samz_manu :
Pinhedd :
samz_manu :
Ok, so I have racked my brains about what computer to buy and I came up with zilch. I'm an incoming computer engineering major in college and I need to buy a computer that'll do the best for my needs. My budget is $800. Suggest away.
Right now the laptops in my consideration have the following specs:
i5 processor
4 to 5 pounds
1.7 Ghz and over
8 GB Ram
At least 500 GB Hard drive
Mulitple USB ports
Great battery life.
NEED HELP ASAP!
Computer Engineering graduate here.
$800 is a bit on the low side. If you can scrounge up another $400 or so you'll be able to get yourself something that will last 4 years. If you can't, you'll be hard pressed to find a device that is comfortable, durable, and suitable.
The Lenovo Thinkpad W530 was the crowd favourite among my fellow students. I've always been more of an Alienware guy myself.
Do not skimp out on a good laptop with a sizeable screen and a comfortable keyboard. You will spend an awful lot of time in front of it, so utility is far, far more important than price. This is not going to be an $800 facebook/reddit machine, you will be using it for an awful of lot of professional programs and you will definitely spend a lot of time on it.
Would you advise a Mac then? If I am to go over $1000, should I just bite the bullet and get a Mac? I know I'll have to load a VM to do some programming and I've heard Mac's heat up really quickly.
I wouldn't advise against getting a mac, as there are certainly some very good reasons to use them but they may not be the best tool for the job.
Most of the work that you will do and most of the software packages that you will use are either Windows based, Linux based, or both. Most of the EDA programs used in the industry simply aren't available for OSX so keep that in mind. I found the best of both worlds to be a Windows host and a RedHat Enterprise Linux (or CentOS) guest running on VMWare Workstation. The optimal arrangement of software packages will changes slightly depending on what your courses require but I assure that having access to both environments at the same time is invaluable. You will spend far less time mucking around with dual boot arrangements and trying to jerry rig linux programs to run on Windows.
You will do a lot of C programming. Tons of it. Don't try and do this in Cygwin, it's a pain in the rear. Get used to doing as much programming as possible in a Linux environment as possible because that's where most embedded systems work is done.
In any case, don't cheap out on your laptop. Whatever you buy will be your constant companion for the entirety of your undergrad. Invest in it and make it your primary tool for school work. If you like to play games, use a desktop for that. If you can scrounge up $1500 or more to get a nice 17 inch laptop with gobs of RAM and a gorgeous display, do it. It may seem like a lot to fork out at once but amortize that over 4 or more years and you will not regret it. Comfort is everything.