Hello. I am going to be entering this fall as a mechanical engineering major and was wondering what laptop specs would be good for a mechanical engineering student. I don’t anticipate to game very much on my laptop and because the plan for this fall semester is for online classes, something that would work for online classes would be ideal. Any and all advice is appreciated. Thanks
My Budget is basical anything under 1000; Trying to get that july 4th discount
I think the advice in this thread is still accurate - http://talk.qa.collegeconfidential.com/college-computers/2161022-engineering-laptops.html#latest
My D is starting her Senior year and the laptop purchased, specs in the thread, is still perfectly adequate.
Getting under $1000 might be tough with the 4 year next-day/on-site service option, but I don’t recommend skimping on that.
We did get a killer deal on Black Friday on a laptop for home, same speeds, that would have come under that number if we included the service, so keep an eye out for deals.
@acleb524, $1000 might be tough. My humanities/social science student daughter can get away with 8 GB/i5 MacBook. However, if you do use CAD/engineering software on your laptop, you might want 16 GB. I think i5 is the lowest you can go.
All my daughter’s engineering friends use non-Apple computers. However, one of my clients who is a product design engineer uses a MacBook with a Boot Camp partition for CAD/CREO/Solidworks, etc.
I can attest to the durability of MacBooks and iMacs but have had bad experiences with Dell and Asus laptops, so I’m biased. I’ve heard great things about Asus and Acer from others, though.
Good luck with your choice! I hope you score a good deal.
Thank You. Is 256 GB fine or would 512 to 550 GB be better in your opinion?
For my daughter (and myself), 256 GB is more than ample. For my iMac, I have more, but I move most of my large finished work files onto an external hard drive, which is an economical choice.
256GB has been fine for my D, but the price gap was probably higher three years ago than it is now. If the price difference is small, it’s probably worth it.