Laptops

Colleges and Universities A-Z Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute
1

<p>Incoming chemical engineering major, still haven't bought a laptop. How demanding is the software, really? Could I not get along with a high-end (really top-of-the-line) Ultrabook?</p>

2

<p>I have a samsung ultrabook and its great.</p>

3

<p>major?
which model?</p>

4

<p>You should check out the Macbook Air now that it has Haswell. Get it with an i7, 8gb Ram, and 256gb SSD and you’ll be good. </p>

<p>Or if you want Windows 8. Get an Acer Aspire S7. The newest model which has Haswell also. It cost about $1699 and has a i7, 7gb Ram, and 256gb SSD, but also has a 1080p IPS display while the Air doesn’t.</p>

5

<p>Oh the Aspire S7 is on sale for students and includes Office 365 for 4 years for free. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Acer-Aspire-S7-392-9460-Touchscreen-Ultrabook-Intel-Core-i7/productID.284597000[/URL]”>http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Acer-Aspire-S7-392-9460-Touchscreen-Ultrabook-Intel-Core-i7/productID.284597000&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

6

<p>i was considering the Air, but I can’t really use OSX and a lot of the advantages of it (gestures on the trackpad, battery life) only exist because of OSX</p>

<p>The Sony Vaio Pro 13 is also Haswell and has very similar specs, so I was looking at that. Are you sure the specs will be sufficient for Siemens NX and other engineering software that’s used at RPI?</p>

7

<p>that acer is also similar in specs, but I’m weary of the build quality on Acer products</p>

8

<p>They’ve come a long way. The reviews prove it. </p>

<p>But if you’re weary, I’d get the Sony VAIO. $30 cheaper. An i7, 8gb ram, and 256gb will get you through anything and everything and last you a while. Just don’t plan on gaming. </p>

<p>Here’s the Sony. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Sony-VAIO-Pro-13-Touchscreen-Ultrabook-SVP13215PXB-Black/productID.284597500[/URL]”>http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Sony-VAIO-Pro-13-Touchscreen-Ultrabook-SVP13215PXB-Black/productID.284597500&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

9

<p>The reviews show that they are great laptops for the average consumer, not that they can sufficiently handle taxing engineering software</p>

10

<p>lol, these high end models aren’t for the average consumer. Maybe the lowest end ones. But you can run anything on the newest gen of Intel processors and the ram at 8gb can handle everything. </p>

<p>You aren’t going to find anything better unless you want to carry a 6lb + laptop compared to 2lbs or less</p>

11

<p>Just a contrary thought. My S left for EE at another U with a huge Vaio which was top of the line at the time. It broke after 2.5 years and he opted to replace it with a netbook + a desktop and two monitors. It worked out much better for him to have the lightweight of the netbook to take to school and the desktop for his home use. The price of all of them was about the amount he got back from insurance for the broken laptop. Our D did the same thing–went to college with souped up laptop and when it broke replaced with netbook + desktop and 2 monitors.</p>

12

<p>My son got the Lenovo Thinkpad W530 with Win 7 ( required), 250 GB ssd, 8 ram, 2 gb video card, Full HD Display and Intel Core i7-3840QM Processor . He is happy with it. His only complain is that the case does show fingerprints but he can play games with it. Price as of July $1,600.</p>