<p>Hey guys, potential mechanical engineer here and I'm trying to decide between laptops and i've got almost everything figured out, but the big hurdle is:</p>
<p>Do i go with the i5 or i7 intel processor?</p>
<p>the engineering department recommends an i5, but I've also heard that it's going to be obsolete soon ... </p>
<p>So what are your thoughts? What are you buying and why? and if you're already in engineering at a college, what are you using?</p>
<p>With the avg laptop lifespan by the time the i5 is obsolete your laptop would be on it last leg anyways. The it will be years before the i5 is obsolete. The extra money you spend on an i7 would not be really beneficial for anything you do in college.</p>
<p>Intel’s marketing is convoluted and inscrutable. Just because a chip is branded an “i5” doesn’t mean it’s worse than a chip that is branded an “i7”. You need to read through the marketing BS and look at the actual specifications.</p>
<p>If you’re an ME major, the GPU will probably be much more important for you. I’ve watched my friend (an ME guy) try to run solidworks on his laptop and it was DOG SLOW because his laptop only had weak integrated graphics. You don’t necessarily need a laptop marketed towards CAD professionals (those tend to be WAY over priced), but I think you will benefit from picking up a laptop designed for gamers.</p>
<p>I’d recomend the Asus G55VW as it has a great price, amazing graphics, nice style and a really good warranty.</p>
<p>It’s not at all important. I wouldn’t worry too much about putting a discrete GPU in either since your school likely has computer labs with workstations for CAD.</p>
<p>FWIW, I did my 4 years of mechanical engineering armed only with a desktop computer.</p>
<p>so the 3D CAD software shouldnt have a problem running on the i5’s?</p>
<p>and does writing code and programming and such also influence the processor choice?</p>
<p>My workstation in my research lab runs an i5 and does more than fine with CAD programs. Your GPU will be the much bigger issue.</p>
<p>Writing code requires very little computing power. Depending on what that code does, it may require very little or a ton to run. Generally, as in undergrad, the answer is very little.</p>