<p>The link is broken.</p>
<p>Some basic thoughts though, just as someone who likes computers and has a thumbnail sketch understanding of what does what:</p>
<p>Basically, as a MechE or ChemE or w/e, the only reason to have a crazy hot GPU is for heavy 3D modeling. I am a a pre-freshman, so I don’t really know if you actually do that in school or not, but for heavier stuff I would imagine you would be better off doing it on a desktop in the department’s computer lab or something. But that’s just a guess, and I know nothing about it.</p>
<p>If you are doing really crazy coding, you supposedly want a fairly fast CPU, but unlike for gaming, more cores is more important than the clockspeed, so a slower 4-core is better than a faster 2-core, etc. I have not citation or understanding of the physics of this, or even a practical experience. I have just heard people saying that.</p>
<p>But I don’t think you will ever run into anything where that matters. People program and use MatLab on garbage machines. I’m sure there are nutty things you can do with it that make it matter, but I would assume that it’s not happening in the lifespan of this computer.</p>
<p>Realistically, as an undergrad, you will be using this to take notes. You really don’t need a special computer. In fact, the more powerful this thing and its GPU are, the hotter it’s going to be, the worse the battery life is going to be, etc.</p>
<p>I would find something with an Ivy Bridge i5, a 13"-15" display, and <em>></em>4GB of RAM, from Lenovo or someplace. Check Dealnews; they spot a lot of great stuff.</p>
<p>Now, if you want to play games, it’s a whole other story, but you compromise practicality for power that isn’t really that useful as a day-to-day college laptop.</p>