I'm going into first year engineering and am looking into buying a Macbook. I know that I'll have to run Bootcamp and install windows to run the necessary programs, mainly AutoCAD. I'll also be using Maple and Solidworks, that I know of.
Will the 13" 2.26 GHz model be enough to run these programs, or do I need to upgrade the memory, hard drive and/or processor speed? Would I be better off to just buy the 15" or should I just buy a PC? I really would not like to have to buy a PC, but if it is going to cost me a lot to upgrade, I might as well.
Also, someone said that the integrated graphics card that comes with a mac is not enough to run AutoCAD in bootcamp?
Discussion about
13 inch MBP for engineering?
I'm in my 4th year of Mechanical Engineering and use my 13" Core 2 Duo MacBook with its Intel GMA950 heavily. Windows 7 under Boot Camp runs superbly, and Solidworks 2009, AutoCAD 2009, Matlab 2009 and Office all run well. Sure it could benefit from more graphics power, and try to avoid SW assemblies with dozens/hundreds of parts, but it has always been an excellent fit for me.
I don't know the specifics of what they want the graphics card for, but the 13" has a 'dedicated' 9400M with 256MB of shared memory (all the more reason to get the 4GB upgrade).
I can do OpenCL and CUDA on it, and while I haven't tried, there should be no reason I couldn't run some games either.
I can do OpenCL and CUDA on it, and while I haven't tried, there should be no reason I couldn't run some games either.
I just finished my software engineering degree in April, and I had a Dell Inspiron running Ubuntu for most of it (all except 1st year). Some friends had MBPs, and others had Windows laptops.
Go with whatever you feel comfortable with. I just picked up a 13" MBP yesterday (2.26 w/ 4GB RAM) and it's great. I could've done my degree with this machine too.
As a minimum I would get the 4GB RAM upgrade, but other than that, the laptop has more than enough power to do all the things you'll need for an engineering degree.
Go with whatever you feel comfortable with. I just picked up a 13" MBP yesterday (2.26 w/ 4GB RAM) and it's great. I could've done my degree with this machine too.
As a minimum I would get the 4GB RAM upgrade, but other than that, the laptop has more than enough power to do all the things you'll need for an engineering degree.
My cousin has had Macs all his life, he is the one I went for advice on buying my 1st Apple. He uses BootCamp to run Autodesk Inventor 2008 and AuoCAD (200?) on his 13" MacBook; unibody, but not pro. Inventor is extremely similar to SolidWorks and it works very very well on his. Granted he's not working on huge assemblies with tons of parts & configurations, but decent size files.
I am currently in the process of upgrading my HDD so I can give a decent partition to windows XP for SolidWorks on the Mac. I go the smallest one from Apple because they RAPE you on the price of the bigger HDD's. I would also upgrade to 4GB RAM on your own, super easy and will save you about fifty beans.
I had SolidWorks 2008 running on my 4 year old HP DV2000, look it it up, its pretty weak. SolidWorks ran surprisingly well on that even... I think you will be just fine. I have the 13" Pro & I did some research before I bought mine and all signs says there should be no issues with SolidWorks.
I am currently in the process of upgrading my HDD so I can give a decent partition to windows XP for SolidWorks on the Mac. I go the smallest one from Apple because they RAPE you on the price of the bigger HDD's. I would also upgrade to 4GB RAM on your own, super easy and will save you about fifty beans.
I had SolidWorks 2008 running on my 4 year old HP DV2000, look it it up, its pretty weak. SolidWorks ran surprisingly well on that even... I think you will be just fine. I have the 13" Pro & I did some research before I bought mine and all signs says there should be no issues with SolidWorks.
As a point of reference, I finished Engineering school in 2005. I used Pro/Engineer, AutoCAD (v14!), Matlab, etc. I was able to accomplish all of it on a $400 2.5GHz Celeron laptop. I won't say it was ideal, or the best option available, but the 13" MBP is leagues beyond what was available even a few years ago. 2GB RAM should be enough, but there are instructions for upgrading it yourself (and it doesn't void the warranty).
Of course most of those programs won't run on OSX, but that's what Boot Camp is for. If you don't already have a copy of Windows to install, check with your school to see if they have an MSDN program to provide a copy for students. When I was in school, they could provide you with Windows (XP) and Office for free.
I recommend you get a cheap 24" display (often less than $200) to leave at home and treat it like a desktop when it's plugged in. Right now I'm using mine to drive a 24" Dell Monitor with 1920X1200 Resolution. When you're at school, you should be able to use the 13" alright, but not quite as efficiently. Good Luck!
Of course most of those programs won't run on OSX, but that's what Boot Camp is for. If you don't already have a copy of Windows to install, check with your school to see if they have an MSDN program to provide a copy for students. When I was in school, they could provide you with Windows (XP) and Office for free.
I recommend you get a cheap 24" display (often less than $200) to leave at home and treat it like a desktop when it's plugged in. Right now I'm using mine to drive a 24" Dell Monitor with 1920X1200 Resolution. When you're at school, you should be able to use the 13" alright, but not quite as efficiently. Good Luck!
