Computer engineer

[Skipholiday]

My son starts school @ MSU in the fall for computer engineering.

Laptop suggestions would be appreciated?

Currently he has been running a Dell d600 (1.6 dothan)xp and 2 gb ram.

Will he need anything special for class?

thanks

 

[gorcorps]

Nothing special would be needed. You'll more than likely want at least a dual core processor setup and it'd be easier to stick with XP as an OS if it's offered.

 

[FP]

Hmm. Get him a MacBook Pro with Parallels or Fusion.

I am serious. He will likely be doing a lot of work in a Unix-like environment and the Mac is perfect for that. He will likely be using Eclipse for his development environment which runs fine on a Mac... and for those occasions he needs to open a spreadsheet or create a PowerPoint presentation he can fire up MS Office in Parallels or Fusion.

As a software engineer I always thought a Windows or Linux box was the way to go until I switched over to a Mac about a year ago. I have never looked back.

 

[brxndxn]

Buy him a used IBM T41p like this one.. Seriously..

A laptop doesn't need to be super powerful.. But this one is pretty damn quick, gets good battery life, is solid as a rock, cheap, light-weight, compact, and IBM. The T41p is one of the last Thinkpads that IBM made. It is built better than a Macbook.


Then, since this is cheap, buy your son a desktop too. Today's laptops are complete and utter sh1t. The Macbook Pro is NOT built well - it's just that today's laptops are so flimsy that it seems like it's built well in comparison.

I use the T41p at work. I run up to 4 virtual machines at a time just fine..

IBM made some really awesome laptops.

 

[FP]

If it is his primary development machine it will really help if it is more powerful. I agree it doesn't need to be beefy for checking e-mail or surfing the web but most of the modern IDEs love gobs of memory and CPU. Throw in a couple database instances, web server and virtual machines and a beefy machine will definitely be more responsive.

I agree the MacBook isn't the most rugged laptop out there but as long as he takes care of it and isn't reckless it will be fine.

 

[tfinch2]

Originally posted by: binister
Hmm. Get him a MacBook Pro with Parallels or Fusion.

I am serious. He will likely be doing a lot of work in a Unix-like environment and the Mac is perfect for that. He will likely be using Eclipse for his development environment which runs fine on a Mac... and for those occasions he needs to open a spreadsheet or create a PowerPoint presentation he can fire up MS Office in Parallels or Fusion.

As a software engineer I always thought a Windows or Linux box was the way to go until I switched over to a Mac about a year ago. I have never looked back.

I am a developer, and I am seriously considering getting a Mac soon, but I have trouble with these statements. If you want to work in a *nix environment, why do you need a Mac for this? You can go straight to the source for free, and have FAR more flexibility.

 

[FP]

Originally posted by: tfinch2

Originally posted by: binister
Hmm. Get him a MacBook Pro with Parallels or Fusion.

I am serious. He will likely be doing a lot of work in a Unix-like environment and the Mac is perfect for that. He will likely be using Eclipse for his development environment which runs fine on a Mac... and for those occasions he needs to open a spreadsheet or create a PowerPoint presentation he can fire up MS Office in Parallels or Fusion.

As a software engineer I always thought a Windows or Linux box was the way to go until I switched over to a Mac about a year ago. I have never looked back.

I am a developer, and I am seriously considering getting a Mac soon, but I have trouble with these statements. If you want to work in a *nix environment, why do you need a Mac for this? You can go straight to the source for free, and have FAR more flexibility.

That is exactly what I did for the 5 years prior to the Mac purchase. I was tired of the hassle of getting Debian/Ubuntu to work on the new Dell machines I bought every year. Driver issues, crappy hardware, etc. I run Debian at home on a desktop machine and 3 servers so I am plenty familiar with it. Additionally 50-75% of my work is done on *nix machines.

I decided to jump on the Mac wagon because a couple of devs I know had done it and raved about it. Everything just works plus you get a bunch of cool/useful software with it. You do pay an Apple tax on the hardware (meaning you can usually buy a similar non-Mac machine for cheaper) but whole OSX environment really feels like a developers dream.

 

[Capitalizt]

Grab this one...Do the free upgrade to a Core 2 Duo and upgrade to 2GB of memory for $25 and a 120GB hard drive for just +$5. Total should be $465 with free shipping.

http://configure.us.dell.com/d...&l=en&oc=bqcwkvs&s=bsd

 

[magomago]

Realistically anything will be fine these days...I can't see anything in his curriculum that would cause his pc to come to a grinding halt. Especially considering the first year is almost exclsively chem,math,physics and a good portion of the second year is as well. The D600 is more than powerful enough

 

[QurazyQuisp]

By MSU do you mean the true MSU (Michigan State University) or some other?

At Michigan State, anything will work pretty well, although for Comp Sci I use a MacBook Pro/Desktop. There are many computer labs throughout the engineering building that are only for Computer Science/Computer Engineering students as well.

 

[chorb]

I graduated in Computer Engineering, the only recommendation I have is a multi-core processor, in some of my programming classes we dealt with threading and multiple core optimization; If he had his own dual core he could use his own machine rather than have to use the unix servers. Not a big deal but handy none-the-less.

 

[OdiN]

pffft....just tell him to make his own CPU, etc.

 

[potato28]

Get him an Eee and tell him to write his own scripts.

 

[Reel]

Michigan State University Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
2120 Engineering
East Lansing, Mi 48824-1226
office 517-355-5066
fax 517-353-1980

 

[smack Down]

Get a laptop with a serial port.

 

[Savij]

Get him the cheapest decently powerful machine with a "my friend spilled beer on the laptop insurance" now and repeat in 3 years. There are absolutely no special requirements unless the school has sent them to you in the mail already. Also, if he can wait then go ahead and get him a tv or xbox now and wait on the new PC. Ask him if he wants to use the old laptop and get a new laptop in a year or two or get just a new PC now.

 

[Skipholiday]

Thanks for all the excellent insight. You guys are great.
BTW it's Mississippi State University he received an engineering excellence scholarship.

 

[hiromizu]

Originally posted by: smack Down
Get a laptop with a serial port.

Funny post but really should be taken seriously. Many engineering applications still require a physical serial port.

 

[alkemyst]

MSU as Mississippi State?...if so he may be the only one with any computer there like the whole state.

 

[sjwaste]

Originally posted by: SKipholiday
My son starts school @ MSU in the fall for computer engineering.

Laptop suggestions would be appreciated?

Currently he has been running a Dell d600 (1.6 dothan)xp and 2 gb ram.

Will he need anything special for class?

thanks

That current laptop is fine. I have the same setup in my Dell with half the ram and XP, and it runs great.

If It's "slowed down" over the years or whatever, just format and reinstall windows.

 

[theeedude]

Get him something with reasonably high resolution (~1600) to run various CAD tools without having to scroll around too much, and something with good battery life.
Most of the stuff, he'll probably be logging into a university Unix/Linux server (with VNC) to run, and simply using the laptop as display terminal.
The serial port suggestion is a good idea as well, and make sure to get a good graphics card for all the gaming he'll be doing in the dorms

 

[slackwarelinux]

I'm a computer engineering student.

I don't think a MacBook is a good option unless it is dual booting Windows XP.
USB support in VMware is pretty good, but it fails with some data loggers and chip programmers (both of which I've used this year).

Windows XP is probably better than Vista, depending on what software he will be using, I'm not sure what Vista support, and the school may not be using the most recent versions of software.

IBM thinkpads would be great, I'm stuck with an HP nw8440 because all freshmen at the school I go to have to buy the same laptop. The one for next year is a HP 8510w.

I agree with the serial port. I've used mine a few times this year.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: slackwarelinux
I'm a computer engineering student.

I don't think a MacBook is a good option unless it is dual booting Windows XP.
USB support in VMware is pretty good, but it fails with some data loggers and chip programmers (both of which I've used this year).

Windows XP is probably better than Vista, depending on what software he will be using, I'm not sure what Vista support, and the school may not be using the most recent versions of software.

IBM thinkpads would be great, I'm stuck with an HP nw8440 because all freshmen at the school I go to have to buy the same laptop. The one for next year is a HP 8510w.

I agree with the serial port. I've used mine a few times this year.

I'm also a CE student. I've had to use several Windows only apps. We've had a few apps that work on Linux, but you will NEED Windows. He can probably remotely connect to Linux machines if he needs access to a *nix environment.

I upgraded to Windows Vista this year. I've had a handful of problems. A couple of my programs will not run on Vista (or they are buggy and crash a lot). I would still use Vista (it would be stupid to stay in the stone ages for a few apps) and dual boot XP for those apps. You could use VMWare but like others have said, it can be difficult to get VMWare to talk with external hardware (like a serial port).

As far as a serial port. I have two USB to Serial connectors (~$20 each). I've been told there are some incompatibilities, but I've never had problems.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I would hold off on getting him one until he knows what he's going to need from his professors and classes. He has a decent laptop now....

If you hold off until he knows what specs he's going to need it will save you from running into problems later. I've got a Lattitude D620 and plan on getting a D630 or whatever comes out next to replace it. When it comes to laptops, you have to make sure you buy from a company with outstanding support....laptops just break. It's what happens when you move a computer around, subject it to different environments (hot & cold), and there's always the screen crackage or the droppage. Dell's Complete Choice plan covers you no matter what.

 

[slpaulson]

I really never ran much software on my own computer when I was at school. I usually had to vnc in or go to the lab to use mentor graphics, matlab, and other programs.