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Laptop for civil engineering degree

Mar 3, 2015 5:22AM PST

Hi there,

I'm new to the forum but I hope I'll be able to get some helpful insight here!

I'm going to invest in a new laptop in preparation for uni and maybe the future as well.

I have debated long and hard between the macbook air/pro/pro with retina and I THINK (still not positive) that I am thinking of buying the Macbook Pro with retina display, at least 256GB of flash storage. The rest of the specs would be of the base model. Does anybody know if this would be enough for a civil engineering degree? Would I have to be able to run CAD programs and similar things on my own laptop, and if so, are those specs capable of handling it?

I've done a bit of research and I know some people may say that I shouldn't be considering a mac at all, but I just want to clarify that my reasons for looking at macs is because battery life plays an important part in my consideration for laptops and macs have by far the best battery life from what I've seen.

SORRY FOR THE EXTRA LONG POST! :S

P.S. If if helps, I'm just going to include my thought processes when considering the macbook air/pro/pro with retina:
- Air: light, portable, really good battery life but specs aren't as powerful as pro.
- Pro WITHOUT retina: 500GB hard disk, but this will be slower than flash storage. Components in the laptop are not soldered together hence making it easier for repairs. Possible to upgrade hardware if required. Heaviest of the three though.
- Pro WITH retina: great screen of course, no disk drive, slightly better specs than pro without retina, thinner and lighter, but all components are soldered together so difficult to repair. Cannot upgrade hardware. Flash storage makes it faster but it's incredibly expensive

Discussion is locked

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my daughter
Mar 3, 2015 5:30AM PST

got such a degree with just an average laptop, back when batteries lasted about 2 hours. Nothing special about it other than wifi device added to it, but now they all come with wifi I think. Her's is for reinforced concrete structures and she works with Maryland State Highway Administration now doing inspections of such bridges, culverts and overpasses.

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In short yes.
Mar 3, 2015 5:33AM PST

Not many years ago we had lesser machines running Pro Engineer so I can't imagine this not running on greatly advanced hardware.

Battery time is very expensive. It looks like the normal 300 cycle battery so if you ran on battery power daily, charged at night in just a year you may see it degrade to the point of needing replacement. There are folk that for reasons I can't guess demand to be on battery but let's get them up to speed.

As to the 500GB HDD I guess some swap that later for SSD.
Bob

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Thanks for the reply!
Mar 3, 2015 5:45AM PST

I suppose, but then again, programs nowadays are becoming more demanding with their system requirements!

I'm a bit confused about what you said about battery life, so are you saying it won't be long until the macbook battery dies if I charge it every day?

Cheers Happy

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Battery life has been like that for some time.
Mar 3, 2015 5:59AM PST

It's well discussed and all I can do is note it and move on. The usual rule to avoid replacing the battery is ABC (always be charging.) This was you keep the battery from being used and get years instead of months out of a battery.

As we don't know what apps you will run I'm going with it's most likely one in the last decade. Even the most demanding one will run on a run of the mill laptop today. I guess some won't be patient for the render or rotation to finish in seconds rather than less than one second.
Bob

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If you want best battery like you might
Mar 3, 2015 8:32PM PST

want the Lenovo ThinkPad X240. Laptop magazines tests the battery life is longer than any other laptop on the market. In their tests the 3 cell battery lasted over 7 hours and the 6 cell lasted over 20 hours. Next in line was the Lenovo TP X440 with 14 hours with the 6 cell. 3rd was the Asus X205 with over 12 hours. 4th was the Macbook AIR 13" at 12:20. 5th is the Macbook AIR 13" With Retina.