<p>Does anyone have any recommendations on the best laptop to purchase for Pitt engineering? If you purchase the laptop through Pitt and also purchase the warranty plan, do they provide on-site repairs and loaners? My daughter currently has a Dell that she uses at her boarding school...</p>
<p>We bought a Dell for my son (engineering major). It was cheaper going through my husband’s company versus using Pitt’s discount. We did get the warranty but hasn’t had to use it (knock on wood) :)</p>
<p>MTnest: Luckily, my daughter who is in boarding school has had no problem with her laptop. My other daughter (junior in college) - now that’s another story. She has had numerous problems with her Dell (two mother boards and a new hard drive). We bought the laptop through her university - smartest thing we’ve ever done! Automatic on-site repairs and loaners (my husband said that he wanted “out” of being the laptop guru around the house - the girls were driving him nuts). Of course, my college daughter wasn’t the most careful with her laptop and that probably contributed to its problems. I’m thinking that because my Pitt daughter will be so far away from home (8 1/2 hrs), it might be good to go ahead and order the laptop through Pitt along with the super-duper warranty.</p>
<p>Mtnest: Also, do you have any recommendation for which dell laptop to purchase? Screen size, model, etc… ? Thanks for your help!</p>
<p>Buy Lenovo! Thinkpads are the best built laptops in the industry. If you are not familiar with them, they are the former IBM Thinkpads and Lenovo purchased that business from them 5 years ago. They have excellent support and it’s based in the U.S.A! </p>
<p>[Lenovo</a> - Professional-grade](<a href=“http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade?menu-id=learn]Lenovo”>http://shop.lenovo.com/us/products/professional-grade?menu-id=learn)</p>
<p>I don’t know much about laptops and even know less about Engineering! Does Pitt recommend any specific model for their engineering students or does it not matter between a Dell or a Lenovo Thinkpad for that major? Thanks!</p>
<p>I’m in engineering and I have a Macintosh (we Mac people have our ways of getting by ;D) so I don’t know much about specific laptops, but you should look for something that has a lot of memory. Some of the programs that we run, such as CAD modeling programs, take a lot of computing power; if you don’t have a “strong” laptop, you can run into crashing issues and slow performance. Just something to consider in your search.</p>
<p>The Dell we bought had lots of memory but I can’t recall the model. We got the smaller screen size thinking he might be taking it to classes but nope, it sits in his room. Knowing what we know now, we would go for the bigger screen.</p>
<p>Get a macbook ! , a little bit extra money but i think its worth it.</p>
<p>Do macbooks work well for engineering needs? I’m not worried so much about the money - I just want to make sure that whatever my daughter gets works well for engineering classes, has plenty of memory, will be sufficient for her four years of college, and is relatively “problem free”. I know that several different laptops might work equally well…</p>
<p>When we bought the Dell, it was our understanding that most of the engineering stuff was not geared toward the Macs, has that changed? Are the engineering programs working on the Macs without having to adapt it?</p>
<p>Southmom: that was our intention also, to get a computer that will last for 4 years thus we paid for the extra memory and more powerful machine. Son can upgrade when he graduates and hopefully pay for it himself :)</p>
<p>MTnest: I like your thinking on the graduating and paying it for themselves thing! :)</p>
<p>DD just bought (with her NMS $$) an ASUS G series upon the advice of her Pitt computer engineering major friend.</p>
<p>Do NOT get a Macbook! I don’t care what you heard from people about their reliability/stylishness, they are not geared towards Engineering at Pitt. My Engineer friend was told on the first day of class that one of the programs used requires Windows and those with Macs either need to dualboot (not impossible but a rather complicated process for someone without a lot of computer know-how and frankly not worth it) or be $&@* outta luck.</p>
<p>Whatever you do purchase (Lenovos are rock solid but your daughter is probably not going to want one because they’re really ugly and skimp out on young-people friendly features, I personally have a Sony VAIO and I’m quite happy with it overall) make sure it runs Windows.</p>
<p>Get a PC that runs Windows instead of a Macbook/pro. The engineering industry is GEARED TOWARDS PC and less Mac. Most of the software is for PC. Yes, Mac’s can also run Windows but it’s much more convenient to use one operating system than to deal with compatibility.</p>
<p>Some specs that should standard on any decent 2011 laptop:
Windows 7 or XP
Dual core processor (I think quad core is overkill for college)
4 GB of RAM memory (college won’t need more than that)
At least 300 GB hard drive + backup hard drive (you don’t want to lose all your precious work)
13’’ to 15’’ screen</p>
<p>Get a good warranty and don’t go cheepo too much or else the laptop will fail on you. There are tons of internet coupons and discounts that can drop a $1000 laptop to $600.</p>
<p>I bought a simple Dell Inspiron 1440 for my son in Pitt Engg for $400. Works great and fulfills all his needs. 250GB/4GB/14" LED LCD screen/1366*768 res/Dual Core processor. Cheap and effective.</p>