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June Consumer Reports... Laptops
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Posted by: 390gtconv

Hi all,
I'm looking to get a copy of this months CR mag as they did article on laptops. I was recently at a trans shop reading CR but didn't go get a copy soon enough. Now July's is out.

My son is going to college in the fall for engineering and I wanted to make the best informed decision on a laptop for him.
Perhaps if someone has one they don't want and attends a cruz night I could pick it up.

Worth a shot.

Posted by: langod

George,

I'm an IT Manager in real life.
When employees of my company ask what laptops to buy for personal use, I tell them: Acer, Dell, Toshiba and Lenovo (IBM). Those seem to be both the most reliable and have good price points. The Acer and Dell are the most inexpensive. Toshiba makes an excellent laptop, but can be a bit more expensive. Lenovo (the company that bought IBM's laptop business) makes very good ones as well.
I've been buying the Acer laptops recently for our technicians. They seem to take abuse well and aren't loaded-down with unnecessary bells-and whistles. You can get a decent, low-end one for under $600.
But an engineering student may need more hosrepower than a low-end laptop will give you. I'd recommend the middle-high end Toshibas in that case.
(my personal laptop is a Toshiba -- it's 5 years old and going strong -- I use it almost every day.)

DO NOT buy a Gateway. They're crap.

Posted by: 390gtconv

Thanks for the info, very helpful. I do think the Toshiba's were near or on the top of the Best Buy list.

Posted by: TorchRedSVT

If possible, to stay away from the big box pushers such as best buy or circuit city. They tend to charge more for products. yes they do sell thier own protection plans, but if the issue is something they can't fix it gets sent to the manufacturer anyways.

Posted by: Mustang5L5

Is he going to be installing any sort of CAD software on the computer? What sort of engineering?

I mean it really depends on what software. I'm an engineer and I have two laptops, one for home use and one for work. Both are pretty hefty in order to run some of the programs I have. If not, It would take hours to run some of the analysis I have to do. In fact...it still takes hours on some.

Anyway, 17" screen is a minimum, or run a 2nd monitor. It's hard to do CAD on a 15.4" screen. Both of mine are 17" screen but my work laptop has a docking station hooked up to a 20" flatscreen that makes it even easier.

I have Dell's. Our entire company uses Dell and i have never really had a single issue with the 3 computers assigned to me (2 laptops and a desktop). My own personal Dell runs Vista and I leave it on for weeks at a time with no shutdown and it never slows. I use both my laptops every day and right now have them both open side by side as i'm drawing some stuff up in CAD for work as I surf the net on my own PC. No probs at all.

But anyway to answer your question, if he's going to run stuff like Inventor, Solidworks, COSMOS, AutoCAD, and other Engineering related programs...he's gonna need some horsepower. I have 4GB RAM and the fastest processor available in order to get it done.

I ordered my personal laptop through Dell.com. It's an E1705 which i don't think they make anymore. (and it's only a year old) It was only $1500ish or so but was pretty well loaded and does anything I want. This was a year ago..so i almost garantee Dell has even faster stuff out now that would blow mine away..prob for cheaper.

So if you are pricing laptops and it comes down to options like 2GB ram or 4GB? 2.3 Ghz or 2.6 Ghz....the higher end features do make a difference in performance with some of the software

Posted by: 390gtconv

He's going to R.I.T. in NY. He's going in undecided. That way he gets a taste of diff prograns like mechanical, plastics, energy. I'm trying to get him to look hard into energy as I work for a company EVERGREEN Solar making solar panels. But it'll be his choice.
I want him to get him what he needs as this is an important tool for him. He uses Solidworks now because as a student they can use their school id and down load free a student version. He may in fact load a couple diff programs. But since you wouldn't run twodiff programs at a time (or would you) should be ok.
I figure 3-4gb memory anyway. I also believe a dual core is in order, correct? As far as a bigger screen I agree with you on that however a comment from my brother in-law was the bigger the screen the harder to lug around. Thoughts.

Posted by: Mustang5L5

Run two different hi-power programs at the same time? I haven't had to yet. Usually i use either Solidworks or Inventor and only use one at a time. I do run other stuff at the same time like Excel, Lotus notes and other programs. 4MB should be fine. I have no issues with it.

As for the screen size. It's personal preference. I find it difficult to do CAD on some of the 15.4" laptops we have. The physical size different doesn't bother me at all. It's an extra pound and couple inches. To be honest i've never really paid much attention to the weight.

If he wants to go smaller, then i strongly suggest running a dual monitor setup and have something larger. If i was still at work i'd pull up SW on one of our 15.4" laptops and show you how cramped it seems. If i turn up the resolution i need a magnifying glass to view it.

You work at Evergreen near Devens? A few people from my Company left for there. I'm a mech. engineer over at Entegris

Posted by: 390gtconv

Yes I recently got hired as the Product Supervisor at the headquarters in Marlboro. I hope to move by years end to Devens when they open up the 2nd bldg in Devens. Interesting stuff. When I got laid off @ last job in high tech I said I was tired of all the B.S. I looked for a job in something that was gonna be around for awhile and solar is a safe bet. I did try also to get into Integris as supervisor.

I guess the best thing for my son will be to shop and see how the 17" feels. I too think for engineering the bigger screen is a plus.

Thanks all for input.

Posted by: langod

He can always get one with the 15" screen plus get a bigger monitor for "home". That way he has smaller portability for travel and classes; but when he's in his dorm, he can plug it into, say, a 19" LCD screen and have all the screen real estate he needs. 19" LCDs are about $200 now, I believe.