<p>what kind of laptop do all of you engineering majors have? would it be advisable to get a tablet pc? it seems like being able to draw on the screen would be beneficial for an engineering student. what kind would you recommend?</p>
<p>Computers are powerful enough today that I don't think it matters. I've heard great things about tablet PCs, but they are very expensive. You won't be at any disadvantage if you just buy a really cheap laptop.</p>
<p>I don't know any engineering students, including myself, at my school that bring laptops to class. They'd only be a good thing if you want to have your own computer to carry around, but I don't use mine too much for studying--just looking stuff up online, etc. I have a "desktop replacement" laptop that I'm very happy with.</p>
<p>I think those Tablet PCs are still too new of technology in terms of price and breakage potential.</p>
<p>So, I'd recommend any kind of laptop, or a desktop if you're into gamming or something.</p>
<p>The people in my classes who bring their laptops to class play games on it during class. Nobody takes notes with their laptops, with all the math and whatnot.</p>
<p>i have a Tablet (required for my school) and I love it...i take it to every class, and just turn the internet switch off when im in class and only have one board games program on it...its very helpful keeping track of everything, and although its not designed to do precise drawings, its nice to incorperate text and hand drawings in one....its also easy to take hand or text notes on, and you can incorporate pieces of PDFs/powerpoints/whatever you can access on your computer because theres a handy "snipping tool" where you can copy and paste parts of your screen into OneNote, which is an easy organizing/journal type program</p>
<p>PM me if you have questions about the tablet
I have a Fijitsu LifeBook, T4210 with CoreDuo</p>
<p>i bring laptop to class to play games or chat...</p>
<p>Unless you plan to do some hardcore FEA on the laptop, I really doubt it matters.</p>
<p>Get the cheapest one you can find. Any new laptops sold nowadays can run MatLab just fine.</p>
<p>When I entered college I bought a laptop with plenty of space, ram and power anticipating long MATLAB or MCNPx runs.</p>
<p>In reality I found the Department's computer lab far superior and spend most of my time there rather then doing work on my laptop.</p>
<p>any new laptop will be good enuf, just need some software. Sometimes it's handy to have ur laptop to write programs, bring to TA's and ask question and you can fix it right there, better than just the printouts. Also, you can always carry the laptop to study group and stuff.</p>
<p>or you can always build one ...</p>
<p>i would recommend asus laptops; they are the best in terms of build quality and performance for a decent price</p>
<p>i recommend the w3j model</p>
<p>Any cheap laptop would work, you won't be required to use super fast number crunching computers. If you were, then you can just do it in the computer labs.</p>
<p>For engineering, would there be any problems with having a Mac laptop?</p>
<p>Probably not- Matlab etc all have mac versions as well.</p>
<p>the only thing school related i've used my laptop for thus far is when we have group projects due and we all meet at the library to work on reports or something. MS Office works just fine on any cheapo laptop. for matlab i always just go to the engineering lab.</p>
<p>All the engineering programs I've used have been too expensive to buy for personal use. The computer labs will have them though. Any computer that you can just use for word processing, internet, etc, will be fine. </p>
<p>I wouldn't plan on brining a laptop to class. If you have small classes, it's a distraction. Even a tablet PC will take more time to use than taking notes by hand. Unless you have horrible handwriting (would need to improve that anyways for homework), I wouldn't go that way. The technology is still new (prone to problems) and expensive.</p>
<p>A compact desktop, or desktop replacement laptop seems fitting. I have a 17" laptop that I use. I only take it to campus a few times a year if there's a project, but mostly it sits on my desk and takes up less space, is easy to move, etc.</p>
<p>As for brands, anythign but Dell. I've ony heard bad things about their laptops, but not desktops. My Toshiba is 3 years old and doing awesome. Mac should be fine too.</p>
<p>Macs are fine. You can run virtualization software anyways if you want to run Windows as well. I don't have any problem with Dell. My Dell laptop is almost 3 yrs old.</p>
<p>My laptop is a Compaq Presario -some model. I've never brought it to class and very, very rarely ever bring it to school. If you're going into software engineering , computer engineering, or computer science, I'd recommend something that will support linux.</p>