<p>My son will start college fall '07, most likely in engineering. We're thinking of getting him a computer sooner rather than later (so we don't have to battle for screentime on the home computer!). </p>
<p>What advise do you engineering majors (or profs) have as to what to get? Are there particular features/capabilites he'll need? Does it vary by school or by type of engineering? PC vs. Mac? Laptop vs. Desktop?</p>
<p>is he commuting?
If you want to get him a computer you should DEFINITELY get him a laptop.And It doesnt need to have any special features at all.</p>
<p>I believe that some engineering schools (RPI? and Case Western?) have some fairly strict "suggestions." You might check with the school first.</p>
<p>Okay, I'll check a few websites--mostly UCs. He will not be commuting, but I've heard other non-engineering types prefer laptops so they can take it to the library, to class, home on break (either for working or playing since it's got all their IM/music/etc settings on it). Why do you suggest desk top?</p>
<p>My daughter's engineering program required a laptop purchase, and they required that students buy a certain one, through the school.</p>
<p>MacBook Pro 15.4 inch model.</p>
<p>runs both windows and mac os. sleek look and great for pretty much everything. a full size dvi output (and fiberoptic audio in/out) makes interfacing for high quality presentations a breeze.</p>
<p>i have a bias in the academic/professional world. when i see someone working with an apple i automatically think that they are that much more proficient and hip.</p>
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i have a bias in the academic/professional world. when i see someone working with an apple i automatically think that they are that much more proficient and hip.
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<p>lol are you serious? hahahahaha </p>
<p>the macbook is a fine computer but still lol you apple guys stick together!</p>
<p>No one can do a good job of recommending a laptop without getting an idea of what it will be used for, if it needs to have good battery life, and of course size needs. Most important is the first...if he plays games that narrows it down.</p>
<p>Without hearing anything, I'd say if you wanted to buy one now you might be safe getting one of these since they are discounted right now: (asus w3v)</p>
<p>That is a more portable system but has a smaller 14" screen. Realistically you need to at the very least find out what screen size your son is interested in and if he plays any 3d games. (and report back lol)</p>
<p>Laptops are good for taking back and forth to home. However, I think the concept of using them in the libraries is overrated. My son is an engineer and has used a desktop exclusively. He has never said anything about wishing he could take his computer to the library. He usually only goes to the library for serious study time - during which a computer could be more of a distraction than a help. </p>
<p>The benefits of a desktop are: full size keyboard, large screen display, less $$$, better sound and video cards and RELIABILITY. A computer does you no good if it has failed on you - especially if it is the hard drive with your semester's project on it. Laptops are notorious for failing - especially if they are used as intended (carrying around with you.)</p>
<p>If going back and forth between home and school will be by car, I would go with a desktop with a 17 or 19 inch LCD display. If the trip will be by plane or other form of public transportation, then a desktop may be appropriate. As to the type of computer: Mac or Windows, processing speed, etc. this may depend on the school attended, but in my son's case (Cornell), any assignment that requires specialized computing needs are typically done on the computers that are in the labs. They are the ones which have the specialized software on them. Hence, the student's personal computer could be just about anything.</p>
<p>But, while I appreciate the desire to eliminate contention for the home computer now, the advantage of waiting is that the longer you wait the better computer (more powerful) you get for the same dollar and hence the time before obsolescence is extended. Also, if you are buying a Windows-based PC, Microsoft will be coming out with its new OS before your son goes to school. It may be better to wait for it (or at least get a PC that is capable of supporting it: <a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx%5B/url%5D">http://www.microsoft.com/windowsvista/getready/capable.mspx</a>)</p>
<p>My son also plans to build a decent desktop system for college, and either use a "piece of crap" laptop, or his Dell Axim for portable work. You can get so much more horsepower/$ in a desktop, that it's financially wasteful to try to match performance with laptops. Further, the idea of actually porting a laptop all over campus; using them for "dictation", etc. is mostly fallacious from what I've seen in campus visits.</p>
<p>Most students considering engineering as a major generally have the knowledge to build their own desktop systems - I've not met a kid in years who buys an "off the shelf" desktop system. We used to check pricing with <a href="http://www.pricewatch.com%5B/url%5D">www.pricewatch.com</a> but for the last couple years, we've pretty much exclusively been buying parts to build computers from <a href="http://www.newegg.com%5B/url%5D">www.newegg.com</a>, as their pricing is always within 5% of lowest available, and their stocking status is always excellent.</p>
<p>There's no best computer. It depends.</p>
<p>I'm sure my son will also "build" a computer for engineering (unless he ends up at a school that requires something specific - in which case he'll have both). He currently has some monster, water-cooled (!), two monitor thing in his room, which I can't even figure out how to turn on or off. He mocks the rest of the family with our Dells...</p>
<p>as for laptops failing that is why you spend an extra $100~ and get an external hard drive to back things up on. i do not have a laptop now but i still keep all my important files on my ehd it just makes reformatting and etc. so much easier. it is probably one of the best investments you can do for any computer. btw this is coming from someone that builds computers on a regular basis. (just finished a SLIed, dual core AMD for a guy at my dads work)</p>
<p>pff crossfire is the way to go ;)....but anywayz and ehd is a very good suggestion</p>
<p>I'm a EE at UCI, it really doesn't matter what comp you get in terms of statistics as long as it runs the programs you'd need for engineering (ie. Xilinx, Visual C++, Matlab, etc). That's why I'd probably go with a PC. Though we have computer labs here. I don't really think a laptop is necessary because taking a laptop to a class is very distracting, you'll start playing games instead of listening to the professor.</p>
<p>Thanks for all of your thoughts. Sounds like you've all found what works for you. Based on your comments, I'm going to wait until the Spring, when whatever school he decides on may have specific requirements. Or not. Or maybe he'll be ready to build one--hadn't considered that before.</p>
<p>I found it surprising to hear so many of you strongly prefer desktops. That's why I needed to ask the engineering forum. My D is in a liberal arts (very) program in the NE, where virtually everyone has laptops. I'm not sure how much they bring them to class/library, but they do tote them on roadtrips, vacations, friends rooms for team projects, the quad on a sunny day... Not sure if the difference is engineering versus liberal arts, small school versus big, or just random.</p>
<p>In any case, we'll wait. Unlike tuition, computer prices will only go down!</p>
<p>I need to rescind my post regarding my son's view on desktops versus laptops. As of this weekend he now says that he wants a laptop, specifically a Mac. The reason that he gives are:
- his campus is quite large with the engineering quad the furthest away from where he lives. As a result, when he has dead time between classes, he can't really go all the way back to his room to work on projects so he is forced to use the computers in the labs versus working wherever he wants.</p>
<pre><code>- His classrooms have wireless access so some students with laptops are able to use the internet to look up terms in real time that the professor has glossed over. They also access the class web site and the Powerpoint slides. (This may be more of a rationalization - my guess is that a lot of time is spent surfing the net to alleviate boredom during some lectures.)
</code></pre>
<p>I still have my doubts and think that the perceived advantages of a laptop will become far less essential once the pain of lugging a laptop around campus are realized. However, the ability to easily transport it while on the road are undeniable.</p>
<p>I need help, cause I am undecided between a MacBook or a Tablet PC. I really love MacBooks but Tablet PC's would be more useful for organization because I can use it as notebook and it's very useful.</p>
<p>Really, any PC would work, either desktop or laptop. I have both. I'd recommend against a Mac since many common software used in engineering do not have Mac versions available. I don't know what branch of engineering your son is going into, but I'll list a few common ones:</p>
<p>EE/ECE/CE:
MatLab (general mathmatical calculation/simulation/modeling) - Win/Mac
Xilinx ISE (FPGA development) - Win
PSpice (Circuits Simulation/Modeling) - Win
Visual C++ (C++ programming) - Win
Code Composer Studios (Digital Signal Processing) - Win</p>
<p>**ME<a href="I'm%20not%20a%20ME%20so%20I'm%20not%20as%20familiar%20with%20these">/b</a>:
MatLab - Win/Mac
LabView (Data Acquisition/Processing) - Win/Mac
SoldWorks (3D Modeling) - Win</p>
<p>If it helps, my laptop is a Dell 700m, Pentium M 1.6Ghz, 12" LCD, 60GB HD, 768MB RAM. The labs on campus should provide everything a person needs to get his/her work done. In fact, I did a large portion of my work on campus, even though I only lived on campus for one semester. Having another computer is just a matter of convenience.</p>
<p>Mm... well, maybe many applications don't have Mac Versions but with at Intel-Based Mac (the new Macs) you can run Windows and MacOSX in the same computer so you can work with all of your applications in only one PC, and it's performance is awesome.</p>