Latop for Engineering

Daniel S

Got offered Mech Eng in UL yesterday and I've been told that I'll need a laptop. The specs the specified were:
Intel i5, 4gb ram, nVidia or ATi graphics, 15" or bigger screen and an optical drive.


Do you know of any bargains? Personally I'd rather get a laptop where the processor and graphics card are changeable.

Thanks!

random.stranger

Assuming the main aim is to have a system that runs Solidworks (that's a big assumption worth checking), I would be more worried about the graphics card than the processor.

I would recommend a Dell Precision M4400, not the latest and greatest, but with a NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 770M or Quadro® FX 1700M graphics card that is fully supported by Solidworks.

This graphics card also supports having a dual screen display, which can be very handy for doing project work (have your word processor open on one screen & information/research in other screen), this can really boost your productivity when switching between screens.

M4400's can be picked up on ebay for about e500 from time to time
You can pick up an extra screen for about e50 on adverts
You could really spoil yourself and get a dock for under e100 to have your monitor, ext hard drives etc permanently connected to.

http://computers.shop.ebay.ie/Laptops-Netbooks-/177/i.html?_nkw=dell+m4400&_catref=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282


There have been reported overheating issues with this model of laptop, I don't think this is much of an issue in our climate, but you could open it up and hoover out any dust that colgged outlet beside fan if this is an issue (take precautions against static).

You might get more feedback in the engineering forum.
hth

ps. I couldn't recommend this book enough: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/1403942463/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314957700&sr=8-1

Daniel S

random.stranger wrote: »

Assuming the main aim is to have a system that runs Solidworks (that's a big assumption worth checking), I would be more worried about the graphics card than the processor.

I would recommend a Dell Precision M4400, not the latest and greatest, but with a NVIDIA® Quadro® FX 770M or Quadro® FX 1700M graphics card that is fully supported by Solidworks.

This graphics card also supports having a dual screen display, which can be very handy for doing project work (have your word processor open on one screen & information/research in other screen), this can really boost your productivity when switching between screens.

M4400's can be picked up on ebay for about e500 from time to time
You can pick up an extra screen for about e50 on adverts
You could really spoil yourself and get a dock for under e100 to have your monitor, ext hard drives etc permanently connected to.

http://computers.shop.ebay.ie/Laptops-Netbooks-/177/i.html?_nkw=dell+m4400&_catref=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282


There have been reported overheating issues with this model of laptop, I don't think this is much of an issue in our climate, but you could open it up and hoover out any dust that colgged outlet beside fan if this is an issue (take precautions against static).

You might get more feedback in the engineering forum.
hth

ps. I couldn't recommend this book enough: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Engineering-Mathematics-K-Stroud/dp/1403942463/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314957700&sr=8-1

That's why I wanted a dedicated card that I could replace with a Quadro FX.

logger

http://www.misco.ie/Search/Keyword/refurb

Specifically
http://www.misco.ie/Product/188058/Tier1-HP-ELiteBook-8530w-Core2Duo-T9400-2GB-160GB-HDD-CDRW-DVDRW-15-WUXGA-1920-x-1200-Windows-XPP-Refurb-Laptop
One of the guys in office has on, great with 8 GB ram.

Not quite as good
http://www.misco.ie/Product/188063/Tier1-Lenovo-Thinkpad-T61P-Intel-Core-2-Duo-T7300-100GB-2GB-CDRW-DVDRW-Nvidia-Quadro-Windows-XPP-Refurb-Laptop

Have never bough refurb from misco, but though the price looks good for you, and has quadro graphics.

If you know anyone in the uk you can get some good prices on Precision M6600's in the outlet site

www.dell.co.uk/outlet

Also
http://www.eurocom.com/, and select factory outlet, they have a later HP workstation on offer. Apparently they do deliver to Ireland, however check if anyone else has ordered from them.

kaahooters

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/156-msi-cx623-096uk-wled-core-i5-460m-4gb-500gb-dvd-rw-webcam-nvidia-g310-vga-hdmi-win7-hp-64-bit-pl

thats fine for what you need, you do not need a workstation laptop for college, thatll do fine for what you want and you get a proper warranty as its not refurb, ie 2 years required by eu law for electronic equipment.