Laptop suggestions for Engineering?

[BackPacker]

Hi,

 

I am currently an engineering student and my laptop is dying. I am trying to decide what Laptop to replace it with. I'm not a fan of Gaming laptops mainly due to the fan noise. Also I cannot do a MacBook due to my classes that use SolidWorks (Windows only).

 

Some things that I am looking for are:

• Screen sizes that are bigger than 14"
• Non-Gaming
• Must have a discrete Graphics card
• Must be able to run 3D modeling
• at least 16GB Ram

I am currently leaning between the Dell XPS 15 (Intel 11th Gen Models) and the Surface Laptop Studio. I am open to other suggestions as well. Thank you for any feedback.

[Speedbird]

Consider the Dell Precision lineup. Can be affordable on the used market.

[I._.T]

Yep Totally Agree 

9 minutes ago, Abyssal Radon said:

SolidWorks likes CPU cores and RAM, not as much concerned with GPU's. Also please provide a budget (if applicable) and currency. I would pick the Dell XPS over the MS Studio laptop.

 

[8tg]

Thinkpad P15 or P17 (15 or 17”)

You can go all the way up to current gen mobile 8c/16t xeons or i9’s, any mobile Quadro RTX up to a 24gb rtx 6000.

Just pick what you need that fits your budget.

[Wh0_Am_1]

Welcome to the LTT forums!

 

ALRIGHT I am going to IGNORE rule no.2 (MWAHAHAHA!) And recommend the ASUS TUF A15 (especially the A15 if you can get it due to AMD's powerful *VEGA 8 integrated graphics and excellent battery life) and F15 line of laptops with the Ryzen 7 5800h and 11800h, recommend the RTX 3060 and 3070 models. If you want to be silent they have fan/power profiles and you can run them in silent mode, then when you need the performance you can switch to the performance or turbo fan profiles if you so choose. They also have been tested to comply with the MIL-STD-810H standards for drop resistance, vibrations, heat, cold, and humidity. They also have 90Wh batteries allowing for long battery lifes on both laptops (though the A15 is more power efficient) 

 

*with the powerful VEGA graphics you can run Solidworks on your discreet graphics card, and easily power the rest of your laptop with the VEGA graphics.

 

[BackPacker]

13 hours ago, Abyssal Radon said:

SolidWorks likes CPU cores and RAM, not as much concerned with GPU's. Also please provide a budget (if applicable) and currency. I would pick the Dell XPS over the MS Studio laptop.

I have been saving up for a little bit, my budget is around $2300 USD.

[BackPacker]

13 hours ago, 8tg said:

Thinkpad P15 or P17 (15 or 17”)

You can go all the way up to current gen mobile 8c/16t xeons or i9’s, any mobile Quadro RTX up to a 24gb rtx 6000.

Just pick what you need that fits your budget.

I would honestly love a Xeon or Quadro, Sadly they are a little out of my budget, which is $2300 USD on the High end. Though I looked at the P15 and it is not a bad price for the components.

[8tg]

56 minutes ago, BackPacker said:

I would honestly love a Xeon or Quadro, Sadly they are a little out of my budget, which is $2300 USD on the High end. Though I looked at the P15 and it is not a bad price for the components.

Might be worth looking into the overstock P53’s that are all over eBay.

Lenovo didn’t sell enough of the P53’s before transitioning to the P15 gen 1, they’re damn near the same except with Quadro rtx 4000 series and intel 9th gen stuff.

There are lots of new or “open box” P53’s out there as a result, Lenovo just dumped them in bulk to any large reseller.

 

Then there’s also the used options, where pic related exists:

 

I speak as someone who uses a topped out thinkpad P50, Skylake and Maxwell era hardware, definitely worth it for the general quality of the machines.

[BackPacker]

13 minutes ago, 8tg said:

Might be worth looking into the overstock P53’s that are all over eBay.

Lenovo didn’t sell enough of the P53’s before transitioning to the P15 gen 1, they’re damn near the same except with Quadro rtx 4000 series and intel 9th gen stuff.

There are lots of new or “open box” P53’s out there as a result, Lenovo just dumped them in bulk to any large reseller.

 

Then there’s also the used options, where pic related exists:

 

I speak as someone who uses a topped out thinkpad P50, Skylake and Maxwell era hardware, definitely worth it for the general quality of the machines.

I'll look into that, Thank you