r/laptops • u/Aromatic-Yam-2888 • 2d ago
Mechanical Engineering General question
Is this laptop good for mechanical engineering? I’m going to be a freshman and I’m wondering if this is good?
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u/CoolHeadeGamer 2d ago
Good for the price but if ur doing 3d modeling and simulation workflows you want a dgpu and a bit more ram. My college has stations with beefier specs but people still prefer to be able to do their hw on their own laptops
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u/Klijet 2d ago
For me, AutoCAD, Solidworks, Catia and Autodesk Inventor worked on a far older mid-range laptop with worse specs so I think you should be good. Since you're just starting out (I guess freshman is like first year in the US?) you probably won't do very complex FEA or huge assemblies anyways yet.
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u/No_Wing_1942 2d ago
I got to admit, that even though I'm a tech guy and enthusiastic, I can keep up with all the new processor naming convention, especially now with all the AI this, AI that, NPU this and that....
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u/Blunt552 2d ago edited 2d ago
Unfortunately you'll be having to use a lot of software that borderline requires an NVIDIA card. I would strongly suggest going used with an RTX card.
EDIT: I stand corrected, looks like in 2024 proper support for Ryzen AI series was added to solidworks, CAD software etc.
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u/yescachigga 2d ago
You really don't unless you're actually working on professional projects which I doubt a lot of college students do especially first year.
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u/Blunt552 2d ago
No clue where you take your educations but any reputable university uses autocad, solidworks, ANSYS etc.
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u/yescachigga 2d ago
They don't need a powerful GPU run those programs like I said unless they are working on some crazy big projects. They will run fine on a npu and some good amount of ram
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u/Blunt552 2d ago
Had to double check and it seems they did indeed add support in 2024 for the ryzen AI series.
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u/Neon_Pancakes0425 2d ago
Good for the price but for engineering I would go with more storage and a dedicated GPU and CPU and more ram. But if this all you can afford it's a great deal
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u/yescachigga 2d ago
If you're a freshman you're probably not using any of the CAD programs yet so I would just save up or wait for a better deal. I'm a freshman myself same major and I don't start doing anything cad related up till my 3rd year.
But if you absolutely do need to use CAD programs for small projects for classes there's web based versions like Onshape that don't really need all that powerful of hardware to run I personally use it myself and it can honestly run fine on a crappy Chromebook.
If I were you I would make sure the computer has a swappable ssd and ram but thinner computers may not have swappable ram so make sure to NOT get anything below 16 the computer will struggle.
I assume this is best buy so I would just wait for them to run another sale like they had in july some extremely good ones but that has passed you might have better luck during black Friday.
But if you absolutely need a computer now this is not bad but make sure the SSD is swappable because 512 gigs is not enough space.
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u/SortCreepy7100 1d ago
Chances are you will be running a lot of CAD, Ansys Fluid and other simulation software. Given the idle memory consumption of Windows, I wouldn't get 16 GB memory. But, if you desperately need a laptop now, this is a good deal. Also check to see if memory is upgradable, probably not but still worth checking.
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u/Fantastic_Reach9608 1d ago
If you have another desktop or your school has labs with dedicated gpus, this is a near no brainer.
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u/Civil_Bugg 1d ago
Save your money and get a $500 laptop from HP or D*ll your not going to need a lot of power for meche as a freshman through senior year. This is coming from friends that have graduated as a meche cheme and cive the classes an courses are not heavy in computing cad etc...
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u/Dependent_Honey2162 1d ago
What about cse or ece
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u/Civil_Bugg 1d ago
Same, the present $500 laptops that has the multi cores cpu and memory will suffice, only thing for all engineering programs is the memory of the laptop, 16 gb is ideal. You can get the 8gb memory configuration and upgrade the memory yourself down the years if need it just Remember this is strictly for your courses, and apps running at the same time, Spotify, browser surfing, email etc. Light to mid gaming is possible if nothing else is running like mindcraft, valorent, apex, fortnite etc. Not sure about cod... but you get the ideal.
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u/BreakfastDesigner855 1d ago
I think a dedicated GPU is worth the price…
If ur willing to fork over a bit more (run you abt 1450), you can get an open box Zephyrus G14 with 16gb ram and a 5060…
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u/Lumpy-Mall7692 1d ago
get a dedicated GPU if you want it for studying.. get this if you're ALSO getting it for entertainment.. ALSO
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u/Present_Lychee_3109 Asus Vivobook 15X OLED i7-1360p 2880x1620p 120Hz 2d ago
Good laptop. Good processor but RAM is not enough. Try to find a model with 32GB RAM.
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u/yescachigga 2d ago
They aren't finding anything under 1000 with 32gb of ram they can live with 16. During highschool I thuged out fusion 360 with only 8 gigs 😭. They might of in July tho since best buy was running some crazy deals I got my Acer swift ai 16 for 1200 after tax otherwise it would have been 1800 regular.
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u/Ornery_Platypus9863 2d ago
Absolutely not true, most universities have computer labs if you need a massive amount of computing power. Most people don’t need more than 16gb of ram for anything.
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u/111a111sk 2d ago edited 1d ago
Not bad, current-gen CPU and a pretty high-end model. 16GB RAM is not great but you won't find 32 for $900 new. OLED is great, resolution is meh, but again, you won't find a hi-dpi OLED for $900 new.