Computer for college engineering students
 

So Zack is entering Iowa State University this fall majoring in engineering/mathematics. I have reviewed the computer requirements provided by the campus but would like some feedback from parents here with relevant experience.

Iowa is recommending the latest MacBook Pro 15" for engineering students. Those weigh in at nearly $1800 when all said and done. I was thinking more along the lines of a 2-3 year old MacBook Air for $600. Smaller and lighter to carry into classrooms with a solid state drive. So what heavy weight apps do engineering students run that need so much horsepower? I could also send him with my late 2010 MBP 15" kitted with a SSD - but the form factor is probably not ideal for classroom use and the battery life is half of what it should be these days.

I am not committed to Mac - if there is a cleanly designed PC option I am all ears :) I like the Surface pro with detachable keyboard but it's also a bit spendy. I'm NOT looking to spend bottom dollar on a POS laptop (and related frustration) but at the same time don't feel the need to break the bank on something beyond his needs.

Thanks!

The late 2010 15" with an up to date OS should be just fine.

You can always start there and move up if it turns out he really needs it but I don't think he will.

Pop in a new battery, less than $50.

Max the RAM.

Personally the 15' series Pro's have IMHO always been the most comfortable boxes to use.

I think the ergonomics are just about perfect.

Seems like good advice that you've gotten so far. Just a thought though. You, I assume, are about to spend a fortune on his education, or maybe he is going to be running up loans or even better he had scholarships. Either way, the value of his education is huge both in cost and earning potential. Less than $2k sends like a small price to pay in relation.

A lot of my friends used Macs but ran Windows. I had an HP that did alright. Max out the RAM.

I want a CD drive personally so wouldn't consider an Air.

Depends on what kind of engineering I suppose. CAD programs can be real memory hogs when you start doing FEA or CFD. Animation and modeling isn't so bad.

I was able to remote desktop to a school server for doing MATLAB from home which was sweet. Otherwise we had labs with Solidworks, MATLAB, etc. on them that were for your particular major only, though they would get really busy before some big project was due or before finals.

I ran Solidworks student on my laptop, was much better for FSAE than being tied to the labs.

macbook for engineering?

http://img.gawkerassets.com/img/17ps...f/original.gif

I'd send him with a beater laptop first and see where that gets him ... Either your old Mac or get a decent pc laptop for $600. Last time I checke all engineering programs ran on pc. Also, he can always upgrade as needed. It is a dick move by the university to spec only a Mac and no equivalent PC!

Total bs to bring up cost of education as a reason to get a top of the line machine. thats the attitude that got us these ridiculous college costs in the first place.

While not an engineering college, my kid went to a private middle school and was the ONLY kid that didn't have a >1k Mac. First the kids made fun of her 350 dollar hp until they found out it had a touch screen ...:rolleyes:

I am sure you have the funds but this is about a lot more than the computer. Kids need to learn to define themselves through other things than the latest gadget. A phone or computers are tools, not status symbols.

Good luck!

HP 48G did all I needed and than some.
Good luck!!

I am a senior EE and CPE student. I have a macbook and a desktop PC; what sort of engineering is he thinking? Some software such as MATLAB runs on both mac and PC. I don't think solidworks or autocad is compatible with the mac so I am not sure if I would advocate a Macbook Air. An old school Macbook Pro that can run bootcamp should be the way to go IMO. FWIW a lot of my friends usually do their work in the engineering computer center at my school; it is a lab that has about 50 computers that are completely set up for any engineering software and they have dual screen monitors. I bet you his school has something similar.

I had a friend with a surface pro, he was always frustrated by the lack of screen space.

During my early years, I didnt see many engineering students with laptops in class. I can't imagine he would need a computer in class for any calculus/physics/chemistry class (which I imagine he will be taking.)

Just like tools you use for your car, don't skimp on the tools your kid is going to use at University. Is this really where you want to skimp?

Get the latest MacBookPro 15", max it out with RAM, and it should last all of college. Run it dual boot and you're done.

If the college is recommending Mac it is because their infrastructure is likely optimized for that (software licenses, web apps fully tested with Safari, support, etc).

And remember "Apple Care." I'm putting my nephew through Mines engineering and they also require a MAC now. Things like Solidworks and Matlab are provided via Citrix to keep costs down for the school.

Dang

my engineering classes only required an HP calculator.

Crazy

college early nineties if you need a time frame

PS..........thats awesome he is heading out of the fold for college

Small world. My son just chose the University of Minnesota instead of Iowa State, but it was a close call. My older son just went to the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul and we outfitted him with a laptop.

A couple of thoughts. First, considering school technology he will need significant retrofit capabilities. That means DVD players, lots of USB ports, and old fashioned programs and connectivity. He'll need the full Microsoft Office suite, including PowerPoint because that is the language of business, engineering and academia. If he goes to cutting edge technology and forgets about DVDs and USB ports because that's old technology (every one connects on the cloud now days, dad) there will come a day that he can't connect to someone he really needs to share data with.

Second, he won't need a full blown top of the line engineering capable laptop out of the box. As a freshman he'll need a robust computer but one that really just does basic stuff. As he gets into his advanced classes his computing needs will increase, but what he needs a year or two from now will be hard to predict.

Third, you have to balance the advantages of buying the latest greatest device and milking it through the next four years against buying a lower end machine and replacing it at least once during his career.

My strong advice would be to buy a cheaper, yet still robust and capable machine for his freshman year. At the end of his first year he'll have a lot better idea of what he really needs. At that point you can decide whether to go all out and get him a computer that will last him the rest of his college career or split it into cheaper increments. Odds are you won't need to upgrade until the end of his second year, at which point the cutting edge technology will make what's available today look archaic. I think you're wasting your money buying a cutting edge machine for a freshman.

spot on.

I would suggest a Dell Precision series (these have the high-end GPUs... ) or a Surface Pro 2 or 3.

I have both, and while the Dell Precision gives better Solidworks performance (Real view support) the SP2 rocks for so much more. Namely, it is super portable, and scalable as hell. At my desk it goes to a USB3.0 hub, and off to support all sorts of typical egr input devices (Macro pad, 3D Connex, CMM...) And output for my 3D-printer. Both the Precision and Surface Pros will output to high-res monitors. (4k is nice)

Also, with the SP3 now the main sales thrust, the SP2s are relatively cheap (even new). The 256 and 512Gb SP2s come max'd with RAM. (needed). The SP3s have 50% more screen and can be had with an i7, they are spendy. and use an N-trig pen (the SP2 use Wacom - better IMO) I also like the smaller size of the SP2, although the SP3, impressively, weighs the same (thinner)

Anyway, a Huge plus for the Surface Pro's comes from OneNote. Every student should be using that with a tablet. They can jot notes in OneNote, while OneNote records the lecture. When reviewing their notes, simply tapping on, say a graph they drew, will take them to that point in the lecture audio recording. (among other cool info management features)

That is interesting. Sounds like any web appliance should work for that model.

My nephew just graduated from ISU in Aeronautical Engineering. He went 3.5 years with a higher end HP with discreet graphics and it was plenty for his classes. His games have higher requirements than the engineering classes.

One of my colleagues lives on OneNote and uses it in his classes as a shared class resource. I use it on-and-off (there are Mac and iOS versions), mostly when I'm collaborating with him. With others it is either shared Word/XL/PPT or Google Docs (which I despise). The Win version of NoeNote is more sorted, but I still have a tough time navigating Win8, at least the version I have on a Lenovo tablet (which is a POS). SP3 seems to be getting closer...

Yeah, OneNote rocks. Even more so with pen +touch control.

FWIW, Windows 10 will be out soon. -this is what Win8 should have been to start with, and will be a free upgrade, reportedly free even for Win7 users.

David, I Just checked Amazon... surface pro 2 256gb - <$800 new.

Add a Type cover, or Power Cover for $60 or less, new from ebay.

FWIW I like the 1st gen TypeCover (no backlight, but more keystroke) and the PowerCover for really long days w/o power. Oh, and ebay is the place for an OE car charger ~$20.

How about a gift card to newegg. Let him build his own.

And another take on it, I found having a laptop in class to be a distraction. I always did better taking notes with pen and paper. Stayed more engaged with the lecture that way too.

I took notes on paper as well. My laptop was more of a portable desktop.

Thanks to all for the feedback.

I was a bit misleading with my OP - the school posted a suggested configuration based on hardware specs. So if going with Mac it was the 15" MBP, it does not appear that ISU is biased toward PC or Mac. They also advertise online application access for folks who are sporting devices that don't meet the hardware specs to run local.

I too was a pencil/paper note taker but that was long ago. If I had access to a lightweight laptop with long battery I would have done notes on that for sure. I really like the flexibility of the Surface 3 and if pushed to spend that money would probably go there over a MBP. We are attending freshman orientation in June so I'll get a chance to ask more directed questions then.

When I was in college (eons ago) students used to be able to buy macs for 1/2 price as most everyone offered a student discount...

When I bought my mac PLUS :) it was $1000+ 25 years ago...

Macs tend to last a long time. Buy the nice unit, ask for the discount, and be happy.

ISU probably recommends Mac because that's what the school bookstore sells. That's how my alma-matter was.:rolleyes:

He doesn't need any fancier computer than any other student, none of his engineering specific programs will be available on his computer anyway. Any CAD or engineering software is EXPENSIVE, and will only be available at the engineering labs. The more simple computational programs like MathCAD and Matlab can run on any decent laptop, I ran both on a garden variety Gateway. He will primarily use his laptop for the internet, typing papers, Powerpoint, Access, and Excel. Any $600 laptop will be more than enough. It always amazes me how people think college kids need a $2k laptop to type papers and surf porn.

One tip, don't pay full price for MS Office software, wait until he has his .edu email address and MS will sell him a license at a deep discount.

That's not correct, I ran Solidworks student version ($100 for a little more than a year) on my laptop. If he is on an FSAE team I think he can even get the full suite for free with the better FEA and CFD capabilities. Those are the things that tie up the computer.

That might be school dependent then. I graduated in 2008, our school CAD software was ProE Wildfire and there were not student discounts available. I ran CATIA v5 and ProE bootleg copies on a pretty average laptop and it was a little clunky but usable.

Being EE he will probably not spend much time on typical CAD software anyway I wouldn't think. I know the sparkys have their own special software.

Talk to the Tech Support folks at the school. Listen to their recommendations. When my son was getting his Mechanical Engineering degree a couple of years ago the school's tech store sold both Macs and PCs. His Macbook Pro 15 was sold at a discount and came with 4 years of Apple Care at no cost (plus at the time a free Canon printer and Ipod Touch). By buying through the Techstore he got on campus Apple care support and the one time he needed a repair the store handed him another machine to use while his was out being worked. Also do not buy software before he gets there to check out what the school offers. School my daughter is now attending gives free licenses to software (online downloads of MS Office and most Adobe products as well as lots of specialized software) I recently downloaded the full Adobe Photoshop suite when she was home....zero cost, and carries full license. Lots of special programs for students - take advantage of them and save lots of $$$

$1800 for a laptop? That's absurd. Its impossible that a new college student needs that thing though I'm sure he wants it.

Honestly any serious computing in college (graphics? Research simulation?)there will be dedicated machines for it. This thing is for surfing the web, calendar and writing. Maybe there will be crapware they use in an ee course but none of it will challenge a modern laptop.

If me id buy him the cheapest 15" dell that has a core i5. Don't worry about ram - it will have lots. Ditto for hard disk. Should cost ~$400.

If it turns out he really needs the fancy mac because of some software screw up then buy the mac. Rule for tech you don't invest in the future by getting the latest thing, buy what you need now. Buy again later and your money will go 10x further.

Closer to $3500 for a 15" PRO with a 1tb flash drive, and that was with a "student discount."