Computer for engineering student

Im a first year MechElec engineering student from the UK student and I was wondering what computer would be suitable for my course. Apparently later on there's a lot of rendering and you have to run programmes that require a lot of RAM. I had a look at a couple gaming computers but both were faulty and had to return them. Would a Mac be suitable?

Other urls found in this thread:

udacity.com/course/version-control-with-git--ud123
reddit.com
twitter.com/AnonBabble

Used Thinkpad

iPad Pro

>I am an engineering student
>So I need a really good computer
>I have been looking at gaming computers. I need one for programs but yeah I will also be playing games
>did I mention I am studying engineering?
every time

Workstations

what the fuck ever happened to using a pen and notebook at school?

Do some fucking research you nitwit. See what programs you need, look up their minimum requirements, multiply by 2, then see what laptops can run your shit. Stick to business laptops if you can.

I have pic related. It's bretty ok. Build quality isn't good but that doesn't really matter.

Engineers use software not paper.
This isn't the 80's

stinkpad t420 blaze it with arch.

HP Omen is a shitbox. Terrible cooling, loud, can't turboboost at all. Soldered ram I think and limited m.2 space. Look up reviews on youtube for 2017 for laptops listed around $1000 USD. Suprisingly the Alienware 15 (2017) isn't bad.

A used Thinkpad should be enough. You should get Linux on it because it's a useful skill to know and it helps you avoid games, but you need to dual boot because CAD programs ONLY come on Windows.

You wont last through engineering drop out while ahead.

School computers will be available that can handle any assignment requiring a powerful machine. Just get a business laptop like a dell latitude or thinkpad for general computing.

I got through with an i7, 8gb t530. still runs solidworks fine.

Lol what? I mentioned it twice in total.

Our course is very new and i asked about but havent been given much info.

Hmm well thats intereting, its one of the laptops i bought and started to fail quickly. I heard alienware was good but very expensive.

Thanks, ill have a look

Yh but id like to also work on projects at home.

Typical pessimist.

Yeh ive heard those specs are sufficient for engineering.

You think you might need something expensive at first, but save your money. A used thinkpad (Even something as old as a t420/t520 is fine if you get some good specs or upgrade it yourself) will do the job and give you great value for your money. It will likely be able to run whatever you need.

But remember my recommendations: Install Linux. If you never done it before it might seem a bit daunting, but trust me on this. You will be glad you did and you will be more productive. Because I studied engineering and it's a lot more work than you likely are imagining. Just don't give up, but if you use windows then you might play games when you are tired which is not a good use of your time. Just accept that you are tired and power through it. It's worth it in the end.

Also learn to write EVERY single thing you need to do on your calendar. Even set times for writing papers on your calendar and that sort of thing. So that you are always ahead. Stuff moves fast in university and you might quickly lag behind if you take a day off. People like to brag and pretend it's easy, but this is an anonymous board and let me tell you: It's difficult and a lot of work. But it's worth it... Keep at it.

But you don't need a new computer, a Mac is very unsuitable because you need Windows for nearly all engineering software you are going to use.

it's shit. the gpu in this model is only used in 3d applications, on desktop it will use integrated intel graphics.

Literally anything that can open up a text document.

this.
I fell for the powerful computer meme as a frosh, and my asus shit the bed after like 2-3 years
Then I bought a T430 brand new from the lenovo outlet, installed linux alongside win7, and was golden.
Linux gave me based multidesktop multitasking capabilities that I couldnt do in windows, and it handled ProE, MCNP, everything you'd need.

You would think the school offers desktops at school. I get all my CAD homework done at school on computer with 2gbs of RAM.
The highest power computers for the average student is 4 gigs.
I run auto cad 3d with 4 gigs easy.

Come on OP, you know this isn't for "study" purpose.
I'm halfway through my PhD in robotics and a core2duo machine is comfortable enough.
Buy your gaymer machine if you want but you aren't kidding anyone.

Not into electrical/mechanical enginnering myself, but am I wrong in thinking in 2017 you'd still want to have a serial port? Can these be properly interfaced with through USB adapters?

Anyhoo, no reason OP shouldn't get a Macbook so long as it's specced with sufficient ram (8gb would be more than enough for anything). He can always dual-boot Windows/Linux if needed.

Thank you very much for the advice. Ill keep it in mind. And luckily for me i dont play computer games. Ive heard about Linux before so ill have a look at it (not quite sure what it is desu).

Lol i dont even play games, i just heard gaming computers are good for engineering. I bought two (not at once) and both were faulty within a few days. So i dont think ill bother with them anymore.

You want to be an engineer and you buy over expensive hardware because you heard so? I'd be ashamed if I were your dad.

Well i wasnt gonna spend over 900 quid. And i read that gaming computers were suitable. I wasnt really drawn to the idea of spending loads of money on a gaming computer but the cheapest ones i could find were about 880. I honestly thought it was neccessary in order to run the software required. Guess not. Shouldve come to Sup Forums first.

hijacking this thread to ask for the image of the Sup Forums perfect laptop. the one with a vhs player and stuff.

Yeah... Linux did 99.9% of what I needed in Engineering school. Just that 0.01% where I needed some 100% Windows software. But I was very glad I learned Linux during my studies even though I studied Civil Engineering.

>but am I wrong in thinking in 2017 you'd still want to have a serial port?
For what? Even lab equipment comes with USB these days.
>Anyhoo, no reason OP shouldn't get a Macbook so long as it's specced with sufficient ram (8gb would be more than enough for anything).
More expensive for way worse specs than anything else, has no real safety features against water damage and so on. And he can't use any Mac software. None of the big mech. engineering software comes on Mac. There is more options on Linux than Mac.

And if he is going to use Windows/Linux anyway then it's much better to get good hardware on it that are not going to be ruined if he spills some water on it or something.

>i just heard gaming computers are good for engineering
It's not really needed. Any 3D CAD software you use will work great on something much cheaper. You are not going to render a 3D movie with it. But the reason thinkpads are good is because they are reasonably cheap for what you get, you can spill water on it without any problem and if something is broken (like a broken screen) then it's easy to upgrade or get new parts.

Oh yeah... Also by the way: Learn how to use git even if you don't do much programming: udacity.com/course/version-control-with-git--ud123

It's great to have giot if something happens. For example, what if you write a 100-page thesis and just before finishing you manage to select all and then remove everything before saving/autosaving (worse things have happened). Then suddenly you lose everything. Much better to be able to go back to a previous version in that case. Need to be risk-conscious as an engineer because if something CAN go wrong then it WILL go wrong for certain, so prepare for it.

Thanks man, ill look up git as well. Which thinkpad model would u recommend?

You should have asked reddit first. It's not too late. reddit.com

>plebbit
I stay away from that place

You should stay away from Sup Forums

Why's that?

You're too stupid to choose a computer that fits your need. You bought over expensive hardware and you broke it. Twice.

This, I feel like gaymurs just say they're doing engineering to not look bad.
>>>Sup Forums

Nope, didnt break them. They came faulty. Probably cos they were the last ones and they gave me crap. And no im not stupid, otherwise i wouldnt have gotten into engineering at uni. Just not a computer expert.

Not a gamer :) but fair enough, theres a lot of engineers who are gamers

>There's a lot of engineers that are gamers
>*Breathes in*
HAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
No.
If you consider codemonkey poojeets playing Candy crush on their 20 dollar androud phones then yes.
But real grown men don't waste their time on kiddy shit like gaymes

Anyone is fine, EXCEPT... Look at picture related. Avoid any computer that has a trackpad like that without the 3 buttons on top. One of the best features of thinkpads is the red "nipple". And without the 3 physical buttons it is hard to use. Thinkpad only had this style for a short while because it did not work very well.

I would recommend a T420 (you can get one with an i7, and set aside money to buy a new harddisk/ssd because those things often fail on used computers. I would definitely get an SSD because the specs are quite good so the harddisk will likely be the thing slowing you down).
A T420 might be a bit old now, but it's a good computer with specs that are not that much worse than a new computer now (I would think it even runs better than most new computers you can get. And MUCH MUCH better than anything else in that price range) and it's very cheap compared to what you get (businesses just want to get rid of them and normal people don't know it's a better buy than anything else in that price range.)

But mostly anything newer than that is also more than fine. Just avoid picture related. Buty the T420/T520(basically a larger T420) is the last version with the good old-fashioned keyboard.

Yh i agree. Adults ought to avoid games. Waste of time and money.

Ok cool, ill have a look at T420s and 520s, thanks a lot.

My major is electrical engineering and i too enjoy games, you guys are just stuck up about games , it's just a hobby afterall

>Inb4 get a productive hobby

A hobby isnt supposed to be 'productive' its supposed to be fun, not everyone likes boring shit and not everyone likes games, nobody is above the other

The graphics card seems a bit old though. I thought you needed a Geforce graphics card. And all of them are refurbished. Arent those all faulty?

Actually ignore that, only gaming computers have geforce.

X200 thinkpad

mcnp

My nigga

Had an internship two years ago trying to get that shit parallelized for an r&d company, even then 6 absolutely blows

My t420 has some nvidia graphics in it

Really depends... I am looking at the website for SolidWorks and a Thinkpad T420 with NVIDIA 4200M should work. But if you are able to get any of the W thinkpads ( W520, W530, W540, W541) then that is recommended. But you can likely live with it being slow. In a worst-case scenario, you likely get access to computers somewhere on campus right?

I only used SolidWorks on the university computers myself when I think about it.

Nvidia should be sufficient. There doesnt seem to be many T520s for sale here in the UK. Or any T5..s for that matter.

>T520
Yeah, it's only a larger version of T420, you don't get much extra other than a larger screen. I have a T520 because I like to have a larger screen, but is pretty large. I don't have one with NVIDIA graphics though, Only Intel HD graphics. Never needed much more than that desu.

literally wrong trying to sound cool

Oh really? Huh, i was under the impression you needed a powerful graphics card for eng.

Serial port works great with expresscard adapters on laptops.

Thinkpads from the xx30's and below have expresscard ports.

Can you afford a Thinkpad P51, even just a refurbished one?

not really... That's a meme... Not until you get a job and can tell your boss "I need super high end graphics card". Unless you do some sort of algorithmic design or anything GPU heavy you don't need that. You just need enough to run the software.

Ok thats fine then.

A little over my price range. Perhaps ill look at an older version?