What to Consider When Buying a Laptop for an Engineering Student?

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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around considerations for purchasing a laptop suitable for an engineering student. Participants explore various specifications, performance requirements for engineering software like MATLAB, and budget constraints, particularly focusing on the $500 range.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory
  • Technical explanation
  • Debate/contested
  • Homework-related

Main Points Raised

  • One participant expresses frustration with their current slow notebook and seeks a laptop that can efficiently run engineering programs and browse the internet.
  • Another participant notes that MATLAB may require a powerful computer, suggesting that a good graphics card and multiple cores could be beneficial for certain tasks.
  • A personal anecdote highlights the need for a more powerful machine for running large simulations, indicating that basic laptops may not suffice for intensive computational tasks.
  • Some participants question the necessity of high specifications, suggesting that for general use, lower specifications might be adequate.
  • There is a discussion about the cost of laptops versus desktops, with some suggesting that laptops tend to be more expensive for equivalent performance.
  • Participants mention specific laptop models and configurations, discussing their suitability for engineering tasks and budget considerations.
  • One participant emphasizes the importance of specifying exact requirements to better estimate necessary laptop specifications.
  • There are differing opinions on whether $500 is a reasonable budget for a laptop that meets the discussed needs, with some suggesting that a higher budget may be necessary for satisfactory performance.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the necessary specifications for a laptop or whether the $500 budget is sufficient. Multiple competing views regarding performance needs and budget constraints remain throughout the discussion.

Contextual Notes

Participants express varying levels of familiarity with current laptop specifications and market prices, leading to uncertainty about what constitutes adequate performance for engineering tasks.

member 392791
Hello,

I am searching for a new laptop to purchase for next semester. I am using a notebook right now, and it is painful to go on the internet to watch youtube videos because it loads so slowly, and going from webpage to webpage is just as awful.

I am an engineering student, so I am looking for a laptop that will run whatever engineering programs I will be using soon (MATLAB and others) as well as browsing the internet while going fast.

I do not need a high power gaming machine, I have no intentions of playing the latest and greatest computer games on the market, just something that meets the above criteria.

Also, price is important, as long as it is affordable (maybe $500 range?). Is windows 8 worth having, I had no problems with windows 7, but I think all the new stuff you buy will have windows 8, anyone like/dislike windows 8?

Thanks!
 
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What are you using MATLAB for? In many cases, you might need a powerful computer to run your programs since it is an interpreted language.

A good graphics card can be used for parallel computing for some problems. As can multiple cores. Depending on the size of data you're playing with, lots of RAM can be necessary too.

So a good gaming computer will also be a good computational computer... Depending on your tasks.
 
As a personal anecdote: I spent 1500 on my laptop computer and it handles most basic tasks, but I need my work computer (16 GB, 8 cores) for when I run large simulations (we're talking 200 dimensional PDEs) if I want them to finish in a reasonable time.


So I basically just use my medium powered laptop for prototyping.
 
I'm not sure what I'm going to exactly do with MATLAB, but I know that when I transfer it is used for engineering classes, so I figured I better have something that can handle it.
 
Pythagorean said:
What are you using MATLAB for? In many cases, you might need a powerful computer to run your programs since it is an interpreted language.

A good graphics card can be used for parallel computing for some problems. As can multiple cores. Depending on the size of data you're playing with, lots of RAM can be necessary too.

So a good gaming computer will also be a good computational computer... Depending on your tasks.

Exactly, although for most jobs you wouldn't need the most powerful graphics card on the market and AMD's new GCN architecture has an edge over Nvidia Cuda for computation and bang-for-your-buck. For almost any job then an i5, at least 8gb ram, and a modest AMD 7000 or 8000 series video card should suffice.
 
Are you sure you aren't overestimating? My desktop has 4 GB RAM (got it maybe 3 years ago) and it has worked perfectly for me for all my old gaming needs. Let alone a laptop with 8 GB ram
 
4GB is what my prototyping laptop has. And 2 cores at ~3 GHz each.
 
Woopydalan said:
Are you sure you aren't overestimating? My desktop has 4 GB RAM (got it maybe 3 years ago) and it has worked perfectly for me for all my old gaming needs. Let alone a laptop with 8 GB ram

This laptop isn't for gaming and for certain tasks having 8 or more gigs is indispensable for saving time. It's basically a bandwidth issue and adding memory is a lot cheaper than upgrading the cpu or gpu to something better. However, I would add that this is the most extreme laptop I can imagine an ordinary student needing short of adding an i7 which has hyperthreading and is excellent for scientific calculations. The more explicit you can be about your requirements the better people can estimate what specifications you need in a laptop. Likely you won't even need the kind of grunt my suggested build can provide. Personally, I'd rather have a cheap laptop and a good desktop that I can upgrade. Building your own desktop is 1/3-1/2 the cost and you can save a lot more over time.
 
Last edited:
Well, I would say what is good for what an ordinary student would want. I just know I'll be programming for my engineering classes in the future, so I want something that won't take forever to load and run programs such as MATLAB.

Also I want it so that it doesn't take forever to load webpages and buffering time for youtube videos, since I use my laptop to watch khanacademy or other similar sites and I hate waiting forever for the video to actually load with my horrible notebook.

My desktop would be suitable, but I plan on moving to college and I don't want to take my desktop with me to school, it is too much a pain, so I resort to a laptop.
 
  • #10
Asus has a fine series of i7 laptops. Just Google them and see what might suit you.

Good luck with your choice.
 
  • #11
Woopydalan said:
Well, I would say what is good for what an ordinary student would want. I just know I'll be programming for my engineering classes in the future, so I want something that won't take forever to load and run programs such as MATLAB.

Also I want it so that it doesn't take forever to load webpages and buffering time for youtube videos, since I use my laptop to watch khanacademy or other similar sites and I hate waiting forever for the video to actually load with my horrible notebook.

My desktop would be suitable, but I plan on moving to college and I don't want to take my desktop with me to school, it is too much a pain, so I resort to a laptop.

It's too much to ask without knowing your price range. Seriously, if you simply give people a reasonable price range they can make suggestions.
 
  • #12
I said somewhere in the $500 range in my original post. I'm sorry, I haven't done any computer shopping in around 3 years, so I am unaware of what is considered ''good RAM'' and all the other specifications, since I haven't researched at all, and I know that computing power changes so rapidly that 3 years of not paying attention to the market makes me basically clueless. That's why I came to this forum to ask people who have kept up on this sort of thing.

Is $500 not reasonable for a laptop? I mean...I got my desktop for $900 and it has served me well for the past 3 years, so I figured laptops must cost less than a desktop, and with the improvements in technology since then, laptops would have near the same power as a desktop 3 years ago.
 
  • #13
Laptops are generally 150-200% more expensive. It takes critical designing and product specialization to pack stuff that tightly.
 
  • #14
Laptops are great if you don't mind spending the extra money, but for five hundred bucks you are not going to get a great laptop. Somewhere around $750.oo+ is a good laptop these days. The same is true for desktops where around that price point it becomes worthwhile to build your own and save.
 
  • #15
to put things in perspective, i brought a new laptop this summer with an i5 (2.6 GHz) 6 Gb RAM and AMD 7600 graphics card for around 1400$. But this was in Denmark were the prices generally are around 15% higher than in America.
 
  • #16
635nm said:
to put things in perspective, i brought a new laptop this summer with an i5 (2.6 GHz) 6 Gb RAM and AMD 7600 graphics card for around 1400$. But this was in Denmark were the prices generally are around 15% higher than in America.

Exactly, an i5 is not the best Intel has on the market and a 7600 graphics card is a low end gaming card, but the cost increases with portability. Next year's Haswell and other advances could bring the bang-for-your-buck down significantly in a short time. We'll have to wait and see what the competition is like.
 
  • #17
Acer Aspire V3-571G-6407
Detail Specs,
2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 3210M (With TurboCORE Technology up to 3.1GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
15.6-Inch Screen (1366×768)
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M with 1GB of dedicated DDR3 VRAM
1 – USB 3.0 Ports, 2- USB 2.0 Ports, 1- HDMI™ Port
Windows 8
4.5 hours Battery Life
How about this one?
 
  • #18
The price about $500
 
  • #19
For more details , look at here, hope it's useful info for your option
 

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