About 750-1000 budget engineering computer and laptop

[davidnknight]

I'm looking for computer and laptop for engineering work. I do solidworks, pcb layout, programming, and some data collection.

I'm thinking i5-2500.

Any suggestions on components and builds?

I have found the following computers online that might work:
desktops
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=6&sel=Detail%3B112_727_47194_47194,Price%3BPrice7,Detail%3B112_479_71967_71967 <http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/guidedSearch.asp?CatId=6&sel=Detail%3B112_727_47194_47194,Price%3BPrice7,Detail%3B112_479_71967_71967>

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=602037&CatId=4928 <http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=602037&CatId=4928>

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883113177

laptops
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1083421&CatId=3999 <http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1083421&CatId=3999>

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1165594&CatId=3998 <http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1165594&CatId=3998>

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1107990&CatId=3999 <http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1107990&CatId=3999>

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152258

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230145

 

[phyco126]

Question, you said computer and laptop. Does that mean you are getting both, each for around a $1,000 (for a total spent cost of $2,000)?

Will you be doing anything that deals with rendering, that would need a powerful graphics card?

Edit: Stay away from Acer laptops. Several friends have purchased them over the years, and they all break within one year. Acer can make a decent desktop, but they fail at laptops. It could just be luck I suppose, but just from my own dealings with them in repair, I say screw it. Never had laptops ever give me such a hard time to fix the dang things. Asus is good, not exactly premium builds, but they are fast and I haven't had any issues with needing to repair one.

 

[davidnknight]

Question, you said computer and laptop. Does that mean you are getting both, each for around a $1,000 (for a total spent cost of $2,000)?

Will you be doing anything that deals with rendering, that would need a powerful graphics card?

Edit: Stay away from Acer laptops. Several friends have purchased them over the years, and they all break within one year. Acer can make a decent desktop, but they fail at laptops. It could just be luck I suppose, but just from my own dealings with them in repair, I say screw it. Never had laptops ever give me such a hard time to fix the dang things. Asus is good, not exactly premium builds, but they are fast and I haven't had any issues with needing to repair one.

I'll be getting both for $1000 each. $2000 total.

I'll probably use the desktop more for solidworks and pcb design. I'll use the laptop more for writing and firmware and taking data in the lab. However, I could see myself using solidworks on the laptop too, but that's not my primary intent right now.

 

[phyco126]

Okay. Out of the desktops you put down, this is probably your best bet. http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=602037&CatId=4928

However, I actually recommend this: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227372 . It doesn't even have to be that brand, but the hardware is where its at for your needs. I did a quick search on solidworks, and it seems it would benefit greatly from the cuda cores of an nvidia GPU. The quad-core is overclockable as well, and so long as solidworks and pcb design is a good at utilizing multiple cores, then that is the way to go.

As for laptop, either of these three are good. Question boils down to whether or not you want a huge laptop to lug around, or a somewhat okay portable one.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=1107990&CatId=3999

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152258

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152258

Hope this helps. The quad-cores will help as will the significant amount of ram. As I am not familiar with your kinds of programs, they may be ram intensive. If so, then RAM is cheap enough to upgrade. I know some of the newer laptops can handle up to 16 GB of RAM, but whether these three can handle more than 8 GB is beyond me.