Notebook for an Engineering Student...

[crunch8]

I need help picking out a notebook for college and here are some requirements:

-$1300 at the max
-15" screen and no smaller
-Pentium M
-Light and thin
-Able to run engineering programs like CAD without slowing down
-Mobility

Will add more if needed. Thanks in advance.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Check out the HP nx6000 series. You can get them with a Pentium M or Turion. I know the nx6125 Turion starts @ $999 and includes a 3 year warranty, biometric security, and bluetooth standard; 15" XGA/SXGA+.

Maybe a Dell Inspiron 6000 15.4", but only a nicely loaded one using a fat coupon to make it $1300 or less. Won't be very portable though.

And just an FYI, chances are that you won't actually use your CAD software on YOUR machine. Most universities have labs & clusters setup to use their uber-expensive software, unless you want to buy your own. And most of the student-purchaseable CAD software isn't very demanding; just get lots of RAM since its dirt cheap now.

 

[vtohthree]

yeah it depends, I had to purchase a laptop as an Engineering major as well. They required at least 64mb of ram for the video card back then. They
wanted us to have it for such programs like Autodesk Inventor Pro, as well as other cad programs. In the end, I'm sure an integrated card would have
handled it just as well.

 

[whorush]

agreed, this one looks real good.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/us/en/sm...957-64295-89315-321838-f33-471753.html

 

[crunch8]

AMD Turion 64 1.6GHz (VS.) Intel Pentium M 1.6GHz

which is better?

 

[mickles]

AFAIK: Turion, but not by a ton in terms of performance. The Pentium-M will be better on battery life.

 

[Fox5]

Originally posted by: crunch8
I need help picking out a notebook for college and here are some requirements:

-$1300 at the max
-15" screen and no smaller
-Pentium M
-Light and thin
-Able to run engineering programs like CAD without slowing down
-Mobility

Will add more if needed. Thanks in advance.

CAD isn't really that dependent on the graphics card(so much as just having one), but for other engineering programs you may want a workstation card or a very high end gamer card. Dell's M20 starts at $1400 and has a FireGL, however it's a rather outdated one, likely the 9300 or XPS Gen 2 with their 6800 cards would outperform it even in engineering apps.(still, none of these are going to meet your price range) The M20 also has a 14.1" screen, but other than that and the price it meets your requirements pretty close to perfectly. Maybe you can get some rebates though, or a student discount, most schools seem to have deals with Dells.

 

[whorush]

also, it depends which turion.

check out http://www.amd.com/us-en/Processors/Pro...ormation/0,,30_118_12651_12659,00.html

you can see that the ML line is 35W and the MT line is 25W. unfortunately, it seems hard to find a 25W version. can't figure out why? everyone seems to be using the 35W version. i have a hunch, but i'll spare you, unless any of you want to take this offline. however, the 1.6GHz version is bound to suck much less juice than the 2.2GHz version, i know they are all binned, but still, i think it has to be, especially considering how good AMDs process and yields are.

also comparing the turion to the PM in wattage is not an apples to apples comparison. the wattage figure takes into account everything in the core. as you know, amd integrates lots of things into the core beyond the PM, most importantly the memory controller. the PM has one too, but its not in the core so its not factored into their figure. see what i mean? also the turion is 64 bit, blocks some viruses etc.