Questions for SolidWorks Users and/or Engineering Graduates

[nwoods]

I anticipate spending about $2500 all up, one laptop, one 24" monitor, one batch of accessories.
To Dave in Denver, those specs are not too far off from what I use in my architectural office, but i am specifically looking for a highly portable laptop here.

Requirements:
- 32GB Ram
- 1TB SSD
- Compact form factor for backpack use on a very slender girl. Screen: 13"? 14"?
To compare, the 16" MacBook was "Eew, way too heavy Dad. No way!"
- Long battery life. As an athlete, they travel a LOT, and need long battery life on planes, buses, etc...
- Illuminated keyboard
- Good trackpad

I will be adding a 24" monitor as well (anything bigger might not fit in the dorm room!)

 

[Finlay]

Everyone wants a small laptop with lots of power, no heat, large screen and infinite battery life. Might as well ask for an Earthroamer that has Miata handling, and gets Prius mileage.

It's a bag of compromises.

Personally, I would get a convertable laptop with a stylus - taking notes in engineering involves A LOT of drawing diagrams and writing equations/proofs (subscripts, superscripts, greek letters, etc etc etc.) - and those things are HARD to do with a conventional laptop. The high end Surface Pros are really good, if spendy - the stylus' are second to none. There are other good brands, but it's hard to recommend against the Surface in that space. They really are that amazing.

Then I'd also get a big monitor, and a desktop with tons of power. It's vastly cheaper to get the horsepower in a desktop, and they're easier to use also.
If I were going back to study engineering, that is what I'd do. But, you know.... everyone has their own priorities.

 

[nwoods]

Everyone wants a small laptop with lots of power, no heat, large screen and infinite battery life. Might as well ask for an Earthroamer that has Miata handling, and gets Prius mileage.

It's a bag of compromises.

Personally, I would get a convertable laptop with a stylus - taking notes in engineering involves A LOT of drawing diagrams and writing equations/proofs (subscripts, superscripts, greek letters, etc etc etc.) - and those things are HARD to do with a conventional laptop. The high end Surface Pros are really good, if spendy - the stylus' are second to none. There are other good brands, but it's hard to recommend against the Surface in that space. They really are that amazing.

Then I'd also get a big monitor, and a desktop with tons of power. It's vastly cheaper to get the horsepower in a desktop, and they're easier to use also.
If I were going back to study engineering, that is what I'd do. But, you know.... everyone has their own priorities.

I seriously thought of that, but she has an iPad that she loves, and creates a lot of art content and so forth. She has used it for notes in AP Physics in high school as well, so that is working. That is why I am shying away from the 2n1's. Plus, there's just no way they will last as long as a laptop. I know, not as important as originally considered, but one accidental drop and its tears for years.

 

[ITTOG]

I don't know why everyone is talking about short lifespans for PC's. They can easily last six to eight years these days. Not the junk corporations buy but ones individuals buy. I have one that is nine years old running Windows 10 and a Dell XPS that is about 15 years old running Windows home server.

Look at the Dell XPS 13 inch that just came out. Most reviews I have seen indicate it is the best laptop you can buy. Even better than the apple laptops.

Sent from my Pixel XL using Tapatalk

 

[john61ct]

What I said, nothing to do with reliability

Just relevance at the high end in such a demanding use case. Same with high end gaming.

Not saying it **has** to be replaced, just to assume you will want to, 3-4 years at the outside, especially for a portable unit.

Of course there are many more use cases, like most servers where they can keep chugging along for decades

 

[Rando]

Would it not be a good exercise for your daughter to be researching this? She is the one who will be using this, and it would be a good first step for her to contact the department to see what software they use and what their computer recommendations are.

 

[nwoods]

Would it not be a good exercise for your daughter to be researching this? She is the one who will be using this, and it would be a good first step for her to contact the department to see what software they use and what their computer recommendations are.

Yes and Yes. She did do this inquiry around the end of the year, but that was pre-covid. At the time, the person she talked to (within the College of Engineering) was pretty adamant that her personal computer was wide open in selection, because all the engineering students used the software and machines in the on-site computer labs (they just built and opened a brand new zillion dollar engineering building last fall). Also, we did an official visit last fall and talked about this with the (professor?) who was walking us through the new facility.

Now that Covid was/is happening, and students can't use the on-site computer labs, the equation has obviously changed. She has reached out to them to find out what they are doing, such as VPN, RDP, or student licensing on personal machines. She hasn't received and answer yet. Her original contact is no longer there, and we've been bouncing around trying to find the right person to answer the question, but its hard because no one is physically there so you can't just call.

In the meantime, I was waiting for Apple to finally replace the previous generation 13" MBP with the new one and the new (old style) keyboard. They released it this week, which got the ball rolling for this discussion here. Hoping to hear back from the college soon.

 

[ITTOG]

Would it not be a good exercise for your daughter to be researching this? She is the one who will be using this, and it would be a good first step for her to contact the department to see what software they use and what their computer recommendations are.

If she is like most girls that age there will be zero research. They will just select what one they think have the most social value and select it without doing the research. I know this from experience because my daughter did it. I asked her to give me a list of pro's and con's of why she wanted an apple. For every pro, I could prove that the windows machines are better and way more flexible.

 

[john61ct]

generalizing wrt gender like that, in 2020, really?

especially given we're talking one focused on an engineering career?

for shame

 

[Rando]

Wow.

 

[NatersXJ6]

The single biggest financial mistake I made in going to engineering school was buying a high end computer. Something like $4k at the time and all my roommates used it for gaming.

Buy something simple and cheap that can run office and browse the web and use the school computer lab resources for drafting, math lab, etc... By the time she gets into application heavy classes, anything she gets now will be obsolete. In addition, the bulk of learning comes from peer-to-peer lab interaction. She needs to be in the lab working on the same stuff as everyone else at the same time.

 

[Rando]

The single biggest financial mistake I made in going to engineering school was buying a high end computer. Something like $4k at the time and all my roommates used it for gaming.

Buy something simple and cheap that can run office and browse the web and use the school computer lab resources for drafting, math lab, etc... By the time she gets into application heavy classes, anything she gets now will be obsolete. In addition, the bulk of learning comes from peer-to-peer lab interaction. She needs to be in the lab working on the same stuff as everyone else at the same time.

Great advice.

 

[john61ct]

I was going to say, maybe wait until that scenario is even possible?

Many students are finding the "remote learning" practices are not delivering enough value for the tuition dollars.

Germany, Israel, down under, scandinavia, all will be "returning to normal" sooner & more safely, all have excellent tertiary education quality across their institutions.

Not a coincidence that. . .

 

[nwoods]

John, fortunately, she is going to Texas State and they have announced that the start of Summer session (July 6th - which is when she reports), the school will be reopening. We don't fully know what that will mean yet, but hopefully she will have a dorm to stay at!

 

[john61ct]

Wow.

I do hope that does prove to be fortunate, for all y'all. . .