Need advice. Shopping for a laptop that I would use for engineering school.

Burned_Follower · January 21, 2021

Budget (including currency): 400.00-600.00 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: For online engineering school work that doesn't require the computing power of a desktop CAD workstation

Other details: doesn't have weak batteries that laptops 10 years ago are known for. has that problem ever been solved? Also need to use Windows 10 pro 64bit

I'm in online engineering school and I already acquired a desktop computer that's powerful enough to be used as a workstation, but there are classes that doesn't require that much computing power. So I want to get a laptop in order for me to get school work done in situations where I can't be at home. Only problem, is that I have no experience shopping for a laptop. Any advice on what I should look for? If it helps, I need a computer that uses Windows 10 pro 64 bit and won't slow me down due to weak computing power.

Also, has the problem with Laptops having batteries that drain too quickly ever been solved? Last time I had a laptop the battery would die 30 minutes after I unplugged it. It was a cheap 250 dollar laptop though so I didn't expect much.

Biomecanoid · January 21, 2021

6 minutes ago, Burned_Follower said:

Budget (including currency): 400.00-600.00 USD

Country: USA

Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: For online engineering school work that doesn't require the computing power of a desktop CAD workstation

Other details: doesn't have weak batteries that laptops 10 years ago are known for. has that problem ever been solved? Also need to use Windows 10 pro 64bit

I'm in online engineering school and I already acquired a desktop computer that's powerful enough to be used as a workstation, but there are classes that doesn't require that much computing power. So I want to get a laptop in order for me to get school work done in situations where I can't be at home. Only problem, is that I have no experience shopping for a laptop. Any advice on what I should look for? If it helps, I need a computer that uses Windows 10 pro 64 bit and won't slow me down due to weak computing power.

Also, has the problem with Laptops having batteries that drain too quickly ever been solved? Last time I had a laptop the battery would die 30 minutes after I unplugged it. It was a cheap 250 dollar laptop though so I didn't expect much.

* Laptop batteries as any battery lasts about 5 years

* All computers use Win10 64bit

* Did you shop for your desktop, if you did its not much different.

* If you are happy with your desktop i would say try to replicate that in a laptop

What are the specs of your desktop ?

RAM555789 · January 21, 2021

What kind of CAD software do you plan on using? AutoCAD, Vray, Maya, Blender, ect.? Depending on the type of CAD software you'll find advantages and disadvantages with different CPUS. Also laptops have come a pretty long way, and depending on the laptop can last upwards of 10+ hours, though its can be pretty dependent upon the components and actually usage of the laptop. Typically a gaming niche laptop with a GPU and is used for gaming is going to have a much shorter battery life than something without a GPU thats just used for browsing the web.

Burned_Follower · January 22, 2021

Plan on using SolidWorks, but I'm spending most of this year just doing pre-requisites, so I might not even touch a CAD program till next year. I didn't know that until after I started applying for school, or else I would have put off building my desktop until then.

MY PC:

cpu: 19-10850k

gpu: asus tuf rtx 24GB 3090 ddr6x

RAM: 64GB ddr4 dual channel

PSU: 1050watt

data storage: several TB worth of storage split between a couple SSDs.

Of course this desktop was pretty expensive, and because of all the money I spent on my desktop, I only have a 400-600 dollar budge for a laptop. Can I get a fast laptop without spending and arm and a leg like I did with my desktop?

My laptop, I plan on using SolidWorks, but that's only because a mechanical engineer I met once told me that it's going to be at least a couple years before my education is advanced enough for me to be needing a desktop as powerful as the one I got, and that I can get away with a laptop for a little while. My online math classes(the prerequisites I'm doing this year) only require the same computing power you would need to browse youtube on a laptop.