Engineering Student Laptop

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breakfast

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Hey, I'm enrolled in general engineering for this fall and I'm wondering what anyone would reccomend.

I'm almost dead set on buying the 2.53ghz/4gb ram 13-inch Macbook Pro.

Does anyone have any experience with CAD programs? I'm not sure if I'll need to run any... I doubt I'll be expected/will need to CAD anything on my own computer.
 
Please don't get a macbook pro, there over priced for what your getting an what your going to use. If you want a serious laptop look at lenovo thinkpads.
 
Yes, I agree too. Say no to Mac :)

You can get good laptop for 800-900 and have everything that you would use it for.

I am actually also thinking to buy new laptop, probably will end up on MSI GX620. Plan to buy it on Monday.
 
I'm not concerned about price, only performance, to a reasonable extent. I can spend up to around $1500-1750 if need be.
 
You want some thing with a WXGA+ display. 15 or 17" display depending on how much weight you want to lug around.

[EDIT]oh and before forget, don't get a mac book[/EDIT]
 
yea seriously don't go with mac..just throw $1000 down for a good laptop. That price range is good enough that you'll get a great CPU and a decent dedicated video card

btw, would you actually be required to use autocad on your personal computer? It's like $4000..surely they wouldn't expect you to buy it :\ unless of course they gave you a copy for free...
 
My first question would be what attracted you to the Mac? It would work, but would not be ideal for a couple reasons:

1) My understanding is that the MacBook pro does not have discreet graphics. While not vital, it would be nice to have something beefier than the integrated graphics to run CAD programs
2) Autocad, for example, does not run natively on Mac OS, as it does on Windows. This could also affect performance negatively.

There are lots of nice Windows-based 13 inch notebooks available with nVidia graphics. I think you would get a notebook better suited to your needs if you bought one of them. Maybe check out the Dell Vostro 1320 (optional GeForce 9300M GS 256MB video). Since you are interested in the MacBook, style may be more important than substance: if so, the Dell Studio XPS 13 may be a good compromise (optional GeForce 9400M or 9500M graphics).

Having said all that, I have seen Autocad run fine on lots of older computers with integrated graphics. Just runs slower. So if you have your heart set on the MacBook, go for it.
 
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