Which Laptop to choose?

[filpo]

So in a year and a half I'll be going into an electrical and electronic engineering course and, since my current laptop's ram has died and I don't have any obvious way to replace it (check thread below for info, hp spare ram didn't work either) I am going to be getting a new laptop in the next month or two and want some recommendations

Is a powerful GPU or CPU (or both) or RAM, etc. needed for an electrical and electronic engineering course. Budget is ~£1000

After looking over some course info it doesn't seem like it but I just wanted to make sure and I was thinking of getting a macbook compared to a windows laptop but Apple may be releasing a new one in October? If so I can wait for that since the earliest I would be getting this laptop would be late august and my current laptop is fine for now, though the 8gb of ram (halved due to channel problems) is really struggling even with opera GX, Edge and Spotify open with all the tabs I need for my work and youtube video (where YouTube is really sluggish)

 

But all I use my laptop for really is web browsing (with quite a few tabs so 16gb worked quite well, more tabs in Opera GX so i can limit ram there but also a few in edge), music playing, maybe some roblox or minecraft here and there (macbooks will be fine for that) and some powerpoint and occasional zoom calls. I've looked at these for now. If windows AMD processor is preferred but snapdragon should be fine as well and 16gb is a must. I shouldn't need much storage so 256gb is fine. Screen shouldn't be much more than 15 inch but also more than or at 13.5 optimally

Apple 2025 MacBook Air 13-inch Laptop with M4 chip: Built for Apple Intelligence, 13.6-inch Liquid Retina Display, 16GB Unified Memory, 256GB SSD Storage, 12MP Center Stage Camera, Touch ID; Midnight : Amazon.co.uk

 

I was thinking a gaming laptop and this one apparently isn't too heavy for a gaming laptop and has good specs MSI Thin - 15.6" GeForce RTX 4060 Laptop GPU - AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS - 16GB Memory - 1 TB PCIe SSD - Windows 11 Home 64-bit Gaming Laptop - 144 Hz IPS (Thin A15 B8VF-270US ) - Newegg.com

 

But other than that I don't have any other ideas. Any thin and light options?

[PDifolco]

Unless gaming or 3D modelling is on your course you don't need a GPU...

Not sure an Apple product is recommended if you need to run specific engineering software that may not be Apple compatible

I'd go for something under Windows or Linux with a powerful 8cores+ CPU and some decent iGPU

[OhYou_]

honestly the thinkpad L14 line is so good these days, I'd just recommend a decent spec L14 gen6

[OddOod]

42 minutes ago, filpo said:

Is a powerful GPU or CPU (or both) or RAM, etc. needed for an electrical and electronic engineering course.

Kinda depends on how complex of a CAD model you're gonna need to be able to edit. Or if you're willing to go to the engineering computer lab. 
 

[porina]

53 minutes ago, filpo said:

electrical and electronic engineering course

I did that decades ago. Yes, I'm old, and what I did then may not represent what goes on these days. Main computer time was spent doing reports and similar. Related activities would include programming, schematic entry, simulation, board layout. I vaguely recall there were either free or limited student versions of these so don't need to worry about buying licences, but this might vary with where you're going with. None of these would really push any system at the level you'll be using them while learning, so don't go overboard in specs. As you move towards the end you might specialise more. Like maybe if you get big into DSP and you wanted to do a project on it, you might start throwing bigger data through Matlab or similar, but even then I doubt any modern system would struggle with that.

[filpo]

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

Not sure an Apple product is recommended if you need to run specific engineering software that may not be Apple compatible

Im quite sure CAD isn’t a main thing for electrical and electronic engineering and neither for mechanical engineering either. Maybe for civil you’d need it but I have no interest in that

also another reason I want to go Mac is for that great battery life and I’m more used the OS more overall (family has mainly Apple computers and my current windows laptop bought 3 years ago was my first)

1 hour ago, PDifolco said:

Unless gaming or 3D modelling is on your course you don't need a GPU...

Not likely but I will ask the actual teachers asap

 

1 hour ago, OddOod said:

Kinda depends on how complex of a CAD model you're gonna need to be able to edit. Or if you're willing to go to the engineering computer lab. 
 

once again, I will confirm with my teachers and possibly the actual professors of the subjects at the unis I’m planning to go to

50 minutes ago, porina said:

I did that decades ago

What a small world. What subjects did you do prior (to see how well mine fit)

50 minutes ago, porina said:

Like maybe if you get big into DSP and you wanted to do a project on it

What’s DSP stand for? 

 

50 minutes ago, porina said:

I did that decades ago. Yes, I'm old, and what I did then may not represent what goes on these days. Main computer time was spent doing reports and similar. Related activities would include programming, schematic entry, simulation, board layout. I vaguely recall there were either free or limited student versions of these so don't need to worry about buying licences, but this might vary with where you're going with. None of these would really push any system at the level you'll be using them while learning, so don't go overboard in specs. As you move towards the end you might specialise more. Like maybe if you get big into DSP and you wanted to do a project on it, you might start throwing bigger data through Matlab or similar, but even then I doubt any modern system would struggle with that.

What work did you go into with that course? I would like to go into automotive but I’m not sure it connects well with elec and elec

 

1 hour ago, OhYou_ said:

honestly the thinkpad L14 line is so good these days, I'd just recommend a decent spec L14 gen6

i had a Quick Look and couldn’t find an L14 gen 6 online. Gen 5 looks decent. 800 for 16gb of ram and 512gb of storage with a 7735U, but then again I’ve seen that gaming laptop for about 100 more. On the other hand it’s not all about the specs and I bet the Lenovo would have much better battery

Edited June 12 by filpo

[OhYou_]

9 minutes ago, filpo said:

Gen 5 looks decent. 800 fo

oops i meant gen 5.
yeah its still got a lot of ports for a modern laptop, thunderbolt at least on my intel model, and most importantly two regular ddr5 sodimm slots you can populate with ram upgrades if you choose to. the bottom is made to come off as well.
battery is a 57wh, kinda mid idk

[porina]

17 minutes ago, filpo said:

What a small world. What subjects did you do prior (to see how well mine fit)

Systems may vary around the world, and even over time in one country. At the time the main subjects I took before Uni were physics, chemistry and maths. 

 

17 minutes ago, filpo said:

What’s DSP stand for? 

Digital Signal Processing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing

 

17 minutes ago, filpo said:

What work did you go into with that course? I would like to go into automotive but I’m not sure it connects well with elec and elec

Actually, to be technically correct, I started on an Electrical and Electronic Engineering course and switched part way through to Electronic Engineering. Wasn't that much difference between them. I recall that meant I didn't need to do power or some other analog stuff.

 

I didn't have a plan where I wanted to go after graduating, so tried my luck with an agency. Took the first job I was offered thinking I can always move if I didn't like it, worth it for the experience if nothing else. Ended up over 2 decades there. Start title was OEM engineer. It was a multi-functional support role. Company at the time primarily made call centre headsets, branching out into mobile as that was just going mainstream. I took standard products and created custom products for other companies looking for something to go with what they had. So this included design modification, test, documentation and getting it through manufacturing. Also had to go support customers who had their own certification testing, and provide sales with in person support if the customer was big/important enough. We're talking banks and telecoms companies. Stuff changed over time with a push to more standard products not custom ones, and it became more of a test and measurement support role, ending up running an acoustic test lab.

 

My best friend at work. Not the smartest. Good listener, doesn't talk much. Ladies loved him when I took him to meet customers.

[filpo]

8 hours ago, porina said:

My best friend at work. Not the smartest. Good listener, doesn't talk much. Ladies loved him when I took him to meet customers.

 Sounds like a good companion 

 

8 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

oops i meant gen 5.
yeah its still got a lot of ports for a modern laptop, thunderbolt at least on my intel model, and most importantly two regular ddr5 sodimm slots you can populate with ram upgrades if you choose to. the bottom is made to come off as well.
battery is a 57wh, kinda mid idk

I've seen intel is normally more expensive and has worse battery. I'll research a bit more and If i find a great deal I'll go for that 

 

8 hours ago, porina said:

Digital Signal Processing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_signal_processing

Doesn't seem to be as heavy as CAD modelling if I've got that right. Any FFTs in DSP?

 

8 hours ago, porina said:

Actually, to be technically correct, I started on an Electrical and Electronic Engineering course and switched part way through to Electronic Engineering. Wasn't that much difference between them. I recall that meant I didn't need to do power or some other analog stuff.

 

I didn't have a plan where I wanted to go after graduating, so tried my luck with an agency. Took the first job I was offered thinking I can always move if I didn't like it, worth it for the experience if nothing else. Ended up over 2 decades there. Start title was OEM engineer. It was a multi-functional support role. Company at the time primarily made call centre headsets, branching out into mobile as that was just going mainstream. I took standard products and created custom products for other companies looking for something to go with what they had. So this included design modification, test, documentation and getting it through manufacturing. Also had to go support customers who had their own certification testing, and provide sales with in person support if the customer was big/important enough. We're talking banks and telecoms companies. Stuff changed over time with a push to more standard products not custom ones, and it became more of a test and measurement support role, ending up running an acoustic test lab.

Interesting. So seems like I could most likely go into auto with elec and elec since it seems to link well overall. And I'm planning to do a year masters in Polytechnic of Turin for automotive engineering

 

8 hours ago, porina said:

Systems may vary around the world, and even over time in one country. At the time the main subjects I took before Uni were physics, chemistry and maths

Great, I'm doing the same

 

8 hours ago, OhYou_ said:

battery is a 57wh, kinda mid idk

See that's a reason I want to go mac over windows (or at least go snapdragon) since my current battery life just isn't cutting it

By mid how is it in time for your intel version (I'm assuming the AMD will be slightly better)

[porina]

18 minutes ago, filpo said:

Doesn't seem to be as heavy as CAD modelling if I've got that right. Any FFTs in DSP?

Yes, but far smaller ones than in Prime95!  

 

18 minutes ago, filpo said:

Interesting. So seems like I could most likely go into auto with elec and elec since it seems to link well overall. And I'm planning to do a year masters in Polytechnic of Turin for automotive engineering

Don't they give suggested requirements for that? Visited Turin for work a long time ago. I always felt under dressed there!

[filpo]

49 minutes ago, porina said:

Don't they give suggested requirements for that?

I checked on the website and couldn’t find anything related https://www.polito.it/en/education/master-s-degree-programmes/automotive-engineering

50 minutes ago, porina said:

Yes, but far smaller ones than in Prime95!  

Wouldn’t an FT be significantly more intensive as it has N^2 calculations instead of Nlog2N^2 for FFT?

[porina]

9 minutes ago, filpo said:

Wouldn’t an FT be significantly more intensive as it has N^2 calculations instead of Nlog2N^2 for FFT?

Not sure where you're going with that. FFT is popular because it gets the result doing less work.

[filpo]

On 6/13/2025 at 8:38 AM, porina said:

Not sure where you're going with that. FFT is popular because it gets the result doing less work.

Exactly so wouldn't a stress test benefit from more intensive workloads such as a normal FT?

[porina]

11 minutes ago, filpo said:

Exactly so wouldn't a stress test benefit from more intensive workloads such as a normal FT?

It's the same kind of operations, so the stress level for a given duration would be about the same. The difference is in the performance of the actual workload, which doesn't matter for a stress test.

[OddOod]

On 6/12/2025 at 3:58 PM, filpo said:

CAD isn’t a main thing for electrical and electronic engineering and neither for mechanical engineering either

Before dropping out of the MechE program, I sure spent a LOT of time in solidworks. 
And my EE buddies all use CAD for board layout or factory electrical distribution work.
That being said, I ain't no expert
 

[filpo]

On 6/17/2025 at 2:11 PM, OddOod said:

Before dropping out of the MechE program, I sure spent a LOT of time in solidworks. 
And my EE buddies all use CAD for board layout or factory electrical distribution work.
That being said, I ain't no expert
 

Talking to my dad and a current student at a uni it seemed to be matlab they mostly used for E&E. @porina also says Matlab and that it shouldn't be too stressful for any modern computer and since windows has the stupid standby mode which hurts battery life quite a bit (over the night like 30% is lost on my laptop) I think I'm gonna go macbook, probably M4 Air since it's currently £899, pretty good price to me. Buying in August but thanks to everyone for giving advice