What goes into a good collage engineering laptop?

[Dubesta11]

I will be attending college later this year and must have a laptop picked out in a few months. I believe they allow both Windows and Mac. What would be the best for computer and electrical engineering? I already have a good desktop and have a few options:

 

1. Cheap laptop + tablet (or 2 in one)

 

2. Powerful laptop, ultrabook style (thin, light, fast, good battery)

 

3. Gaming laptop (GTX 970m, powerful GPU)

 

4. Macbook pro (A lot of people say that its one of the best windows laptops)

 

 

So what would be best, for lets say 1500 USD. It would need to last 4 years and must have an upgrade path for RAM, Storage (I would want an SSD at least, and possibly an HDD or just more SSDs), and MUST have a great display + trackpad. Ideas?

[Arty]

I will be attending college later this year and must have a laptop picked out in a few months. I believe they allow both Windows and Mac. What would be the best for computer and electrical engineering? I already have a good desktop and have a few options:

 

1. Cheap laptop + tablet (or 2 in one)

 

2. Powerful laptop, ultrabook style (thin, light, fast, good battery)

 

3. Gaming laptop (GTX 970m, powerful GPU)

 

4. Macbook pro (A lot of people say that its one of the best windows laptops)

 

 

So what would be best, for lets say 1500 USD. It would need to last 4 years and must have an upgrade path for RAM, Storage (I would want an SSD at least, and possibly an HDD or just more SSDs), and MUST have a great display + trackpad. Ideas?

wait for broadwell to launch then get a laptop

from what linus has shown us, it will be worth the wait

[hazza_ob]

mac book air, brilliant for carrying around and you can just pop off the back and replace the ssd and memory really easily

[Dubesta11]

wait for broadwell to launch then get a laptop

from what linus has shown us, it will be worth the wait

 

When does that come out? A broadwell + 970m might be amazing in a good chassis.

 

 

mac book air, brilliant for carrying around and you can just pop off the back and replace the ssd and memory really easily

 

I am looking for a performance laptop, not an overpriced ultrabook.

[hazza_ob]

 

I am looking for a performance laptop, not an overpriced ultrabook.

ahaha  shots have been fired. fair enough, its light but its overpriced

[GeneralTheoryOfBadassery]

I would recommend the y50 or the y40 with broad well . it has good processing power as well as CPU power for using various compilers and auto cad and other stuff . they are also portable with decent gaming performance. They have a good screen ( only the 4k ips model has a good screen )

[GeneralTheoryOfBadassery]

4. Macbook pro (A lot of people say that its one of the best windows laptop

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Ummm.... .

Windows ??

[Dubesta11]

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Windows ??

 

The trackpad is actually very pleasant to use, the chicklets are decent for typing, the screen looks great, I mean it has really great build quality. The OS becomes the issue for me personally since I run a lot of windows programs and games. 

 

I have yet to see a windows laptop with the build quality of a macbook pro. Sorry, but its true

[D2ultima]

The trackpad is actually very pleasant to use, the chicklets are decent for typing, the screen looks great, I mean it has really great build quality. The OS becomes the issue for me personally since I run a lot of windows programs and games. 

 

I have yet to see a windows laptop with the build quality of a macbook pro. Sorry, but its true

Your idea of "build quality" is subjective. Macbook Pros have nice outer finishes and their insides are a mess, and can't cool worth shit. To me, any gaming laptop has better build quality than a Macbook Pro.

 

That being said, a gaming laptop might be your best bet. I can't say Broadwell will be any benefit over Haswell until it comes out; if you want to buy a laptop, just buy a laptop. Broadwell is not some magical jesus CPU that's gonna run 50% cooler and draw 30% less power while being 10% stronger. Not even close.

 

Anyway, if you plan to do engineering work using the CPU etc on your notebook, your best bet is a gaming machine from Clevo with a MQ CPU. The HQ ones can't be set to hold their clocks under heavy load (in any laptop I've ever seen), and all new laptops use HQ CPUs, so... yeah. If you don't care about 100% CPU control, one of the HQ models should work.

[EpicGeekonFire]

I am looking for a performance laptop, not an overpriced ultrabook.

 

 

ahaha  shots have been fired. fair enough, its light but its overpriced

 

Its not that expensive, you can get one for about $750. 

[Ryou-kun]

I will be attending college later this year and must have a laptop picked out in a few months. I believe they allow both Windows and Mac. What would be the best for computer and electrical engineering? I already have a good desktop and have a few options:

 

1. Cheap laptop + tablet (or 2 in one)

 

2. Powerful laptop, ultrabook style (thin, light, fast, good battery)

 

3. Gaming laptop (GTX 970m, powerful GPU)

 

4. Macbook pro (A lot of people say that its one of the best windows laptops)

 

 

So what would be best, for lets say 1500 USD. It would need to last 4 years and must have an upgrade path for RAM, Storage (I would want an SSD at least, and possibly an HDD or just more SSDs), and MUST have a great display + trackpad. Ideas?

 

 

For me, I would go for number 1 either a laptop + tablet or 2 in 1.

I don't know if Electrical Engineering need any GPU horsepower but if it does disregard what I said.

If it doesn't, then I guess it is a good path.

You can maybe use the tablet or 2in1 tablet to maybe make sketches, write out formulas, etc, with a stylus. More convenient IMO.

 

Maybe Surface Pro 2 or Pro 3 is a good fit as 2 in 1? Possibly Surface Pro 4 that is rumor to be coming out soon.

[RoboRaccoon]

$1500 USD seems overkill unless you are buying a gaming laptop... I would buy a $750 laptop now and spend the other $750 two years down the road.

 

Electrical engineering does not need GPU horsepower, and if you are taking notes on it, get something with a good stylus

[Dubesta11]

$1500 USD seems overkill unless you are buying a gaming laptop... I would buy a $750 laptop now and spend the other $750 two years down the road.

 

Electrical engineering does not need GPU horsepower, and if you are taking notes on it, get something with a good stylus

 

It would be practically free to me (graduation gift), and since I do quite a bit of gaming I would like it to be somewhat decent with games like CS:GO (and possibly some heavy games). Rendering videos would also be nice to do, so a powerful CPU+GPU is necessary for that price. I would love a Surface Pro 3 but it is unreasonable with heavy thermal throttling and limited use.

[Omon_Ra]

Wait ............

 

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Ummm.... .

Windows ??

 

When Windows Vista came out, whatever the current gen-MacBook Pro was the 'best laptop for Windows' as claimed by PC World benchmarks (I can't find the original PC World article, the link is broken in this Gizmodo post: http://gizmodo.com/317060/macbook-pro-is-the-fastest-windows-vista-notebook)

 

I'd probably wait until the new gen chips come out, but if you can't find an off the shelf product with everything you want, this site seems to be well recommended: http://www.xoticpc.com/custom-gaming-laptops-notebooks-gaming-laptops-ct-118_96_98.htmland their prices aren't that bad. I'll probably be ordering through them for my next laptop.

[manikyath]

if you have loads of money for a facebook machine, macbook air.

 

if it needs to be cheap, very portable, and not particularly powerful, a netbook.

 

if it needs to be rather portable, but needs to be powerful, go for a thin gaming laptop.

 

if your back is made from titanium, get a beefy gaming laptop.