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Hello,
Next Fall I will be going of to college to obtain a degree in mechanical engineering. For Christmas I am getting A Dell Inspiron 17r (5720).

The specs are:
3rd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-3632QM (6MB cache, up to 3.2Ghz)
Windows 8, 64-bit, English
17.3" High Definition+ (900p) LED Display with Truelife
8GB3 Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz
1TB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive
8X Tray Load CD/DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-R Drive)
Nvidia GeForce GT 630M 1GB

At the University I will be attending there is no required laptop for the major. So I was wondering if this laptop will suit my needs. I am assuming I will be doing some AutoCAD work, as well as some moderate gaming (mostly Blizzard games) on my personal time. This laptop is priced wonderfully at $900 and seems pretty solid.

Any feedback?

Thanks!

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The school should have computer labs with all the required software on them since licenses can be quite expensive for CAD/FEA programs. The only thing I ever used my computer for was matlab, java compiling, and ms office in school. I was an ME major as well. Now for gaming that gpu is quite weak. Why don't you figure out if you school has computer labs and if they do plan on using those quite a bit and build yourself a desktop?

I, and many others have been trying for years to find a single GPU that performs well in both 3D graphics work and gaming. To my knowledge nobody has succeeded. If you do, please let us all know. The problem is that the drivers for PRO boards are diametrically opposed to those for gaming boards. Laptops struggle in gaming at best. I suggest a desktop for gaming.
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I'd just like to have the ability lol, I know the GPU in this laptop is far from a "gaming" gpu, but I've seen its benchmarks and it can play pretty much everything as long as the settings are adjusted. Thanks though, I wasn't aware that CAD work was done in university labs, thought I'd be using solely my laptop.

Yes, a full CAD license will be too expensive for your use. Even a LT version of AutoCAD is well over $1,000. You'll be running some stress/strain software in your Mechanical Design Analysis course but these will likely be provided by the department. Then of course you'll live and breathe Excel spreadsheets. Good luck!

brute182 said:
I'd just like to have the ability lol, I know the GPU in this laptop is far from a "gaming" gpu, but I've seen its benchmarks and it can play pretty much everything as long as the settings are adjusted. Thanks though, I wasn't aware that CAD work was done in university labs, thought I'd be using solely my laptop.



You mentioned AutoCAD in your original post. If your school doesn't have some 3D modeling software available I'd look elsewhere.

ram1009 said:
I, and many others have been trying for years to find a single GPU that performs well in both 3D graphics work and gaming. To my knowledge nobody has succeeded. If you do, please let us all know. The problem is that the drivers for PRO boards are diametrically opposed to those for gaming boards. Laptops struggle in gaming at best. I suggest a desktop for gaming.



What?

1st of all a 630 isn't going to be worse then a 650M and second laptops now a days are more then capable of playing games. I recommend this person gets something different for 900$.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

A 660M with a I7

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

A 650M with a I7 both for 900$
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