Perfect Laptop for Engineers and Engineering Students
Studying engineering is infamously arduous, but is picking the perfect engineering laptop even more strenuous? Without some guidance, you may be asking yourself the same question. Browsing highly-ranked laptops for engineers can feel like decoding a foreign language. You’ll find a lot of fancy words and various combinations of capitalized letters strung together. So here I am, going to educate you on what you need when it comes to choosing the best spec of a laptop you needed.
CPU PROSSECOR SPEED
The CPU does everything in its power to perform more than one instruction per cycle, so you need a relatively fast CPU processor to open and run programs in the minimum amount of time. Just like the Intel i5 or better. Having a CPU speed that is not adequate could mean that you have to wait for long time for the software to boot. You might have experienced this before when running AutoCAD, Solid Works, or Mat lab on a slow computer.
MEMORY
In every laptop, there will be a RAM inside it. RAM works by reading or
writing data items at almost the same time, regardless of the data’s location
in the memory. The higher the amount of RAM on a laptop, the easier for you to
run all the tabs you open. Basic computer processes, such as Microsoft Word,
don’t require a high amount of memory. However, the extensive amount of
software used in engineering classes requires more memory footprints to
generate the data. A higher RAM will keep these programs running fast. Big
databases, big image files and big apps. In the engineering world for students,
16GB of RAM is considered an adequate amount of memory. Also, keep in mind that
some laptops will not allow you to upgrade your RAM after you purchased it, so
make sure you buy a laptop with the appropriate amount of RAM, or double check
if it’s upgradable or not.
STORAGE
For an engineering laptop, Solid State Drive, or SSD, is the best way to go. Say goodbye to hard disks, CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, as these will just slow down the processing of information on your laptop. The biggest difference between an SSD and other storage methods is how the data is stored. Other storage methods use magnetized disks where speed is dependent on the rotation of these disks. SSD, on the other hand, has no moving parts. Data is stored in memory modules and can be accessed very quickly, irrespective of where they are. When downloading big files, programs, and software to your engineering laptop, you’ll need a storage system that can handle the high capacity and still deliver lightning speeds.
DISPLAY AND GRAPHIC
The essence of engineering is creativity. Students will be using their laptop to design, manipulate and share graphics. Therefore, having high-quality laptop display and graphics is crucial. However, since portability is the key for students, having a laptop with the biggest screen isn’t necessarily the best option. One needs to consider size, resolution, screen type and graphic processor while balancing the need for mobility.
Resolution is the number of pixels on the display. Amounts are listed by the number of pixels across the screen by the number down the screen. A higher resolution guarantees greater detail in the images on the screen, as well as increased work space. The ideal amount for an engineering laptop is 1920 x 1080. The more the merrier, but the price tag will go up exponentially with the increase in pixilation. For the standard programs used in engineering classes, 1920 x 1080 will work adequately.
Screen type refers to the technology used for the LCD panel as well as the coating over the screen. Both of these affect how images appear. The two primary screen types are TN and IPS. TN is the most commonly used and least expensive. Its strongest feature is that it offers the fastest refresh rates. This makes TN a popular choice amongst gamers who deal with fast-moving images. However, TN has narrow viewing of angles and colors, meaning there is less cover displayed overall. IPS has better control over the light that passes through it. Therefore, it offers higher color and viewing angles than TN. The disadvantage here is that IPS runs slower refresh rates and tends to be more expensive. For engineering laptops, IPS is generally considered the better alternative. While it runs slower than TN, it offers superior image quality for everyday-style work and image editing.
A graphics processor is also referred to as a GPU, or graphic processing
unit. This computer chip performs rapid mathematical calculations to accelerate
the creation of images. Simply put, a GPU is an efficient way to manipulate
images on your computer. A GPU works alongside the CPU—quick refresher, that’s
your computer processing unit, or the brains of your computer. The GPU offloads
some of the tasks from your CPU so that the CPU can work more efficiently.
Remember that discussion about cores? When a laptop runs only with CPU, the
cores of the memory can handle only small sequences of instruction at a time.
The GPU, on the other hand, is made up of hundreds of cores. What this means is
your laptop functions faster and more effectively. Clearly, in the engineering
field, this is an important feature.
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