i3 5005U for engineer student

[ZombieLover97]

Hey I found a laptop (Lenovo IdeaPad 100-15IBD) with these specs:

- i3 5005U (2 GHz)
- 4 GB RAM
- GeForce 920MX (2 GB)
- FHD(1920/1080) and 15,6"
- 256 GB SSD
-FreeDos(I have a CD of Windows 7 Ultimate)

I found it at 410 EUR (or 481 USD)
My bugdet is 400-500 EUR (or 470-580 USD)
(I live in Greece so that decreases my chances to find a good conbination of CPU RAM GPU and SSD)
Does an SSD actually matter so much??
I want it for MATLAB, SIMATIC STEP 7, EAGLE , MULTISIM , AutoCAD

 

[Jamal_7]

SSD do matters a lot but the space is a bit less. I dont know about the packages of MATLAB but i used android studio on my previous laptop and the space of 150 gb got full due to different IDEs and software i installed in the C drive. SSD wil fasten up the work so i am not saying its useless,infact its the other way around. But if you can get it upto 500gb , go for it. It all depends on your requirement actually, if you think you can get enough space in 256 gb, go for it dude.

 

[ZombieLover97]

256 GB is fine (and problably I will get an external one)
The thing is that I found another lenovo laptop with i5 7200U , 8 GB RAM , same GPU, 15,6" but with 1TB HDD (not SSD) and it was at 510 EUR
And I dont know if that's better
it has better CPU and RAM but it has HDD
so what's better??

 

[guanyu210379]

For Matlab and AutoCAD as a student, you need a middle-classed laptop.
You need at least an i5, 8GB RAM, a dedicated GPU (if possible) and an SSD.
SSD can be added later e.g. by removing your optical drive.

If you can not get the laptop locally in Greece, try ordering online from other EU countries.
You can also simply visit one of the countries and buy the laptop there.

 

[Jamal_7]

Go with the one with ssd. Its basically a solid state disc and instead of getting the data magnetically as in hdd , it performs data related functions digitally which makes the system almost 5-8 times (and even more in several cases) faster. For example if android studio for a normal simulation will take 5 mins to run in hdd, it will take hardly a minute to run on sdd. The windows will power on 10 times faster than hdd .. I experienced it and you can too by comparing the working of both ssd and hdd on a shop.. rest is your decision.

 

[ZombieLover97]

I actually plan to take the one with i3 and the SSD and change the RAM from 4 to 8
but will an i3 do the work??
or I really need that i5 ??
If I want to buy from another country I will look for Romania cause I will go there for holidays so If i find something interesting I will take it probably
I checked and its the same in Romania
If I get the laptop woth the i5 I will buy and an SSD which means that all together will cost 580 EUR
I can afford it but Will that work better that the laptop with the i3 or it wil just a wast of money??

 

[guanyu210379]

The difference between i3 and i5 is quite much for your usage.
It is not waste of money. I always avoid I3, Celeron and Atom due to the performance issue.
I7 would be more appropriate for Matlab and AutoCAD but, for university, an I5 will do.
AutoCAD gains benefit from every extra CUDA cores but for university daily work, you would not need much power. You said that you have a strong PC anyway.
Simatic 7 should be not that heavy, an I3 should be already enough especially for university projects.
I do not know about MULTISIM and EAGLE, I have never used them.

BTW, adding an SSD can be achieved by several possibilities.
1. replace your HDD completely.
2. If the laptop has an optical drive, you should be able to replace this with an adapter to fit HDD/SSD. You can then make the optical as external drive using adapters/housing.
I am, if possible, more for the second option, this way you have SSD for speed and HDD for storage.

 

[Jamal_7]

I actually plan to take the one with i3 and the SSD and change the RAM from 4 to 8
but will an i3 do the work??
or I really need that i5 ??
If I want to buy from another country I will look for Romania cause I will go there for holidays so If i find something interesting I will take it probably
I checked and its the same in Romania
If I get the laptop woth the i5 I will buy and an SSD which means that all together will cost 580 EUR
I can afford it but Will that work better that the laptop with the i3 or it wil just a wast of money??

It will obviously work better than i3. But i3 can run most of the IDEs smoothly, My friends used i3 processor throughout their degree and it went well. What matters is RAM and Generation of the processor and SSD. If a dedicated graphic card is there,its a plus point. As for i5, if thats easy and feasible for you, its better, go for it.. Like i previously said the final decision is yours to make, i told you all pros and cons

 

[ZombieLover97]

I will be using the laptop in my Lab classes of my university and not as my main PC (my main PC is pretty strong) and I don't plan to change laptop for at least 3 years
So do I need a laptop with I5??(We are talking about Automation Engineering Softwares)

 

[Jamal_7]

Its good for lab use. If you are willing to spend some extra euros , the lenove i5 7200 is the best choice.

 

[ZombieLover97]

ok !!
Thanks