OS X, Bootcamp/virtual machines/XP/7 and Engineering

Well, it's laptop buying time again and I find myself asking the age-old question again: Mac or PC?

The only catch is this: in the fall, I'll be entering college as a mechanical engineering freshman, which basically screams "PC, PC!!!!!!" However, now, with the advent of Bootcamp, Mac has become a plausible option for me.

I've really been looking at the Dell XPS M1330 and the 2.26GHz 13" MacBook Pro. My max budget is $1200, but, if I did my basic math right, I can get both of these around $800-900, which will make my parents happy.

I'm a big fan of OS X. I dig the simplistic and intuitive feel. I also enjoy the rigidity of the new-ish aluminum enclosures, especially when compared to the laptop I'm using now. However, I am familiar with XP after having used it for most of my computing experiences since junior high and onwards. 7 also looks like a very promising operating system.

I hear that Windows on a Mac machine runs pretty smoothly. However, the glitches I've read about do worry me: missing/lacking mouse drivers and lack of power management (also related to overheating ). VMWare and Parallels are also viable options, but I feel like it'd make more sense for me to run engineering applications natively on Windows.

What I need out of my college laptop is this: it needs to be able to run engineering applications (whether through virtual machines or Bootcamp) well, but not flawlessly. After all, what do you expect out of a "thin and light" or "ultraportable" laptop, much less for under $1200? Then, of course, I would need to be able to word process, surf the world wide web, play the occasional computer game (Left 4 Dead is about the most graphics intense game I play) and play media. Oh, and I would also like to record/create music, if possible, though this will have to take the back seat if my school work decides to take up too much time. I want to stay at a 13" laptop and I would like it to last me at least through my undergraduate studies (four years, more is better).

At this point I'm interesting in hearing, if possible, from other engineers that are running either dual boot Windows or virtual machines on their Mac laptops, but feel free to chime in either way. I also don't really know what to expect computer-wise from a mechanical engineering undergrad. Will I mainly be using computational software, more drafting type applications like SolidWorks and Pro E, or both?

I'm looking for educated and (somewhat) unbiased opinions that have ample experience with OS X and XP. Oh yea, if you have anything to say about 7 in general or on a Mac, please let me know what you think as well.

Thanks in advance!

 

It is only for touchpad(I doubt you will like using touchpad with those programs) and it is not missing, it just less responsive under Windows...

No shuch thing,you will just get 2 hours less under Windows(Which again IMO is not a problem since you would need to run notebook on AC to get full performance) and higher temps, but nothing remotely like overheating.

 

What apps do you need for school - are they XP/Windows specific only? i.e. CAD?
Virtual machines work pretty well, IMO. Plus the added safety of that time you've had one too many and blow up Windows, you can just reload your VM from a 'gold copy'.
Obviously, there is a 10-15% performance hit when running in a VM, but they work really well for everything except games/3D stuff. I think they are just now starting to come out with 3D drivers for virtual machines. Check out virtualbox - it's free, you can play around with it a little bit to see if you think that will work.

That said, if CAD/mech engineering stuff is that important, I wouldn't get a 13" screen with a 1280x800 resolution. Way too small IMO. I guess you could always hook up an external monitor, but that somewhat defeats the point of a portable.

Your school may offer labs, with specific computers that do CAD and that sort of thing well. If so, you could always fall back on them...

If you think you'll be spending >50% of the time in Windows, I'd get a Dell. If you think you only want to use Windows for gaming and the occasional school thing, get the Mac! (BTW, you'll be playing Left 4 Dead on a 360/PS3 in some rich kid's dorm room on his 50" plasma, not on your lappy).

I currently use a Thinkpad T61 - 15", 1920x1080 resolution, it's what I'd call an 'engineering' type of laptop. (I do software development). But I just switched to a 15" Macbook, just to make life easier and because it works so darn well.

 

I personally am a Senior Chemical Engineer at Texas A&M and ran Windows XP for the first three years of school. I switched to a Mac in April and run XP through VMWare fusion. To be honest, I never do any engineering programs on my personal laptop. A&M has some very nice engineering labs and I choose to work there (I normally work in groups anyway). I do have Matlab loaded on my XP (bought a windows version and don't feel like switching).

I dunno about your college but A&M has a great software store and I picked up Microsoft Office for Mac for like $15 so I can handle any and all documents just like windows.

I must mention the main reason I switched was I was fed up with working on my friends's Vista systems (constantly having problems) and I didn't want my new laptop to be more of a worry than a joy so I went with Apple and do love it!

 

Thanks for the replies everyone.

At first I had thrown virtual machines out the window because one of my classmates that is here interning with me is running XP + SolidWorks on VMWare, but he's only using 1GB of ram. If I upgrade the RAM to 4GB I should be ok to work on a virtual machine, I think.

Here is the list of software that my school (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) has installed on their engineering computers: http://www.ews.uiuc.edu/ews/software/software.cgi?category=winsoft

I was thinking that if I ever ran into a situation where my computer couldn't handle whatever I need to do for engineering, it's probably something I would be wanting to do on a desktop anyways. I assume UIUC has pretty decent engineering labs since it is pretty high up there as far as engineering programs go.

I know right now Apple is selling iWork for $11, which I would probably pick up if I went with Mac. I also have Office 2007 for Windows.

 

iWork is pretty useless when you could get office for mac for a discount from your school. In your senario I'd go pc personaly. Your talking about runing virtual machines, VMW fusion cost $80, windows $100, that's +$180, plus hassle from virtual machine, it all really defeats the simplicity that you want. Vista is very stable if you have the right hardware, which the dell has, and I doubt you would run into more problems than you would trying to work in a virtual machine or in windows on a macbook. The macbook isn't going to run left 4 dead, but thats what the xbox 360 is for. I'd go with a lenovo, great build and durability, great screen, great support. And runs windows for all the apts you need. Although if you have the extra money and would not mind going though a little mess I guess the macbook would do, although I doubt you would be happy with only a 13incher as a primary computer. I have a 17inch and it is very portable. With extended battery it gets the same battery life as my 13inch macbook.

 

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really?

what do you have?

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-Smith-Micro-VMWARE-Fusion-2-Run-Windows-on-Mac-OS_W0QQitemZ150351434829QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Software?hash=item2301a4d44d&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=65%3A12|66%3A2|39%3A1|72%3A1234|240%3A1318|301%3A1|293%3A1|294%3A50

and they will get MS for free...

Anyway, OP, I think in this case it really will be smarter to get PC bc of software. If you still want a mac, don't forget to use student discount and free iPod touch promotion

 

if you want a mac, get it, else drop it. nice machines they are.

 

^ you speak like Yoda

 

If you buy VMWare you can inport your operating system from your old windows computer so you won't have to buy Windows again. That is what I did. I only have 2GB of RAM and running XP through VMWare and Photoshop CS2 maxes it out (with that said, the Mac still runs very well). Uping it to 4GB (after market is cheeper than through Apple) should suit you fine.

I love Lenovo's and was tempted but honestly I just wanted the peace of mind the OS X game me and like I said, I don't use my windows side too much at all. Maybe Windows 7 will bring me back to PC's but until then, I am happy with my Mac...

 

I was in this same position two years ago. I decided to go with a Mac. I have to use a lot of Mathematica and Matlab, and there are mac versions of this. For the CAD stuff that I had to do, I just used my school's labs. You'll probably be spending a lot of time up at campus, so not having CAD on your Mac shouldn't be too much of an issue, and you can always get it via bootcamp or VMWare. I have both iWork and MS Office for Mac. iWork for word documents and presentations and MS Office for Excel stuff.

 

I must be the exact opposite. For me the PC is still the right choice for engineering. I use alot of in house software that is specific for Windows enviroments and run like crap VIA VMware. But with being able to run Windows Natively on my uMBP I have teh best of both worlds. Install MacDrive for your Windows partition and have access to all your files. There are free alternatives to MacDrive also.

Nothing beats the battery life of the mac and I use my Mac for all my personal stuff, while the Windows Partition is a dedicated work PC. It's the best of both worlds.

 

i have a 13" unibody mb with 4gb of ram, and have just started using vista sp2 on it via parallel. in short, i am pretty happy with it as it runs fairly smoothly most of the time (well, 99% to be precise), with no forsee-able compatibility issue so far. i work as a technical program manager handling lots of technical document (office, mechanical cad, artwork, etc) and this seems to work great for me for now.

reason i choose the vm path, instead of boot camp is because windows is crappy at managing the mac hardware, with over-heating and erratic touchpad response being the most common issue. i have none of these problem running vista under vm.