I’m going to be a freshman fall 2019 at Cornell in the College of Engineering. Leaning towards mechanical engineering but I’m largely undecided at the moment on major.
What should I look for in a computer? I think i want a 13 inch for portability but it seems easier to get good specs in a 15". Is a 15" clumsy?
I’m pretty sure that i7 and 16gb ram is what I want, but how important is a dedicated graphics card? It’s hard to get in a 13"
Ideally my budget is $1500 but I would be willing to stretch it as far as about $2200 if I felt it was necessary.
The Huawei mate book X pro is my current top choice, but I have also been looking at the Dell XPS 15, XPS 13, Inspiron 13 2 in 1 7000, MacBook pro, and a few others.
I’m a little lost to be honest. So what is important to look for, and what are some recommendations?
I would go for a 15". 13" is lighter but CAD projects need some screen space. My Senior engineering D started out with a Macbook but there were some pieces of software that didn’t work well on the Mac. She’s currently using an ASUS that sells on amazon for $900 (ASUS S510UN-EH76 VivoBook S 15.6" Full HD Laptop, Intel Core i7-8550U, NVIDIA GeForce MX150, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD + 1TB HDD, Windows 10) and has no complaints so for $1500 you should be sitting pretty.
That’s really good to hear! My research started to have me worried that I would be stuck to the computer lab exclusively if I didn’t get something really nice. I guess I can relax a little. That Asus looks great!
Happy to help @Kbat11700 - and no, you will be fine! CAD tools really are the ones that push the requirements for laptops and my D has used several different CAD programs for work and for school on her laptop with no issues. I started buying ASUS because of good reviews from gamers - they are actually the hardest on their machines in terms of speed, memory and graphics. If you’re traveling to school and you have extra $ to spend maybe consider the weight as well. My “must” these days is a laptop with an SSD, it makes a huge difference. Good luck next year, enjoy your new computer and congratulations on your acceptance at Cornell!
This is a gaming computer with a 1060 video card if you do that also. In non gaming mode you will get good battery life. My son uses a version of this.
You can use this for any engineering or any software and it will run with ease. This is a very popular engineering laptop.
Hint :if you do buy here I know one of the sales people and they should decease the price more… Pm me plus this is a good price on this unit.
If you’re considering the Dell XPS laptops, they are wonderful, maybe the best and premier laptop out there save for the high priced MacBook Pros, except for one annoying feature - the video camera is at the bottom of the screen so if you do a lot of video calling, everyone will get a good view of your nostrils. They finally fixed that for the 2019 version of the Dell XPS 13. Hopefully the XPS 15 will be fixed, but probably not until later in the year.
13 is probably ok especially if you intend on spending a lot of time hooked up to your monitor in your dorm. I personally prefer 15 because I keep a lot of Windows open.
My D is an mechanical engineering major and has the Dell xps 13. Portability was the driving factor for that choice since she probably bikes 8 miles a day around campus. If the school offers a purchase with service plan, I recommend it. In one semester she’s had it in for a software issue and to have the motherboard replaced. Both covered for the 4 years that she is there, plus a free loaner while it is serviced.
Only thing is to watch what type of configuration your paying for. For college don’t think I would pay for a 4 k screen or touch screen. Dell as suggested but they tend to be pricey and the 15 inch slightly heavy. Go pick them up and see. Costco actually has a nice assortment if one by you but again watch their configurations.
Honestly whatever laptop you have currently would most likely work for now. A lot of schools you are hooking up and running off their servers so like anything will work. Once you know you need something better then buy that for future use. But if buying new think I5/I7 16 g ram (you can get buy with 8 but will lag with some program) storage is up to you but Having an ssd drive is great. Some come with one some come with regular hard drives and an ssd to load things faster like your main programs. Touch screen are cute but expensive to replace. Stay with a fast processor but most computers off the shelf are decently matched.
Look at the Msi recommended before for comparison of the insides and what it comes with as an example. All parts are premium parts and it is on a good sale. This will at least give you a clue on configurations. Compare to the other computers you are looking at. This will start to make sense as you go along.
Sweet. What is the consensus on the Razer Blade Stealth. Seems like I can get it for about $1300 with i7, 16gb ram, and a upgraded mx150 on best buy. It’s a 13" which makes it particularly enticing for me
Look at the msi stealth they have also and compare. Both will have good reviews but both are gaming consoles. You might need to take them off of gaming for everyday use for better battery life (through the software). Go see them side by side and pick them up and use the keyboard. FYI… The msi that I sent you is cheaper with double the ssd hard drive with windows pro with a better graphics card 1060 Nvidia . They just dropped that price. It used to be Around $1500. The configuration I sent you is actually better then the one Best Buy has also…
Hey @Knowsstuff isn’t there an i9 version for that MSI laptop already out? Also looking for something with huge horsepower, weight is not a great concern.
Our S bought a Razer Blade just before starting college in 2016. I’ve asked him for comments on it and here are they are: Well built, but it is relatively heavy. Great support. Great performance. He’s a CS major so having a laptop with an Nvidia GPUs is plus - he uses the GPUs extensively in his programming (CUDA) when using a campus cluster is not possible.
They are old school and will be more then happy to talk to see what you need. Great builds inside and out. These can get pricey once you start to build them since they only use like the best of everything like memory etc etc
Im not much of a gamer so going out of gaming mode wouldn’t be an issue. But as I understand, any laptop with this kind of power will not last that long while performing how it could.
Looking into the MSI Stealth now
What about the Asus Zenbook Pro? It seems like a decent build for the money. Perhaps like the Dell XPS 15 but without the heat issues?
They are all good and have pros and cons
But it’s not the name of the computer but how it’s configured. So your comparing apples to apples per se. Most of the light gaming computers will be fine for school. My son’s msi stealth pro lasts 6-8 hours which is good for a powerful computer. If gaming your usually plugged in anyway… Lol…
@Kbat11700 Both of my sons are Mechanical Engineering majors and a 13” HP Spectre x360 has worked out well for both of them. It runs Solidworks OK for the intro classes and runs Matlab very good. They also considered the Dell XPS 13, but it came down to a matter of personal preference. The light, ultrabook form factor is the main thing - I don’t think they ever use the full rotation tablet mode or even the touch screen. A current i5 with multicores should be sufficient and keeps the heat down. One has an i5/8GB/256GB configuration that has worked for close to 4 years, the other has a newer i7/16GB/512GB config.
