Need a new laptop for Uni.

-WZ-

-WZ-

Active member
Likely going to double post in non-ski gabber but you guys probably know best. Im midway through my first year in Engineering and I definitely need a laptop for school. So far my proposed budget is $1000-1500. I've always wanted a mac, but I know a lot of people don't really recommend them as you can get better specs for a cheaper price with Windows. The other thing is in engineering there's a lot of programs which ive heard are a bitch to run on OSX so I'd most likely have to dual boot with windows if I went down that path. Also, I commute by bus so I only have a backpack with me and can be at school for 10+ hours so it needs to be lightweight, minimal, as well as having a great battery life. The main uses are going to be

1) homework

2) Engineering programs

3) Netflix

4) Newschoolers (might do a bit of video editing here and there)

Some of the options I've looked at are:

Macbook Air

Dell XPS

Asus Zenbook

Windows Surface

In all honestly I know next to nothing about specs but Ive been told I should be looking for something with a minimum i5 processor or equivalent, 8gb ram, and a 256gb hard drive. Resolution would also be nice as Ill be watching a lot of movies on it aswell.

If anyone could give me insight, advice or even break down the tech specs a bit better for me, especially with the models I listed, would be great. Thanks guys!
 
Check out the Lenovo y500 (or whatever the gaming one is). For around 1000 you are getting a ptetty nice laptop. Intel i7, 8gb ram, and the option of dual gtx770m's. I have a few friends who own one and they love them. They are pretty thin/lightweight, and I believe the monitor is a 1920x1080.

Honestly message me if you have any questions, or post here. Im more of a computer guy than a camera guy (at least for now haha).
 
Can confirm the Y-50 is top notch for gaming or video/photo editing. Battery life isn't great, but if you're looking for performance it's a good option.
 
One word MSI.

Get the apache from msi will post link to it in the am. I have our timberline IT guy who sat there and hunted for it. He wants to sell his MacBook pro to get one. Its 1100 bucks i7 skylake newest of the Intel processors this year. 16gigs ram, 1tb hard drive, extremely good nividia gaming graphics card. You have 3 different modes normal browsing. Strenuous, and gaming, it truly is a beast of a machine. I can run PhotoShop stacking 200 pics, premiere pro rendering warp stabilizer, Netflix and newschoolers all at the same time with 0 lag from the computer. Even able to play titanfall on max settings while editing on another screen. Blows mac and windows out of the water.
 
13603935:mantoast said:
One word MSI.

Get the apache from msi will post link to it in the am. I have our timberline IT guy who sat there and hunted for it. He wants to sell his MacBook pro to get one. Its 1100 bucks i7 skylake newest of the Intel processors this year. 16gigs ram, 1tb hard drive, extremely good nividia gaming graphics card. You have 3 different modes normal browsing. Strenuous, and gaming, it truly is a beast of a machine. I can run PhotoShop stacking 200 pics, premiere pro rendering warp stabilizer, Netflix and newschoolers all at the same time with 0 lag from the computer. Even able to play titanfall on max settings while editing on another screen. Blows mac and windows out of the water.
Click to expand...

It is windows just saying. But i can also second msi they are great laptops, they are usually a bit more expensive though. Whatever you get in your price range shoot for an i7, laptop i7 are generally equivilant to desktop i5s and should be more than enough power.

If you are looking to cut back money a little bit a gpu isnt necessarily required. The newer gen integrated graphics on intel chips are starting to get pretty damn good. If you are thinking of connecting to any kind of external/dual monitors however you will love yourself for having it.
 
13604197:NightFantasies said:
It is windows just saying. But i can also second msi they are great laptops, they are usually a bit more expensive though. Whatever you get in your price range shoot for an i7, laptop i7 are generally equivilant to desktop i5s and should be more than enough power.

If you are looking to cut back money a little bit a gpu isnt necessarily required. The newer gen integrated graphics on intel chips are starting to get pretty damn good. If you are thinking of connecting to any kind of external/dual monitors however you will love yourself for having it.
Click to expand...

Should of added that I run dual monitors and external while doing other crap so for me definitely necessary. I tried to get a future proof laptop for at least 3 years haha
 
update: I can get a month old 13.3" macbook pro w retina (early 2015) with 8gb ram, 256gb storage i5 (retails $1800 cad) for $1300 off someone at my work who bought it but didn't use it and now its past the return period. Should I pull the trigger on it even tho its a Mac?
 
A macbook air won't be powerfull enough for enginering. I'm an architecture student and I went with a macbook pro. Ill be honest with you, I owned a PC laptop before and it didnt last for long, after 2-3 years of usage it started to be really slow and laggy. My friend had a macbook pro for 7 years. It is a little slower nowadays but it is still running properly. Thats why I bought a mac, it is a quality product. I'm also a big fan of Apple's design and products that's another reason lol.
 
Yeah I gotta admit I really love my macbook pro i've had no issues with it and can always trust it to work like it's brand new. A lot of my friends have windows laptops and their constantly having issues, IMO their less user friendly but it's probably because i'm used to the mac. As for engineering software id imagine it runs better on windows, but I know my engineering friends prefer using the dual monitor lab computers provided by the school.
 
You said yourself you run everything to dual monitors, and I know how big of an asset they are for CAD work etc. Does this Mac have dedicated graphics? I know some of the newer pros do and they are great, however it sounds like for your application that's really a must have sort of deal.

Mac vs PC is an endless debate, Its honestly which one you prefer. I'm 100% a PC guy so I can't really tell you to get it or not without any bias. I have however owned both a Macbook pro and a windows laptop, they will both go out of date, they will both become slow.
 
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