Hey guys, I am transferring to the Chemical engineering program at Georgia Tech. What laptop would you suggest I get? I am thinking a Mac. Thanks
Your chemE process modeling software will only run on Windows. Most would recommend just getting a PC for this reason, but hey, if you can afford a Mac, go for it. It’s not too difficult to dual boot or run a virtual machine to access Windows on your Mac.
You should confer with your ChE advisor at Georgia Tech. At Lake Jr.'s engineering school they make that decision for the students by prescribing a required MS Windows laptop model. Though Lake Jr. and practicing engineers say that most run of the mill windows laptops are under-powered for engineering functions. Lake Jr. is going to switch to a desktop next semester for most homework assignments.
DO NOT GET A MAC. Period. Well you can buy one if you want to use the machine for yourself. But soon you will need another Windows machine to run MATLAB, Aspen etc etc especially in your senior design. Also you will be using a lot Excel spreadsheeting.
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Matlab runs fine and natively on a Mac, so I don’t know what that objection was about. There are also versions of MS Office available, though they are generally inferior to their Windows brethren.
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Most schools will offer computer labs with workstations that are more than capable of handling all the software you will need for your degree. In other words, don’t bother overspending on a real beast of a laptop. Instead, buy what you want in terms of power vs. portability. You may even be able to Remote Desktop at some schools, which would further reduce computing requirements for you.
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You will pay a lot more money for a given performance if you go with a Mac.
Any computer would good network connection and decent video performance should be fine. My D and many other engineering students at her school just use remote/virtual access anyway as they need to use the apps on the server.