Thread: Time for a new 'puter

Originally Posted by deighaingeal

I won't go mac. Windows is necessary. Why an i3 rather than i5 or i7? I will be using the standard education tools, but add in a little autocad and some mechanical testing platforms including reactionary and theoretical testing. I am not against a custom, but unsure of cost or where to go. As of right now i have been avoiding sony for a lack of consistency in their quality control and longevity. I currently have one less than a year old that was given to me and it is unable to unplug during use even across the room to another receptacle.

What are you studying and how much CAD work and mechanical testing are you thinking about doing? That right there might dictate the type of machine you should get, as CAD is quite graphics-intensive.

I order the Dell Precision workstations (M6400) for the engineers where I work -- they all use our CAD system and some run finite element analysis software in addition. They're 17" notebooks and quite heavy, as I tend to get the high end CPU and video cards. We spec them out just under $3k and that includes the port replicator and external monitor.

I can't recommend anything but laser for printer but understand that good ones are still comparatively pricey. Inkjet uses the same business model as Gillette; cheap hardware with ridiculously marked-up components.

You can get a 1TB external drive powered through USB, and I usually go with Western Digital. Backups always matter.

Originally Posted by commiecat

What are you studying and how much CAD work and mechanical testing are you thinking about doing? That right there might dictate the type of machine you should get, as CAD is quite graphics-intensive.

I am unsure to the amount of cad work. I am going for Occupational Therapy with a specialty of prosthetology and biokenetics. The OT section I believe to be easy computer work, but the specialties will be more involved. I do know that during many of my classes I will find myself running multiple programs, but to what level I don't know. What I do know is that if I need to do computations further than what my computer is able I could always utilize my brother's computer as he is an engineer and has a desktop that can handle more than I need.

I have computers that are over 6 years old and I can still use them, but I run Linux. In the world of windows you will be quite outdated few years from now. That doesn't mean you wouldn't be able to do your work though.
Sounds like you should talk to the IT dpt. at the place you're studying at. They have the best chance to have a good perspective on what is important for your program and what will get you most mileage out of your money.

Other than that the general idea is to get the biggest processor and video card you can afford, as well as get a machine with ability for memory expansion. Chances are that in few years you can buy 8-16GB of memory, for $50-$100 or replace the hard drive with a much better one for $100, which will give you a nice boost and be well worth even if it comes out of your pocket (at the moment these will likely blow your budget).