Laptop for Engineering Student

[NavyCoat]

Hey all, I am an incoming college student and am looking for a new laptop, preferably something not too big and bulky. As an engineering student, I would run CAD, MATLAB, and other demanding programs. I am currently looking at the XPS 15 & 17, Thinkpad Carbon, and Intel Framework; are there any suggestions on what would best fit my needs?

[MONIXMARU]

I think you need to tell your budget as well, cause without budget, I can just recommend you some 5-6k dollar laptop.

[Likwid]

1 hour ago, NavyCoat said:

Hey all, I am an incoming college student and am looking for a new laptop, preferably something not too big and bulky. As an engineering student, I would run CAD, MATLAB, and other demanding programs. I am currently looking at the XPS 15 & 17, Thinkpad Carbon, and Intel Framework; are there any suggestions on what would best fit my needs?

https://www.asus.com/laptops/for-gaming/all-series/filter?SubSpec=193678

No too big or bulky compared with toher gaming laptops.

ryzen 7945HX (16c32t) and rtx 4070 to 2.4k eur

Theres also Zephyrus G14 with ryzen 7940HS and first one is too bulky

[another random person]

Hey, I'm a final-year civil engineering student. 

 

If you're after a dedicated and sole computer there is nothing wrong with many of the options listed, I'd personally support the Framework more than the others as it gives you so much more flexibility in the future. I personally have a Mac M1 Pro as my laptop but for the engineering niche software such as Ansys, Solidworks, etc I have my desktop at home. 

 

My partner who studies mechanical and software engineering has the same setup with the exception of a remote VM to a windows computer on her Mac and so far for her Macc has benefitted her as she can run Unix processes and code directly on the native MacOS system. 

 

I wouldn't personally recommend Mac, so 100% stick to windows and stay near the repairable and upgradeable options. 

 

Monixmaru does make a good point that without a budget there is a vast multitude of options that can be suggested so that's a good next step. 

[Graphicallity]

1 hour ago, another random person said:

I wouldn't personally recommend Mac, so 100% stick to windows and stay near the repairable and upgradeable options. 

Hi, I am a 3rd year electrical/mechatronics engineering student.

 

I agree with the above, a few of my peers have Mac's and they have nothing but headaches and late nights using PC's at Uni to run software they cant.

 

I will add that if you plan to use the laptop as your sole PC then I would be looking at somthing higher end with minimum 16GB RAM and a discrete GPU. I have a DELL Inspiron from a few years ago with an i7 and 16GB but no GPU, I can do enough on my laptop but usually do most of my work on my desktop at home that has a bit more powerful. In hindsight I would have spent a little more on something with a GPU so I work a little faster on the go but I got a good deal at the time.

 

In short, if you want a pain free experience go for somthing with some grunt and be prepared to spend a little more. But if you have a decent desktop PC at home and are happy to do most your work on that then you could probably get away with something a little less powerful just to do the basics.

[NavyCoat]

On 5/24/2023 at 10:17 PM, MONIXMARU said:

I think you need to tell your budget as well, cause without budget, I can just recommend you some 5-6k dollar laptop.

I am not looking to go over $2000(USD), hopefully $1500

[NavyCoat]

On 5/24/2023 at 11:29 PM, another random person said:

Hey, I'm a final-year civil engineering student. 

 

If you're after a dedicated and sole computer there is nothing wrong with many of the options listed, I'd personally support the Framework more than the others as it gives you so much more flexibility in the future. I personally have a Mac M1 Pro as my laptop but for the engineering niche software such as Ansys, Solidworks, etc I have my desktop at home. 

 

My partner who studies mechanical and software engineering has the same setup with the exception of a remote VM to a windows computer on her Mac and so far for her Macc has benefitted her as she can run Unix processes and code directly on the native MacOS system. 

 

I wouldn't personally recommend Mac, so 100% stick to windows and stay near the repairable and upgradeable options. 

 

Monixmaru does make a good point that without a budget there is a vast multitude of options that can be suggested so that's a good next step. 

thank you this is helpful