I'm an incoming undergraduate. What computer should I have?

Several incoming undergraduate MAE students are asking for help with what to get for a personal computer. Below are two informal responses from Ben Ransom, MAE's System Administrator, that might be helpful. Keep in mind that MAE has a 45 station PC lab available to all MAE students, 8am - 11pm, M-F and 2-9pm on Sundays. So having your own PC, although helpful, is not essential.

I. Mac vs PC

I would recommend Windows (PC), but a Mac would work for much of the need as well. Macs are generally more expensive, but I'll leave that to you to factor in.  The next biggest factor is the ability to run software that is used in our MAE curriculum.   It is my guess that Macs are by far the minority in professional Mechanical Engineering. Similarly, most all applications and users we have here are running on Microsoft Windows. A few specialty packages are running on Linux.  This all sounds simple and conclusive in favor of getting a PC, but it is not necessarily, for two reasons:  One, much of the software we have is not yet licensed to put on student computers (rather, just in our labs), and two, as you know, you can also buy Windows to run on your Mac via Bootcamp or VMWare. 

A few more details:
- The only two engineering packages with free licensing currently available to student PCS, are two CAD packages: SolidEdge (Unigraphics), and Inventor (AutoDesk). Both run on Windows; neither on Macs.
- One can buy a student version of Matlab, or of SolidWorks. Either for about $100 --- again, these only for Windows. Check the campus bookstore.
- One can install Gnu Fortran and Xwindows on a Mac, straight from the System DVD.   However, free Fortran and XWindows utilities are available from online sources for Windows too.
- It's rare as yet for students to need Linux in MAE, until perhaps 4th year or graduate school, and then largely this is dependent on which faculty he/she is working with. For those with the knowledge to do it though, this and all the free open-source software is nice to have.
- One more key factor is the Windows operating system. Windows 7 is strongly recommended, XP fine for now, and Vista is do-able, but at a terrible performance penalty.

- Finally, here is my own little saga in trying to be happy with a Mac ...your milage may vary: I have been using a Macbook Pro as my primary use computer for the last 3 years.  At first, it helped me regain some lost familiarity with the Mac, which was useful in general.  I was using Parallels to have Windows readily available (without reboot).  However, subtle keyboard differences almost drove me crazy. For example, the Mac Del key is really a backspace key, and to get it to delete, you must push Fn-Del.  Mac has Ctrl, Option, and Cmd keys, but even with some remapping in Parallels (or VM, or BootCamp), there are still some odd finger stretches required on the Mac to do the simplest little things on a PC.  The Mac keyboard still pains me that they stubbornly refuse to acknowledge the value of a Rt mouse key, so I much prefer to plug in a mouse to what is supposed to be a self contained laptop.  I have changed over to using my Macbook Pro exclusively as native Windows 7 laptop. Note, even in this configuration, the mousepad tap feature will not work, and power management is not as good as running OSX, so battery life is worse too.

II. General information for Windows:

My Windows laptop recommendation might be frustratingly limited, partly because I haven't shopped for one lately, but also because we wouldn't endorse any specific vendor. That's not too bad anyway, because the market is competitive and the component offerings are similar.  That said, here are some important factors:

1) Laptops get more physical abuse than desktop PCs.  If they do break, either from dropping your backpack or whatever, it is sometimes quite expensive to get repairs.  It would be nice to find a laptop with accidental breakage insurance available at a reasonable cost.  Dell, for one, offers what they call "Complete Care".  Others have it under other names.

2) 4Gb RAM is fine, as I'm operating without trouble on 3GB, the max available in my 3 year old laptop.  Many of today's newer computers will allow adding more RAM later. That's a god thing too, obviously.

3)  Size: I'd guess that most days, most students do not bring their laptop to school.  You can get a wireless signal most places on campus, and over time our software will become more available to use directly on student laptops, sometimes via wireless license checkout.  In addition, you might consider eventually adding a bigger screen at home to connect to if you like screen real-estate. Hopefully this helps in deciding how much laptop you want to lug around.  For me, good battery life is very nice too, although I'm not yet aware of batteries that still hold a charge well, one to two years after new.

4) Disk size:  This is more dependent on how much personal stuff like pictures or videos you want to keep.  All school work could probably be kept within 50gb and I think 320gb drives are a common and adequate offering these days.  A backup USB drive ($100) and a pocket thumb drive are very good ideas.

5) In general I wouldn't aim for what you *might* need in 4 years, as that is probably high priced now, uncertain whether you'll really need it in 4, and inexpensive by that time anyway.  Get what you think will be comfortably nice for 3 years.  That can almost certainly be stretched to 5 years.  Disk drives can be upgraded later fairly easily, and like I mentioned earlier, give a little priority to something that could take more RAM eventually too.  Finally, maybe get something with a webcam to skype with your family!