Anybody else in Engineering that could help me!?

[mxelre]

Be aware the 2GB of RAM fitted in the MBP is 2 x 1GB, so you will need to take that out and get 2 x 2GB for the full 4GB.

thank you for the advice!!!

I am in engineering at queens university, thought about going to mcgill, going into mech eng next year and i am running a 2.4 mbp with 4 gigs ram. it is a beast and runs solid edge ( a design program ) like a champ. you really need a laptop and this one runs great. i will suggest waiting as long as you can before you buy one becuase you will get student deals in the summer and possibly a better computer. i bought mine in august of 07

yup around June- August!!

 

[pixiesmw]

Macbook Pro!

 

[dukebound85]

heres my story

ive been a ME student for 5 years and finally graduating this may


my first 3 years had an emac
last 2, had a mb

this has served me great

a point you are not taking into account is licensing.......
ALL the high end programs such as ProE/Fluent/Gambit?whatever need licesnes. It is NOT feasible for you to put it on your machine affordably

Your school will have engineering labs which have computers that are significanlty faster than a mbp to run these programs. Heck on my senior design team, running a Fluent analysis on our airplan will take over a WEEK on a 16core 32gig ram machine

Here is what you will uses your computer for in college
1)reports
2)internet
3)im/games whatever (for games just get an xbox lol)

you most likely wont be doing cad modeling on your laptop tbh

so what i would do is save the 1000 and get a mb

trust me, ive been there

 

[plumpan]

i would also recommend buying your MBP well before school starts. i put off buying mine (in hopes of the long delayed penryn update) for too long. i ended up buying a SR MBP after school had started and projects were already assigned. while the MBP was everything i needed and more, and greatly helped me get all my work done, i DID spend tons of time just messing around, having fun, and getting used to it (my first time using OS X). this somewhat affected my studies for a while .

 

[heatmiser]

Your school will have engineering labs which have computers that are significanlty faster than a mbp to run these programs. Heck on my senior design team, running a Fluent analysis on our airplan will take over a WEEK on a 16core 32gig ram machine

Here is what you will uses your computer for in college
1)reports
2)internet
3)im/games whatever (for games just get an xbox lol)

you most likely wont be doing cad modeling on your laptop tbh

so what i would do is save the 1000 and get a mb

trust me, ive been there

Listen to this. I don't know anyone who does heavy modeling on their laptops; that's what computer labs are for. Your computer will be used for office, internet, and entertainment. You don't need anything more than a Pentium III/G3 to get through college, to be frank. Everything faster than that just makes the 'entertainment' part more fun.

 

[madhatress]

When I took engineering in uni (warning: this was a few years ago), we never got "student" versions of CAD/solid modeling programs. We did that kind of work in computer labs. We did get student versions for programs like MatLAB.

I think it's best to ask your future professors 1) Exactly what programs you will be using and 2) If there are student versions available. You can also look at the department website or course catalog to figure out what course you have to take, then use that info to find a web page for the course. That may list any software requirements.

It's kind of hard to make a decision unless you know all the facts.

 

[The Flashing Fi]

I'm taking Mechanical Engineering. A Macbook Pro will do fine for what you need it to do. One of my classes was basically a SolidWorks class and it required that you bring a laptop to class. An 8600m GT does the job fine. The guy that says you need a Quadro isn't wrong, but for what you're going to be using it for, a Geforce card will be fine, and many of the Quadro cards are literally rebranded Geforce cards. I can't recall which mobile Quadro card it is, but one of them uses the same GPU as the 8600m GT, with the difference being the BIOS, and I believe the drivers used.

 

[EvryDayImShufln]

Hey

While I'm not in engineering, I also go to Mcgill and have lots of friends who are in mechanical/software and a couple in electrical. Anyhow, I sent you a pm with some cool info you might appreciate!

 

[Animalk]

heres my story

ive been a ME student for 5 years and finally graduating this may


my first 3 years had an emac
last 2, had a mb

this has served me great

a point you are not taking into account is licensing.......
ALL the high end programs such as ProE/Fluent/Gambit?whatever need licesnes. It is NOT feasible for you to put it on your machine affordably

Your school will have engineering labs which have computers that are significanlty faster than a mbp to run these programs. Heck on my senior design team, running a Fluent analysis on our airplan will take over a WEEK on a 16core 32gig ram machine

Here is what you will uses your computer for in college
1)reports
2)internet
3)im/games whatever (for games just get an xbox lol)

you most likely wont be doing cad modeling on your laptop tbh

so what i would do is save the 1000 and get a mb

trust me, ive been there

Listen to this. Coming from a fellow Montreal-er who was in Mechanical Engineering for a year.