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Laptop Advice for College Bound Student (1 Viewer)

chet

chet

Footballguy
My son is going to college for engineering next week and needs a Windows-based laptop. The school sent out the following configuration suggestions:

Min 16GB RAM; CPU 3.3 GHZ or higher; Nvidia GPU with 4 GB (not minimum but suggested); min 512 GB SSD suggested;

It's been over a decade since I purchased a windows based laptop so I am by no means an expert. I did find the following on Amazon for $1300 and am interested in feedback:

ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Mobile CPU, NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home​

My sense is that the GPU is overpowered compared to the display--is that assesment correct? Any other thoughts?
 
Ugh. I just got off the phone with my son (3rd year engineering student) and he tells me his laptop is overheating like crazy. It won’t even turn on now. I know this doesn’t help you much, but the timing was just right for me to vent.

ETA...If it helps in any way, here is what I bought him back in April of 2021. Seems to have served him well (until now, of course)
Dell Inspiron 15.6" Full HD TouchScreen Laptop,11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7,16GB DDR4,1TB SSD, Intel Iris Xe Graphics, ...
  • Color: Silver
  • CPU Type: Intel Core i7 11th Gen
  • CPU Speed: 1165G7 (2.80GHz)
  • Screen Size: 15.6"
  • Touchscreen: Yes
  • Operating System: Windows 10 Pro
  • GPU/VPU: Intel Iris Xe Graphics
  • SSD: 1 TB
  • HDD: No
  • Memory: 16GB
  • Options: Touch Screen
 
Last edited:
Touchscreen is a must. Younger kids don't seem to use mice. That rules out Apple. That was fine by me.

15.6 might be a big big. 14" probably better.

I bought both my daughters Lenovo X1 Carbons. 14" screen. Fantastic build.
 
If you want the laptop to last a long time buy a business grade laptop and not a consumer grade laptop.

They are slightly more expensive for the same specs, but they are built with better components. Dell latitude or precision depending on how much you want to spend. Although almost every large manufacturer makes a business line of laptops.
 
culdeus said:
If at all possible just get a M1 MacBook Air. For most basic school tasks it will be superior.
Click to expand...
Both of mine had MacBook Air's through college. Oldest got about 7 years out of hers before she had to get a new one. Youngest still rocking hers after 5 years. Rock solid for a college kid.
 
beer 30 said:
culdeus said:
If at all possible just get a M1 MacBook Air. For most basic school tasks it will be superior.
Click to expand...
Both of mine had MacBook Air's through college. Oldest got about 7 years out of hers before she had to get a new one. Youngest still rocking hers after 5 years. Rock solid for a college kid.
Click to expand...
My oldest just graduated and he’s still using his MacBook Air he got before his freshman year. My middle son just started college and he brought an iPad Air with pencil for in class and also has his desktop that we built from parts (more than powerful enough). My oldest got an iPad Air before his Junior year (I think) because he could take notes on slides with the pencil and really liked that.
 
bigbottom said:
culdeus said:
If at all possible just get a M1 MacBook Air. For most basic school tasks it will be superior.
Click to expand...

My son (mech eng) uses a MacBook, but has to have a separate windows laptop for his CAD work (classes, lab and research).
Click to expand...

I've tried to find the specs for what we bought him, but I must have purchased it in store. In any event, it was a couple years ago, so probably not particularly relevant for today. One thing I would say, however, is to get something with more processing power than what is stated by the school as the minimum system requirements. Classes are one thing, but my son is now doing directed research with more involved CAD work than what was needed for his classes.
 
Payne said:
Touchscreen is a must. Younger kids don't seem to use mice. That rules out Apple. That was fine by me.

15.6 might be a big big. 14" probably better.

I bought both my daughters Lenovo X1 Carbons. 14" screen. Fantastic build.
Click to expand...
Totally disagree for this use case. It's going to CAD applications....you absolutely need the precision of a mouse or trackball. 15.6 might be too small honestly, unless he's using an external monitor.
 
chet said:
My son is going to college for engineering next week and needs a Windows-based laptop. The school sent out the following configuration suggestions:

Min 16GB RAM; CPU 3.3 GHZ or higher; Nvidia GPU with 4 GB (not minimum but suggested); min 512 GB SSD suggested;

It's been over a decade since I purchased a windows based laptop so I am by no means an expert. I did find the following on Amazon for $1300 and am interested in feedback:

ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Mobile CPU, NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home​

My sense is that the GPU is overpowered compared to the display--is that assesment correct? Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...
Agree the GPU is overpowered and is geared towards gaming not CAD/design. Display should be fine. You may want to look at the Lenovo ThinkPad P series, pretty much a mobile workstation specifically for designing in CAD/CAM programs.
 
Hawks64 said:
chet said:
My son is going to college for engineering next week and needs a Windows-based laptop. The school sent out the following configuration suggestions:

Min 16GB RAM; CPU 3.3 GHZ or higher; Nvidia GPU with 4 GB (not minimum but suggested); min 512 GB SSD suggested;

It's been over a decade since I purchased a windows based laptop so I am by no means an expert. I did find the following on Amazon for $1300 and am interested in feedback:

ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Mobile CPU, NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home​

My sense is that the GPU is overpowered compared to the display--is that assesment correct? Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...
Agree the GPU is overpowered and is geared towards gaming not CAD/design. Display should be fine. You may want to look at the Lenovo ThinkPad P series, pretty much a mobile workstation specifically for designing in CAD/CAM programs.
Click to expand...

Yeah, listen to this guy and ignore what I said up above.
 
Hawks64 said:
chet said:
My son is going to college for engineering next week and needs a Windows-based laptop. The school sent out the following configuration suggestions:

Min 16GB RAM; CPU 3.3 GHZ or higher; Nvidia GPU with 4 GB (not minimum but suggested); min 512 GB SSD suggested;

It's been over a decade since I purchased a windows based laptop so I am by no means an expert. I did find the following on Amazon for $1300 and am interested in feedback:

ASUS Vivobook Pro 15 Laptop, 15.6” FHD Display, AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS Mobile CPU, NVIDIA® GeForce® RTX™ 4060 Laptop GPU, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Windows 11 Home​

My sense is that the GPU is overpowered compared to the display--is that assesment correct? Any other thoughts?
Click to expand...
Agree the GPU is overpowered and is geared towards gaming not CAD/design. Display should be fine. You may want to look at the Lenovo ThinkPad P series, pretty much a mobile workstation specifically for designing in CAD/CAM programs.
Click to expand...
This is what my company standard is for engineering laptops - Lenovo P series. They are durable as heck, run CAD and simulation programs well, but weigh a ton.
 
Hawks64 said:
Payne said:
Touchscreen is a must. Younger kids don't seem to use mice. That rules out Apple. That was fine by me.

15.6 might be a big big. 14" probably better.

I bought both my daughters Lenovo X1 Carbons. 14" screen. Fantastic build.
Click to expand...
Totally disagree for this use case. It's going to CAD applications....you absolutely need the precision of a mouse or trackball. 15.6 might be too small honestly, unless he's using an external monitor.
Click to expand...
I missed the Engineering part. My bad.
 
Thanks for the comments and advice.

I was in Costco over the weekend (ironically replacing my daughter's MBP) when I noticed a Dell Inspiron for $1100 ($400 off) with 32 GBs of RAM, 1 TB SSD, Intel i7-13700H Processor.

Can anyone shed light on the video "card" and display?

  • 16" Anti-Glare WVA ComfortView Plus 2.5K (2560 x 1600) Display
  • Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
 
chet said:
Thanks for the comments and advice.

I was in Costco over the weekend (ironically replacing my daughter's MBP) when I noticed a Dell Inspiron for $1100 ($400 off) with 32 GBs of RAM, 1 TB SSD, Intel i7-13700H Processor.

Can anyone shed light on the video "card" and display?

  • 16" Anti-Glare WVA ComfortView Plus 2.5K (2560 x 1600) Display
  • Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
Click to expand...
What CAD program is he going to be using? When I get back to work on Tuesday I will get you the specs from my laptop. I use SolidWorks. I know it's a Lenovo ThinkPad. A good graphics card is a must.
 
Mr.Pack said:
chet said:
Thanks for the comments and advice.

I was in Costco over the weekend (ironically replacing my daughter's MBP) when I noticed a Dell Inspiron for $1100 ($400 off) with 32 GBs of RAM, 1 TB SSD, Intel i7-13700H Processor.

Can anyone shed light on the video "card" and display?

  • 16" Anti-Glare WVA ComfortView Plus 2.5K (2560 x 1600) Display
  • Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
Click to expand...
What CAD program is he going to be using? When I get back to work on Tuesday I will get you the specs from my laptop. I use SolidWorks. I know it's a Lenovo ThinkPad. A good graphics card is a must.
Click to expand...

Good question. I will ask him when he gets back from work.
 
Btw, I used a Lenovo P50 for 5 years straight every day, often taking it home with me every day. Traveled on multiple trips to Asia and unfortunately on some of my vacations too. I gave it up only when the fan got too noisy. It easily had 10,000 hours of use.
 
chet said:
Thanks for the comments and advice.

I was in Costco over the weekend (ironically replacing my daughter's MBP) when I noticed a Dell Inspiron for $1100 ($400 off) with 32 GBs of RAM, 1 TB SSD, Intel i7-13700H Processor.

Can anyone shed light on the video "card" and display?

  • 16" Anti-Glare WVA ComfortView Plus 2.5K (2560 x 1600) Display
  • Intel® Iris® Xe Graphics
Click to expand...
That's integrated graphics card, it's ok but probably not powerful enough
 
The tech specs of the laptop you have chosen is more than enough for the requirements of the school.
I use an affordable Acer Nitro 5 gaming laptop for CAD software, it works well.
pctechtest.com/best-laptops-for-college-students
 
This is what I use. I use SolidWorks daily

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz (Upgrading this processor to something in the range of 3.8GHz - 4.0 GHz)

Installed RAM 128.0 GB

Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro T1000 (Upgrading to an NVIDIA Quadro RTX A5000 Graphics card soon)

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
 
all i know is that back when i was still around it to run cad there was a whole standalone computer that ran nothing but cad and only a few people could touch its amazing to me that it can run on laptops now probably while music is playing and so on take that to the bank brohans
 
Integrated graphics aren't enough here - I'd lean toward something like a Lenovo Legion Pro. Good graphics (RTX 3070), good monitor resolution (another must). You can easily add another SSD (it has room for two). Reasonable price. Not the lightest in the world (light laptops with good graphics cards are $$$$), but for something that can handle SolidWorks this is a reasonable, cost effective solution.
 
Mr.Pack said:
This is what I use. I use SolidWorks daily

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz (Upgrading this processor to something in the range of 3.8GHz - 4.0 GHz)

Installed RAM 128.0 GB

Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro T1000 (Upgrading to an NVIDIA Quadro RTX A5000 Graphics card soon)

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Click to expand...

I'm running a Quadro P2200. It's good for the most part, but gets a little clunky on huge Solidworks files.
 
FatMax said:
Mr.Pack said:
This is what I use. I use SolidWorks daily

Lenovo ThinkPad P16 G1

Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-10750H CPU @ 2.60GHz 2.59 GHz (Upgrading this processor to something in the range of 3.8GHz - 4.0 GHz)

Installed RAM 128.0 GB

Graphics Card: NVIDIA Quadro T1000 (Upgrading to an NVIDIA Quadro RTX A5000 Graphics card soon)

System type 64-bit operating system, x64-based processor
Click to expand...

I'm running a Quadro P2200. It's good for the most part, but gets a little clunky on huge Solidworks files.
Click to expand...
We're upgrading to the RTX A5000 to help with that. Some of my assemblies have north of 20k components
 
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