro bootcamped. I am currently typing this on a 2019 Macbook Air... as my 9900k machine is doing some memory overclock testing.. lol.

 

Point is, if you think there is a use case for you, the Macbooks really are fantastic laptops IMO. The battery life, build quality, and screens are TOP notch, and they are very portable which for college was a big deal to me. Depending on the school, they likely will have computer labs (or even ability to remote into a server) to do CAD/SIMs on, so huge amounts of horsepower are not 100% essential.

 

That said, that Razer laptops these days are pretty solid as well. I still prefer MacOS for coding (cuz, I mean, its Unix) and I do like MacOS in general, but with engineering it can pose some limitations. But, between bootcamp/parallels, having on campus computer labs and/or the ability to remote into a slice of a server from your laptop at any time, Macbook Pro's are a fantastic choice.

[Enderman]

46 minutes ago, Sorenson said:

Its $2200 with the student discount for the very capable base model. Also, the 13" is now a great option with the 10th gen intel CPUs and fixed keyboard. But the 6/12 core i7s would be a better option. 

 

There is nothing wrong with the windows alternatives, like the XPS 15 if you want to save a bit of money. 

The 16 also has a dedicated GPU

[TheCrazyCryptonian]

As a current final year mechanical engineering student I'd highly recommend getting a portable laptop just for web browsing/simple document editing and building a desktop. I built my pc back around 2014 and then upgraded it and put it into a fractal core 500 case. Considering it has a full size 780ti windforce (and originally a h100i before that conked out), its amazingly portable. I've put it in my luggage to take it to and from uni and its worked a charm. 

[Sorenson]

I forgot to mention this earlier, but the New MacBook pros also have sidecar (uses a modern iPad as a low latency second display) which is really nice for productivity.