College - Mechatronics/Comp. Engineering: What Computer do I need?

[JustLovett0]

 

Hey LTT Forums. I don't know where else or who else to ask this, but I need some help. I'm headed off to college in a few months as a Mechatronics Major at CSU:CI. I need to know what type or power of a Computer I'll be needing. Here's some background: Mechatronics is basically a mix of Computer, Mechanical, and Electrical Engineering with some Robotics and Computer Science in there too. The things I'm trying to figure out are what programs I'll be running on my PC in my classes (Generally, not looking for too many specifics), and how much graphical and CPU processing power I'll need. I don't know if it'll be mostly document writing and program compiling or major Physics and Engineering simulations needed a Laptop with a strong GPU such as the 1060. Don't worry about my needs for Gaming and such, I can take the power I'll need for that in the future myself, I'm smart enough to figure that out. All I don't know is what I'll be doing at college. If anyone has any recent experience with Computer Engineering or Science, such as a schooling program within the past 5 years, just let me know what you ended up needed a computer for in college. Thank you so Much!

[Theguywhobea]

I took computer engineering and it never required really any computer horsepower. I suspect if you need to do CAD work you'll need a little more power but I don't think you'll need anything crazy. If you need something to take to class or the library I'd value battery life over raw power. Check out some ultrabooks or some 15in laptops with something like an MX150 or a 1050, those should do you well.

[Thunderzzu]

i have a 7700hq and 1050ti with 16gb ram and it's way much than i really need. A cheap dell with a 8520u and mx150 will probably be enough, unless you will do modeling. I'm studying computer science and compile programs regularly but i usually have my cpu set to 40% power and it's still enough

[JustLovett0]

4 hours ago, Theguywhobea said:

I took computer engineering and it never required really any computer horsepower. I suspect if you need to do CAD work you'll need a little more power but I don't think you'll need anything crazy. If you need something to take to class or the library I'd value battery life over raw power. Check out some ultrabooks or some 15in laptops with something like an MX150 or a 1050, those should do you well.

 

4 hours ago, Thunderzzu said:

i have a 7700hq and 1050ti with 16gb ram and it's way much than i really need. A cheap dell with a 8520u and mx150 will probably be enough, unless you will do modeling. I'm studying computer science and compile programs regularly but i usually have my cpu set to 40% power and it's still enough

Thank you both! That's exactly what I wanted to know. I currently run a decently powerful Desktop Rig, and as for the laptop (Which Ii would take with me to college,) I currently have a Dell Latitude E5540 with a Hybrid Drive; however, I was wondering if I should sell the Laptop and Desktop to buy a Beefier Laptop, especially if I decided to take my Oculus Rift setup with me. Knowing that most of the work I'm going to be doing that's decently intensive is 3D modeling software is exactly what I needed. Thanks plenty to both of you.

[wasab]

for school laptop you want something portable with good battery life, NOT a gaming 17 inchers. 

Get any 13-15 inches ultra books with 8th gen i5 Us and a mx150 if you need some graphics power. ssd is a must 

 

A ryzen laptop works also. You dont need a dedicated graphics chip if you  ought for the ryzen laptops. 

[JustLovett0]

10 hours ago, wasab said:

Get any 13-15 inches ultrabooks with 8th gen i5 Us and a mx150 if you need some graphics power. SSD is a must 

 

A Ryzen laptop works also.

 

Yeah Yeah, I've been aware of that and definitely took it into account when looking for a laptop. Originally, I was going to use my saved up $$ and the $$ from selling my old desktop to buy a laptop like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9QKYZ9/?coliid=I2GNXY0EKRP17B&colid=34XXOYILZM2U5&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it, which is the ASUS FX502VM-AS73. It's quite thin, moderate weight, and very good performance and specs. I wasn't going to go for an all-out beefer of a laptop, but now I'm looking more for a $1300 electric Bike instead, as I won't have a car with me and don't want to take the bus every day.  (Recommend me for that too if you guys want.) But anyway, now I'll be looking around for a good laptop with an MX-150 or even as low as a 970m for under $600 or so, and I'll let you know what I find.

[wasab]

34 minutes ago, JustLovett0 said:

Yeah Yeah, I've been aware of that and definitely took it into account when looking for a laptop. Originally, I was going to use my saved up $$ and the $$ from selling my old desktop to buy a laptop like this: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N9QKYZ9/?coliid=I2GNXY0EKRP17B&colid=34XXOYILZM2U5&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it, which is the ASUS FX502VM-AS73. It's quite thin, moderate weight, and very good performance and specs. I wasn't going to go for an all-out beefer of a laptop, but now I'm looking more for a $1300 electric Bike instead, as I won't have a car with me and don't want to take the bus every day.  (Recommend me for that too if you guys want.) But anyway, now I'll be looking around for a good laptop with an MX-150 or even as low as a 970m for under $600 or so, and I'll let you know what I find.

you can get one such laptop for $600 bucks easily if yoy do not mind acer's crappy plastic case and medicore screen. 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522158802&sr=8-1&keywords=acer+mx150

it is cheap though. 

 

970m sucks more battery and is more expensive than mx150. you wont find it pair with 8th gen processor because it is the previous generation. they are in bulky gamin laptops because it is gaming grade chip. 

 

for electric  bike, you can get a decent one for $1,000. This is not something i would suggest shopping online. you shuold go directly to a store and try out the bike yourself.  

 

[JustLovett0]

On 27/03/2018 at 6:56 AM, wasab said:

You can get one such laptop for $600 bucks easily if yoy do not mind acer's crappy plastic case and medicore screen. 

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Aspire-i5-8250U-GeForce-E5-576G-5762/dp/B075FLBJV7/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1522158802&sr=8-1&keywords=acer+mx150

it is cheap though. 

 

970m sucks more battery and is more expensive than mx150. you wont find it pair with 8th gen processor because it is the previous generation. they are in bulky gaming laptops because it is gaming grade chip. 

 

For an electric  bike, you can get a decent one for $1,000. This is not something i would suggest shopping online. you should go directly to a store and try out the bike yourself.  

 

6

Alright Alright. I actually don't like the newer generation chips, as I believe that Intel's 2nd-4th generation is superior in certain aspects, just something I've known and gone with, and it hasn't done me wrong yet. They have a lot more problems fleshed out with minor performance differences. Even in my current Desktop rig, I have an i5-2500k and I would only upgrade to an i7-2600k at most.

 

As for Battery, all I'll end up needing is a 3 Hour capacity, and the 970m would only be on a low load normally anyways. I've recently read the 150 MX is much worse than the full 1050 when actually gaming, and keep in mind I'll be needing to play VR on this machine. Whether that means I keep my current desktop and laptop or sell both for a great thin and powerful laptop for College. I currently run an EVGA GTX 760 SC and it does me wonders.

 

For e-bikes, I didn't even think about bike shops having them. I'll have to search around the surrounding cities for a shop that has them. I was considering the VoltBike elegant, and they do have cheaper folding models, but they wont\'t be as great for the long distance travel I'll need. My commute at the College I chose will be about 5-10 miles each way on very flat terrain on the side of a highway in the Bike lane. Thanks for that Suggestion!!

[wasab]

1 hour ago, JustLovett0 said:

Alright Alright. I actually don't like the newer generation chips, as I believe that Intel's 2nd-4th generation is superior in certain aspects, just something I've known and gone with, and it hasn't done me wrong yet. They have a lot more problems fleshed out with minor performance differences. Even in my current Desktop rig, I have an i5-2500k and I would only upgrade to an i7-2600k at most.

 

As for Battery, all I'll end up needing is a 3 Hour capacity, and the 970m would only be on a low load normally anyways. I've recently read the 150 MX is much worse than the full 1050 when actually gaming, and keep in mind I'll be needing to play VR on this machine. Whether that means I keep my current desktop and laptop or sell both for a great thin and powerful laptop for College. I currently run an EVGA GTX 760 SC and it does me wonders.

 

For e-bikes, I didn't even think about bike shops having them. I'll have to search around the surrounding cities for a shop that has them. I was considering the VoltBike elegant, and they do have cheaper folding models, but they wont\'t be as great for the long distance travel I'll need. My commute at the College I chose will be about 5-10 miles each way on very flat terrain on the side of a highway in the Bike lane. Thanks for that Suggestion!!

So in the end you just want a gaming laptop to play games. And I thought you said you need it for engineering assignments mainly...

 

You won’t find any 970m laptop smaller than 15.6 or as light as a MacBook or with any battery life greater than 2 hours under $1000. It is good to look out for deals but another to be delusional.

I can tell you don’t know the relative performance of the gpu. It is 1060>1050ti>970m>1050>960m ...... 950m=mx150 why would you want to buy older gen 970m when laptops with it are more expensive than the 1050ti?

 

Laptop ain’t desktop. Size, heat, energy are a consideration. While on the desktop a 2xxx intel might not be much more different than 3xxx intel, on laptop, the difference is huge because newer gen can generate less heat which means less throttling and higher clock, less energy consumption which means it won’t be as heavy as a gallon of milk from grocery store, and more cores which means 8th gen u is quad core just like previous gen the while maintains similar peak frequency while consuming less juice and being cheaper at the same time. Nothing about the older gen is superior in any aspect compare to their equivalent. Same applies to 970m as well. Saying such is like saying an older used iPhone is better than when it was brand new. 

[JustLovett0]

17 hours ago, wasab said:

So in the end you just want a gaming laptop to play games. And I thought you said you need it for engineering assignments mainly...

 

You won’t find any 970m laptop smaller than 15.6 or as light as a MacBook or with any battery life greater than 2 hours under $1000. It is good to look out for deals but another to be delusional.

I can tell you don’t know the relative performance of the gpu. It is 1060>1050ti>970m>1050>960m ...... 950m=mx150 why would you want to buy older gen 970m when laptops with it are more expensive than the 1050ti?

 

Laptop ain’t desktop. Size, heat, energy are a consideration. While on the desktop a 2xxx intel might not be much more different than 3xxx intel, on laptop, the difference is huge because newer gen can generate less heat which means less throttling and higher clock, less energy consumption which means it won’t be as heavy as a gallon of milk from grocery store, and more cores which means 8th gen u is quad core just like previous gen the while maintains similar peak frequency while consuming less juice and being cheaper at the same time. Nothing about the older gen is superior in any aspect compare to their equivalent. Same applies to 970m as well. Saying such is like saying an older used iPhone is better than when it was brand new. 

Yeah, it's a laptop to do both. And getting a laptop that has that power, slimness, battery life, and all for $1000 is pretty easily possible. Take this for example: https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834154781     Just throw your parameters into Newegg and you can find a lot of stuff. This example is refurbished, but still, there are always plenty others too. Yes, I am using this for gaming, but you misunderstand. I am using this laptop for both. A lot of different stuff actually, but essentially I need a decent CPU and GPU in this, while making it decently easy to carry around. As well, from reviews I've seen this laptop can usually range from 2-4 hours, a little more if you like;  really needed to try. But I shouldn't have to do that.

 

As for what you're saying with newer generation processors, keep in mind the older mobile CPUs, such as the i5 4310u, which my current laptop has only has a TDP of 15Watts, while in stark contrast, the i5 7300u has a TDP of about 45Watts, which is much higher and accurate to represent all of the newer generation mobile processors. That changes the battery life of any laptop a lot, as the CPU can take up 3x or more of Power.

 

As for your iPhone example, I'd say it plain doesn't work. It absolutely would, and I very much like what you were going for, but there's a difference I think you're not accounting for. Apple has major, and I mean like major planned obsolescence. Like, just type "planned obsolescence" into google and the first thing that comes up is Apple. They push updates to their older phones to keep them seeming functional and up to date, making people feel better about them, but in turn also push forward updates the Processors (rarely) and more especially batteries aren't designed to be able to handle. They even came out and made a Statement on this, saying they did do it. I'm not saying other people don't do it, and I definitely agree with Phones newer is much better, however on the Laptop or PC side of things, it's much different.

 

GPUs seem to be way less affected by this. If you compare a GTX 960 and a GTX 980 today, the 980 is superior, as you'd expect. GPUs are built for very specific tasks, (See that, just like Phones!?!), while CPUs are made to do a much wider range of things. As GPUs come out, they work, they work well, and they do specific things they are designed for very well. Yes? However, if you take a Quadro GPU, it can be easily outperformed by a much cheaper 1080. Why? Because Quadros are Designed for very specific tasks. However, if they wanted to change a driver or whatever else to make it work more for Gaming, then in a sort of "Compatibility Mode" almost, they will work for that. However AGAIN, (all for fun here), CPUs are released into the market to do a wide variety of things, and always on a new Architecture or design process. As CPUs age, Intel or AMD is able to find out what works well on them with such a wide user and testing base, and are able to flesh out any problems and make them work on a wide variety of tasks well. For instance, if you can find old benchmarks of the i5 2500k (just an example) from their Day 1, you'll sure find the numbers on select tasks may be lower than what you can see today. As they have been updated and more supported for certain things. Same for all CPU's. For instance, in about 4 years, I'd very very happily take an i7-6700k, however today the people I know who do a lot with their processers have a few bugs and issues with them, which will definitely be fixed over time.

 

Thank you. :3

[wasab]

25 minutes ago, JustLovett0 said:

. Yes, I am using this for gaming, but you misunderstand. I am using this laptop for both.

but you said

On 3/26/2018 at 4:18 PM, JustLovett0 said:

 Don't worry about my needs for Gaming and such, I can take the power I'll need for that in the future myself, I'm smart enough to figure that out.

which means you just need it for engineering assignment which means you do not need a power hungry 'H' suffix cpu or power hungry 'gtx' prefix nvidia.

 

25 minutes ago, JustLovett0 said:

. As well, from reviews I've seen this laptop can usually range from 2-4 hours, a little more if you like;  really needed to try. But I shouldn't have to do that.

 

you honestly believe it will last you 2 hours under heavy for graphics and cpu intensive task? if you do not need to do anything graphics or cpu intensive away from socket at school, then you are simply looking for a gaming laptop which you should be more honest in your question so i can better point you towards one. 

25 minutes ago, JustLovett0 said:

 

 

As for what you're saying with newer generation processors, keep in mind the older mobile CPUs, such as the i5 4310u, which my current laptop has only has a TDP of 15Watts, while in stark contrast, the i5 7300u has a TDP of about 45Watts, which is much higher and accurate to represent all of the newer generation mobile processors. That changes the battery life of any laptop a lot, as the CPU can take up 3x or more of Power.

 

not true, all U series chip has a tdp of 15 watts. 7300u has both higher boost and base speed while also higher ipc. check intel's ark, td p is both 15 watt

https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/1987

https://browser.geekbench.com/processors/1688

 

25 minutes ago, JustLovett0 said:

 

 

GPUs seem to be way less affected by this. If you compare a GTX 960 and a GTX 980 today, the 980 is superior, as you'd expect......

That does not seem to discredit my suggestion gtx laptop, especially from the last gen is going to be bulkier and have worse battery life than the previous. They are call gtx 9xx'm' for a reason while newer gen doesnt have the m suffix. Newer gen power efficiency has come so much that nivdia could stuff full fledged desktop graphics card in laptop, older gen 9xxm is not actually the same chip as the desktop. 980m would be more like a desktop 970 with less shader and core speed. 

 

In any case, you are looking a laptop for gaming mainly, not school work. get yourself a desktop gaming computer and a portable chromebook. you dont need to droop $1000 on a gtx 1060 laptop that is mediocre in both gaming compare to desktop or school work compare to chromebook.