Laptop for Engineering Student?

[mkessler9]

Been awhile since I've been on this forum, anyways, I'm headed off to Engineering School in the fall, & looking to get a laptop sometime this summer before I head off. My budget is around $1500. 

 

I want to be able to do things like 3D modeling, maybe some video editing and light gaming, but mostly focused on Engineering type things, and in a thinner profile, as I will be carrying this around campus...Ideally would like to have 16gb of RAM along with an SSD(would be nice to have an SSD & HDD, but I can definitely deal with just an SSD). There's a LOT of laptop options out there, but I wanted to see if anyone could give me some suggestions to narrow it down some. 

[Brooksie359]

You know what programs you will be using? What type of engineering are you going for?

[r2724r16]

Check out the new Dell XPS 15 with the new 8th gen intel core i7 cpus

[ErykYT3]

5 minutes ago, Rasbir Singh said:

Check out the new Dell XPS 15 with the new 8th gen intel core i7 cpus

Was going to suggest the same thing. 

Kind of forgot about laptops (non-gaming wise), but I remember the Dell XPS being good?

@mkessler9, make a poll once you get more answers.

[Imbellis]

If you're looking for purely engineering laptops, a Precision 7520 would be your best bet. 7700HQ, 16GB of RAM, and Quadro M1200 - for $1582 (or M2200 for $145 more)

 

Here's an Engineering Laptops google sheet (however, It's pretty messy).

 

 

[mkessler9]

1 hour ago, Imbellis said:

If you're looking for purely engineering laptops, a Precision 7520 would be your best bet. 7700HQ, 16GB of RAM, and Quadro M1200 - for $1582 (or M2200 for $145 more)

 

Here's an

Engineering Laptops

google sheet (however, It's pretty messy).

 

 

 

Thanks. I think I should stick to pure engineering laptops, I intend to bring my desktop pc to my dorm so if I ever want/have time to do gaming I'll have it for that. I'm really liking the Precision 7520, although to get an SSD and upgrade to a quadro 2200 it would take me a bit over $1500, but I do have some wiggle room on the budget. 

 

1 hour ago, Brooksie359 said:

You know what programs you will be using? What type of engineering are you going for?

Mechanical Engineering. Programs like Matlab, solidworks, autoCad, etc. Not 100% sure all be using all those in my classes, but I want to experiment on my own as well. 

[genexis_x]

Wait for mobile workstations to be refreshed with CFL-H CPUs

[mkessler9]

6 minutes ago, ZM Fong said:

Wait for mobile workstations to be refreshed with CFL-H CPUs

I'm not to current on CPU news, when's that supposed to happen? I need to have a laptop by August. 

[mkessler9]

1 hour ago, Imbellis said:

If you're looking for purely engineering laptops, a Precision 7520 would be your best bet. 7700HQ, 16GB of RAM, and Quadro M1200 - for $1582 (or M2200 for $145 more)

 

Here's an Engineering Laptops google sheet (however, It's pretty messy).

 

 

I just realized the laptops 40% off its starting price for small business month(I assume its only for small business month?) , so I would need to buy it this month if I want it

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, mkessler9 said:

I'm not to current on CPU news, when's that supposed to happen? I need to have a laptop by August. 

Unfortunately I have no idea, probably 1 or 2 more months (they are announced, but not yet available)

[kokakolia]

You don’t have to buy new! Check out Dell Outlet or Dell Refurbished for a used Dell Precision laptop. 

 

 

[mkessler9]

10 hours ago, kokakolia said:

You don’t have to buy new! Check out Dell Outlet or Dell Refurbished for a used Dell Precision laptop. 

 

 

I did that a few years ago with what I considered a pretty nice ASUS laptop(spent about $800 on a refurb on Newegg) and majorly regret it. Might've just been my luck, but I'm definitely buying new this time.

[kokakolia]

18 minutes ago, mkessler9 said:

I did that a few years ago with what I considered a pretty nice ASUS laptop(spent about $800 on a refurb on Newegg) and majorly regret it. Might've just been my luck, but I'm definitely buying new this time.

It could be your luck. The thing is, Dell business laptops are built tough. Especially the Precision and Latitude lineup (maybe not the Vostro). What was wrong with your Asus?

[Dackzy]

I wouldn't buy a workstation laptop right now, we are looking at a period where we are going from a 4 core CPU to a 6 core CPU and further more Pascal quadros (based on 1000 series GTX architecture), instead of the old maxwell quadros (based on 900 series GTX architecture). So it would be a ton of extra performance you could gain from just waiting a bit. Ofc these workstation laptops might not be in your price range, but at least then you can probably get a pretty great deal on a last gen workstation laptops.

 

Also I am doing mech engineering and I can tell you right now, even a old 2nd gen Intel laptop can do the work you are going to do in the first 2-3 semesters. Ofc in "big" 3D models with a lot of parts it lags, but it isn't really a problem and it isn't like you are going to render things for classes. I have done a couple 3D models with over 120 parts on a T420s with a i7 2640m and a NVS 4200m, it lagged a bit sometime, but it was useable and I would TBH be suprised if you are going to go beyond 50-60 parts for the first 2 semesters. So don't think that you absolutely NEED a extremely powerful laptop.

 

One thing I would say is a must is 16gb of ram, 8gb is not really enough for those project days where you have a few calculation programs open and a 3D model with a lot of parts. Also get more than a 250gb SSD, it fills up so quickly.

 

The XPS 15 2in1 has some heat issues, but the Intel Vega chip would be a pretty amazing chip to get, since you can actually use the Vega graphics in CAD, unlike if you just got a normal gaming laptop with a GTX. like a GTX is worthless for CAD, Nvidia fucked the GTX line up so much that a RX 580 can beat a 1080 in CAD... I am actually personally waiting for more of those laptops with a Intel Vega chip in them to drop, just the 100W versions instead of 65W.

 

To sum it up, wait as long as you can and then see if the new laptops have dropped, if they have, then you are in for a huge performance boost, but if you can't afford them, then the old models have probably dropped quite a bit and if they haven't released the new laptops then there is a chance that the current models have dropped a bit.

[mkessler9]

2 hours ago, kokakolia said:

It could be your luck. The thing is, Dell business laptops are built tough. Especially the Precision and Latitude lineup (maybe not the Vostro). What was wrong with your Asus?

The screen started blacking out after about a month, would only work in one specific position and if you moved it just barely the screen went black again. Troubleshot it and went as far as taking it apart and making sure the display cable was properly connected to the mobo. Didn't really help. It was(I still have it, although never use it) a Asus N550J. 

 

1 hour ago, Dackzy said:

I wouldn't buy a workstation laptop right now, we are looking at a period where we are going from a 4 core CPU to a 6 core CPU and further more Pascal quadros (based on 1000 series GTX architecture), instead of the old maxwell quadros (based on 900 series GTX architecture). So it would be a ton of extra performance you could gain from just waiting a bit. Ofc these workstation laptops might not be in your price range, but at least then you can probably get a pretty great deal on a last gen workstation laptops.

 

Also I am doing mech engineering and I can tell you right now, even a old 2nd gen Intel laptop can do the work you are going to do in the first 2-3 semesters. Ofc in "big" 3D models with a lot of parts it lags, but it isn't really a problem and it isn't like you are going to render things for classes. I have done a couple 3D models with over 120 parts on a T420s with a i7 2640m and a NVS 4200m, it lagged a bit sometime, but it was useable and I would TBH be suprised if you are going to go beyond 50-60 parts for the first 2 semesters. So don't think that you absolutely NEED a extremely powerful laptop.

 

One thing I would say is a must is 16gb of ram, 8gb is not really enough for those project days where you have a few calculation programs open and a 3D model with a lot of parts. Also get more than a 250gb SSD, it fills up so quickly.

 

The XPS 15 2in1 has some heat issues, but the Intel Vega chip would be a pretty amazing chip to get, since you can actually use the Vega graphics in CAD, unlike if you just got a normal gaming laptop with a GTX. like a GTX is worthless for CAD, Nvidia fucked the GTX line up so much that a RX 580 can beat a 1080 in CAD... I am actually personally waiting for more of those laptops with a Intel Vega chip in them to drop, just the 100W versions instead of 65W.

 

To sum it up, wait as long as you can and then see if the new laptops have dropped, if they have, then you are in for a huge performance boost, but if you can't afford them, then the old models have probably dropped quite a bit and if they haven't released the new laptops then there is a chance that the current models have dropped a bit.

I can agree with not rushing to get a laptop now, I have no need for one this summer, so at a minimum I can wait till the beginning of August. I don't really expect any new laptops to come out by then, but hey maybe they'll be a little cheaper then, plus no point in buying a laptop and just having it sit in my room till college starts. Interesting to know that the GTX lineup isn't good for CAD, I'll try to focus more on laptops with quadros and obviously more processing power. 

[Dackzy]

8 hours ago, mkessler9 said:

I can agree with not rushing to get a laptop now, I have no need for one this summer, so at a minimum I can wait till the beginning of August. I don't really expect any new laptops to come out by then, but hey maybe they'll be a little cheaper then, plus no point in buying a laptop and just having it sit in my room till college starts. Interesting to know that the GTX lineup isn't good for CAD, I'll try to focus more on laptops with quadros and obviously more processing power. 

Some of them will most likely be out, HP has just added a few business laptops with 8th gen H series CPUs.

 

Quadro or a AMD GPU would be neat.

 

Tbh if you already have a okay laptop, then use that for the first semester.

 

And good luck with the education.