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Will the new HP Spectre x360 with i7-5500U, Intel HD Graphics 5500, 8 GB Ram, and 256 GB SSD be suitable for Electrical Engineering? Specifically running CAD, solidworks, and metlab?
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Should I look at a laptop with i7 quad core, dedicated graphics such as the HP Envy 15t Slim Quad with i7-4722HQ, 4 GB dedicated graphics, 12 GB Ram, and 1 TB Hybrid hard drive?
Here’s the dealio, either will work fine for your EE needs, in fact both are likely overkill for your EE needs, but there’s a catch. Neither will do Solidworks well. The short answer is just don’t run CAD on your laptop. The screen is small and there will be dedicated lab space on campus for the purpose.
The longer answer is that it is possible, but you’ll need a more robust machine that will have shortcomings. It will be heavy and have poor battery life. It will run Solidworks. Properly configured it will be at least $3k. Several companies make good examples of such a machine. Since you’re familiar with HP, the Z series portable workstations are the candidates.
If you insist on having CAD capability in the laptop and don’t mind the severe shortcomings and high expense, @Xi makes a very nice machine for the money. They sell primarily to the military and to engineers and have been in business over 20 years. They can configure a machine for you just under $3k.
Otherwise, my short and sweet answer is…they’re all the same. You can make almost any laptop work.
Good luck.
@eyemgh thank you so much! What about ssd vs. hydrid hard drive do you think? Is the SSD that much faster?
SSD is both faster to boot and more reliable. With that said, it’ll more expensive and still prone to typical HD problems like corrupted boot sector. Back up.