Question:
Electrical Engineering Laptop Help?
?
2016-03-06 12:09:16 UTC
I am currently accepted at SDSU majoring in electrical engineering with a minor in computer science for the fall of 2016; I am looking at either HP or Lenovo for a personal and class laptop but that's about all I know. The department head suggested getting a laptop with a SSD and as much speed/memory as possible, but I also don't want to go overboard. I will not be using this for gaming, and I want something that will last AT LEAST 4 years. Please let me know what's being used and what works, including brand/model.
Six answers:
TWB
2016-03-06 12:27:56 UTC
You get what you pay for. Systems with high end parts with low prices are to be viewed with suspicion. They have to cut corners somewhere to get the price down. What cost you less today is going to cost you more tomorrow.



All laptops or desktops have pretty much the same CPU, GPU, ram, hard drive and screen. Most people do not know that the brand of the hard drive can make all the differences in the world. Intel and AMD make the best CPU. AMD and Nividia make the best GPU. What makes a good laptop or desktop is the manufacturing process, the motherboard and the sub components used in them. After that, it is the software included with them. Some manufactures modify Windows and the drivers severely and cripple the system into being locked to them. Some manufactures so load the system up with bloat software that it takes an hour or more just to get it off the hard drive. You will find those who do not know much about PC and laptops claiming brand do not matter. That they all have the same components in them. The brands makes all the difference. It would be like saying the brand of car, or television does not matter.



I would go with HP or ASUS.



The link below has a list of lappies that should fit your needs. You didn't post a budget so I gave you a broad list to look at. Sadly most of these come with Windows 10 but a few HP have 7 loaded on them. Remember to choose a method to back up all important documents.



http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100006740%2050001315%2050001186%204023%20600489658%20600546710%20600555766%20600287179%20600439628%20600471807%20600323024%20600487990%20600555764%20600555758%20600551625%204022%20600361797%20600337813%20600371972%20600338054%20600454479%20600451669%20600452795%20600452222%20600472949%20600452559%20600488591%20600516081%20600516076%20600516082%20600560483%20601115537%20600514113%204814%20601107895%20600003988%20600003982%204084%20600470742%20600423158



My opinion on the different brands.



Apple makes a good quality laptop. The problem comes when it requires service or minor upgrades. It is near impossible to do anything with them. They even glue the battery and hard drive down so you can not change it. They solder the ram to the logic board so you can not increase it. They lock up most of the software so your stuck with what they approve.



Lenovo has serious stand behind their product problems. They bought IBM PC division and proceeded to drive the quality of the system into the ground. Their customer service is well below par. They even makes Dell customer service look good. Lenovo Makes it hard to surf thru their site without signing up to find trouble shooting tips. Sometimes it is impossible to find certain things without giving them your email addy. The last and final thing to remember about them is they are a Chinese Government own company. It is up to you if you want to trust them. Lenovo also got caught shipping system with Adware installed on them called Visual Discovery by Superfish. It was a giant security hole that they intentionally installed for corporate greed.



http://www.wired.com/2015/02/lenovo-superfish/



http://www.extremetech.com/computing/199628-lenovo-officially-responds-to-superfish-releases-list-of-affected-systems



Toshiba, Panasonic, Sony should be avoided because of their heavy modification of Windows and the drivers. If you remove some of the bloat they install, you can cripple the system.



Acer, Gateway, and eMachines should be avoided period. They are low end system that helped drive the race to the bottom. To show just how low end they are, Acer bought out Gateway after Gateway bought out eMachine. They are now and will always be a joke among serious puter and lappy users.



Dell once made a good system and fell from grace. They are now struggling to regain their place in the market. Customer service is one of many problems with this company.



Alienware are glorified Dells and are more name than product. Priced extremely high for what you get. They do perform but you can get the same for less by looking around, just not packaged to be eye candy to the gamers.



Samsung has a history of using cheap parts in critical areas. Capacitors has been one area Samsung has a known history of going cheap, causing units to fail early. For that reason I would avoid them.



ASUS and HP do not modify Windows as bad as the other manufacturers. They have excellent build quality. They might add a lot of bloat but they also makes it easy to get rid of it. Their customer support and technical service is far better then the others and they have excellent online support. I have dealt with many companies when it comes to this kind of support and these two stand out.



Ultrabooks are the higher end of Wintel laptops but they have some of the same concerns as Apple. They make it next to impossible to change any hardware in them. Service of them will have to be done by the manufacturers. With most of them, you can not change your own battery or hard drive. They are designed to catch your eye but they are not any more special then other laptops except for the fact that they are slim or thin. Your paying for it being thin and slim. For the money your going to spend on it you can buy a much better laptop with more power.



Chrome books are useless. They are designed by Google to make you dependent on Google.



Hybrids are the worse of the worse. The flip or detachable touch screens are just a disaster waiting to happen.



Never buy an All In One. They are far worst then laptops of any kind to service and they have a higher failure rate.



Always avoid refurbished units. They only come with a 90 day warranty and have a higher failure rate. The service contacts are normally just a one time replace contract.



Choose wisely.
2016-12-23 05:45:53 UTC
1
2016-03-06 12:14:04 UTC
If you're studying electrical engineering. I'm pretty sure you would be interested and know AT LEAST a few basic thing about computers and using them confidently... Come on now.



Just Google some cheap laptops with SSDs in em if you're on a budget. Look at the reviews and see you can find someone on YouTube taking a look at it is possible.



Bare in mind, that many new cheap laptops; while they do have SDDs these are EMMC types. They are usually soldered on to the board and can't be replaced. Mentioning this as they are usually small in storage capacity, usually around 32GB
Dave
2016-03-06 12:12:17 UTC
A laptop will only last for as long as it is treated well. With that said, plan to purchase a new laptop at the 2-3 year mark, as ALL hardware eventually fails. OR, make sure you buy an extended 4 year warranty.



We can't give you recommendations until you give us a budget. How much do you want to spend?
sundell
2016-12-14 20:38:51 UTC
Ee Laptop
chrisjbsc
2016-03-06 12:12:34 UTC
Surface Book


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