<p>Okay, so I am trying to find out what type of computer I will need next year in college. Obviously, picking out a computer has a lot to do with preference, but I would like to know what engineering students use their computers for in college so I can gauge my choice on what specs I will need. </p>
<p>I am pretty computer literate as far as using a computer, but I only just recently started researching the components of a computer. I will probably choose a low end Macbook Pro 13" because my whole family uses Apple products and I really like Mac OSX. I'll run dual operating systems with Parallels or VMware, whichever I decide.</p>
<p>As far as specs go, I don't really know how to judge what each one gives me. For hard drive, I was thinking of boosting it to 320 GB, although I don't know what the difference between that and 250 GB is. I would be buying it next summer so hopefully Apple would boost the processor by then and they will have OSX 10.7 Lion. 4 GB of RAM seems pretty standard. 13" is probably the ideal size for me since I would be carrying it around campus and my parents have Macbooks that are the same size that seem perfect.</p>
<p>1) I was wondering what applications engineering students use and if the computer that I have planned out would be capable of handling all of them. I know Matlab and CAD programs are the usual. </p>
<p>2) Would I also be able to hold all my music and personal stuff? </p>
<p>3) How do engineering students go about getting these programs? Does the schools offer these programs for students to buy and install.</p>
<p>4) Are some programs so expensive or cumbersome to get onto your laptops that you just opt to use the schools computer labs?</p>
<p>5) What do you guys believe should be the minimum specs that an engineering student's laptop should have to give them no problems with all the programs that they need to use?</p>
<p>Thanks so much for your help. I tried to find all of this stuff out by searching the forums but it was kind of hard finding all of these answers.</p>
<p>What type of engineering are you doing? That will play into what computer programs you use.</p>
<p>Since you mentioned CAD, let me go ahead and warn you ahead of time that there aren’t any major CAD programs that will run on Mac OSX, and most of them (if not all of them) don’t perform well in a VM. That said, schools provide computer labs with those kinds of programs loaded up on them for a reason. Just don’t expect to do CAD (or various other mainline engineering programs) on a Mac.</p>
<p>If you ever need to upgrade your HDD volume, please do yourself a favor: buy it from newegg, or other dealers. Plenty of cheap, yet, reliable good reputable HDD 2.5" out there. Obviously, in this case, SSD will ripe your wallet - so it’s totally off the list. Just regular 2.5".</p>
<p>^ Wow, if you can run AutoCAD on a Mac, I would be tempted to switch from my HP PC. I am SO sick of the stupid thing crashing all the time and having major issues, no matter how I try to prevent problems.</p>
<p>i would not waste money on an expensive computer for your first two years in college. Wait till junior year to get a good laptop you can use for engineering. for the first two years maybe the only thing you will use on your computer for engineering is some CAD which will probably not run on mac. And you probably won’t even use CAD on your laptop in the first two years anyways. I got a regular laptop and and I’m in my sophomore year and I used solidworks a handful of times for one class last year. The only thing I use it for now is the internet and microsoft office. Any major programs will be available for use on your school’s computers. Computers get out dated really fast so wait to buy an expensive computer which you will actually need for engineering until your junior year.</p>
<p>Ok, so AutoCAD is the exception. Unless you are a Civil engineer, you likely won’t use AutoCAD. Mechanical engineers and aerospace engineers use almost exclusively SolidWorks and/or Pro/ENGINEER at most schools, and then throw CATIA and Unigraphics on top of that once you are in industry. There isn’t a lot of AutoCAD.</p>
<p>I bought a Toshiba Portege R705-P25 laptop for $750 3 weeks ago at Best Buy and I’ve been pretty happy as a former Mac owner. I got it because boot camp on my old macbook was really frustrating me. It has 4 GB of memory, 500 GB hard drive, 13.3" screen, Intel i3 processor and weighs only 3-4 pounds. I’m a civil engineer so AutoCad works great now that I’m running a Windows only computer (my school doesn’t provide Autocad for macs).</p>
<p>A lot of the engineering programs are licensed by the school so you can download them from a school website.</p>