Laptop

[dinicaandrei0]

Hei guys,

I'm an electrical engineering student and right now looking for a new laptop.
I was thinking about the 2017 macbook pro but i'm nota sure if it will worth the money. What do You think? Have You any Windows sugestions?
P.S: I will also do coding in that laptop.

 

[pkcable]

It could work, but you will get more bang for your buck going PC. Both Dell and HP are running holiday sales right now. You might also find Apple is having a sale, probably at Best Buy.

 

[xandros9]

Check to see whether your program has any specific requirements. I, in business, did not, but some peers in engineering at another university did.

Beyond that, a lot of laptops will work for you. I made do with a 2008 ThinkPad through senior year and it saw a boatload of coding. (the last year or so)

Of course, you aren't looking for a $40 bargain bin special so that's not what you want.

First decide whether you want a Mac or not. macOS is nice but you have only a handful of hardware choices and you have to decide whether the pros/cons of those are worth it. For what it's worth, I'd recommend insurance unless you're generally careful with your things.

A lot of applications I had to use in college were Windows only and while it was no problem for me, being a huge dork with a Mac that had a lot of RAM, it may pose an issue if you don't want to deal with switching OSes or handling virtual machines.

And then we get to budget. Some peers got a $300 Dell Inspiron special when they needed something that day and those worked fine. I wouldn't expect them to last all four years, but they were solid stopgap measures that would last if babied.

 

[spicypadthai]

I generally agree a PC will be a better value than a Mac but you should answer a couple of questions first to help you decide. What apps will you be using? What are their requirements and do any need or benefit from a discrete graphics card?

 

[dinicaandrei0]

I will use apps like matlab, eclipse, LaTeX, CAD, Spice.

 

[ochhanz]

I will use apps like matlab, eclipse, LaTeX, CAD, Spice.

, whatever you do, do not buy a 2017-2019 macbook (perhaps 2016 too). They are expensive and prone to keyboard failures & heat. I would suggest something with an okay gpu (preferable Quadro or amd Firepro or such), a good keyboard and probably not to heavy. The lighter workstation laptops come to mind, perhaps a 14 inch Probook, Latitude or a Thinkpad P..s or perhaps Thinkpad T (the newer ones come with an ok nividia gpu or ok amd igpu).

If you want MacOs, the better deals are getting a refurbished/older Macbook (2015 seems to be a popular model, but you do get older hardware).

If you want to sacrifice a bit performance for extra portability you could get a Surface Pro (or the Dell variant) for a good deal refurbished/2nd-handed. The 3:2 screens are a nice bonus too.

 

[dinicaandrei0]

What about Lenovo C930, zenbook pro 14'' or maybe an envy with Linux as os?

 

[ochhanz]

What about Lenovo C930, zenbook pro 14'' or maybe an envy with Linux as os?

, the 930 lacks a decent gpu / graphics. A Zenbook with e.g. a nvidia 1050 would be a solid choice. An Envy with either an mx150/250 or 3500u/3700u or faster would be good enough too .

Linux probably works well. Dell and Thinkpads usually offer good Linux support from what I have read. I would say just try it out, you can dual boot besides Windows anyway so just see if your favourite Linux distro(s) work.

edit: Just wanted to add that there are rumors about Apple going to switch keyboard for the next Macbooks, so if you can wait and really want MacOs that might be an option (though there is a chance the new keyboard technology will have persistent problems too, teething problems is something you will want to avoid with prices that high).

 

[Golfdriver97]

What about Lenovo C930, zenbook pro 14'' or maybe an envy with Linux as os?

I would try testing a Linux distro for all you need first. If you have a spare drive that isn't doing anything, load it there and try playing with it.

You can test run Linux without installing, but you can't add any programs either.