Need a computer for college

I will be going to Iowa State University in the Fall of 2009! And its coming up quickly if I do say so myself. Question is I have no idea what I am needing for a computer... Desktop? Laptop? I *think* very strongly that it is laptop. Here is a link to ISU's requirements for PC and Mac systems, although this is basic.

I'll be in Mechanical Engineering and the computer will have CAD installed at some point throughout the school year. What is recommended? Grab a laptop? How much horsepower does it need?

Help..?

If you are entering the Engineering program, This Link may be more appropriate then the one you provided. It seems the college recommends that you use their computers for your engineering work. If you want a personal computer, get one that fits your needs. As a college student myself, I recommend a Laptop over a desktop, so you can take it with you to the library, classes, study sessions, etc. Get an office suite (ISU recommends MS Office), and you should be set.

I hadn't found that page, very interesting. Thank you. It doesn't specify Mac versus PC however. I hope the MBP is a college-happy machine?

It is, but not for engineering. The simple fact that you'll have to use CAD and other engineering programs means that it would be easier if you just bought a Windows machine rather than a Mac and then spending a good portion of your time using Windows via Boot Camp.

Aw thats no fun. But as I am planning on laying down 2600-2800 for the MBP, perhaps I could have the best of both worlds no? A windows laptop/desktop and a Macbook for "fun" ?

Someone has to agree with this, I really want to convert to Mac.. lol

I am engineering student at OU, Electrical Engineering and Physics Engineering and i run a macbook pro. I use parallels to run all kinds of programs Matlab, CAD, and all kinds of chip simulators and programmer, though i cannot remember the name of the program now...... But its not just me that had a mac, several of my friends and even the Graduate student that taught one of my classes ran mac and then would just use parallels to run the window only software. I had no problem at all.

Wesley7777 - thank you for your response, and that makes sense. Not everything is Windows-only, rather just some software programs.

Also did you buy the laptop BEFORE ever going to college, or wait until you're already IN college and then make the purchase? This is perhaps the biggest question of all.

Logan said:

Wesley7777 - thank you for your response, and that makes sense. Not everything is Windows-only, rather just some software programs.

Also did you buy the laptop BEFORE ever going to college, or wait until you're already IN college and then make the purchase? This is perhaps the biggest question of all.

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I bought mine before going into college. I went in as meteorology which i then changed my first semester. So i had no idea what the specs where needed for a computer in the engineering department. But the nice thing was a new no matter what i did my mac could do it. So when i started getting to the upper level engineering classes that started requiring programs (One of the big ones that i figure you will use is Matlab which is made for mac but is not as good as the windows version) I just bought a copy of parallels and got a free version of XP from the school and have been going great ever since. If i had to do it again and knew what i was majoring in and that most programs are windows, I would still buy the mac. I never use the windows side unless for a project and i just love the Leopard operating system.

By the way my computer is about two years old now and it still runs parallels and the other programs just fine.

So you end up needing it almost straightaway, and will use it from the beginning? My plan was to wait until my cell-phone contract ends May 14th of this year. I would be starting fresh and at that point I would get the iPhone (signing a 2-year contract with AT&T) AND purchase a MacBook Pro at the same time. Good idea?

If purchased in may I would have the phone/computer for 3 months before college starts (assuming the start of semester is in august like HS is).

Logan said:

So you end up needing it almost straightaway, and will use it from the beginning? My plan was to wait until my cell-phone contract ends May 14th of this year. I would be starting fresh and at that point I would get the iPhone (signing a 2-year contract with AT&T) AND purchase a MacBook Pro at the same time. Good idea?

If purchased in may I would have the phone/computer for 3 months before college starts (assuming the start of semester is in august like HS is).

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Well its kind of hard to tell, depends on the college. I mean you will need a computer probably right off but everything that you could need will be in the computer labs around school so if you do not mind working off those for a while then you can wait. It just depends on how the school does things and what classes you are planning on taking your first semester.

If you are running CAD windows might be the better machine. If you can partition your Mac with windows then it might be ok. But CAD is a memory hungry program so remember that.

you might want to find out who your freshman advisor is and email him to find out which CAD program u will be using.

I will email them and find out what platform the CAD will run on.

It sounds like it could be beneficial to wait until I'm literally in school to buy it.

My father only uses a pc if he has to. That was at work, then he bought a mini and put parallels on it to run cad. I'm not sure what the program name is but he told me quite a while back that, happily, he found a mac alternative that uses adobe I think he said. I'd have to ask him. He gave the mini with parallels to me and I never looked at cad to see how it ran on it. Parallels 4.0 is out and he showed me it at Christmas on his laptop (MBP? not sure if he was running cad on it, but he has quite a good mac desktop at home so I don't know that he'd need to that much other then when he has deadlines to meet). But I think a lot of Parallels 4.0 users will either tell you to wait for the bug fixes or go with the more stable VMFusion 2.0, I can't tell you about bootcamp tho... Oh and buy a lot of ram...

Logan said:

Wesley7777 - thank you for your response, and that makes sense. Not everything is Windows-only, rather just some software programs.

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Hope that helps, and if you want to google CAD in quotes and mac, there are quite a few options..

I am a computer systems engineering student and i have a mbp. I use parallels to run my windows software such as ProE(Cad software) and Quartus(Logic Design Software)....

I would just get a Windows machine. You can browse the internet and check your email on Windows, despite what Apple's advertising campaign has made you think.

Although I've never done it, knowing that AutoCAD can be a very resource-demanding program on my work computer leads me to believe that running it under Parallels wouldn't be the greatest experience.

Though I don't have the NECESSITY of running Windows on my Mac, I've had great experiences and native speeds with all my windows apps running in Boot Camp. So I'd say if you only have to run a program or two go with Boot Camp and a Windows partition. I also think VMWare Fusion is a great app and you could even run it in unity mode to keep everything looking nice and "Macy."

I think the MacBook Pro won't have a problem running CAD even on an emulated OS.

I attend Indiana University, and I think about 30% of kids here have Macs, myself included. I've had no problems with mine whatsoever. Best buy of my life

While I'm not in college (old fart at 41) I am a professional Oracle DBA. I use my Macbook with a Parallels XP VM to use the Windows specific Oracle tools when the company issued Dell screws the pooch. Just a regular second generation C2D Macbook and it runs the apps just fine. Even if you're doing CAD stuff it won't be like you're designing the next Boeing airliner. I think you'd do well with a MBP/Parallels/Windows XP.

Also I saw a report somewhere that showed that Parallels was faster than VMWare, but that either one is more than adequate for more than just surfing the net, email, etc. Having Windows in a nice segregated environment yet integrated with MacOS X is sweet!

Every now and then I hear a co-worker mumbling about a virus she got and now the desktop guys need to clean up her computer. My VM might get a virus, but I can still rock 'n roll with the Mac side until I either clean off the VM or restore it from a previously known state.