Electro-Mechanical Engineering Major Suggestions Desktop or Laptop

[Android4life]

I will be going to college in the fall for Electro-Mechanical Engineering. I would like some advice on what to get computer wise for around $1500 total budget.

Now some background I already have a desktop that I built around 2 years ago (yes I should have done more research on what parts I put in it ) that has not seen much use over the years or any upgrades for that matter.

The Specs are:


MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3+ AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard

AMD Phenom II X6 1090T Black Edition Thuban 3.2GHz Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDT90ZFBGRBOX

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 ST31500341AS 1.5TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

ABS Majesty series MJ1100-M Continuous 1100W@50°C ATX12V/EPS12V 80 PLUS GOLD Certified, Single 12V Rail, Modular ...

SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100283VX-2L Radeon HD 5770 (Juniper XT) 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX

2x G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9D

My options I was considering are keeping the case and PSU and hard drive and upgrading everything else maybe a SSD? Along with getting a decent light weight laptop that has a good battery life I can type notes on in class with.

On the other hand I was thinking of just getting a powerful gaming laptop to replace my desktop...
The computer will mainly be used for CAD simulations along with of course Some gaming.
What do you guys think I should do? My budget would be around 1500 for everything.

 

[RedJaron]

It depends on the curriculum and the facilities of your school. Are you expected to have/use lab time, or will that work be done on your own time? When I was going through my Comp Sci courses, I opted for a laptop since I could take it to classes, take notes, and also do my programming on it. I spent $2200 on it back then ( 2004 ) since I needed something that could play Half-Life 2 ( a few classes had us modifying the source code for assignments. )

A few things I found hauling that around campus for years. First, be mindful of the size and weight. You have to fit it in your bag AND carry it around campus in addition to your textbooks and notepads. My laptop was 15.4" and weighed about 8lbs, and I wouldn't go any bigger. Big 17" performance laptops usually weigh 10lbs or more ( not including the power brick ) so you don't really want to haul that around campus every day.

Second, be mindful of battery life. No, you won't be compiling on battery, but you will want enough battery to make it through a class if you can't get to an outlet.