Notebook guts for an engineer undergrad

what kind of specs should i be looking for as an mechanical engineering undergrad? i don't really have a clue about this at all, that's why i'm asking. I don't know what sort of stuff an engineering undergrad would be expected to do on his/her personal computer or what those programs might require. hence my asking.

so, to recap, what sort of minimum specs should i look for as a prospective mechanical engineering undergrad?

 

what's your budget like?

 

looking at $1200 max. under $1000 is more realistic.

how do these specs look? I'm liking the T400 for battery life. over 6 hours according to notebookreview.com. mostly i'm concerned about the grafics card - its only a "class 3" according to notebookcheck.com (class 3 cards are described as "lowmidrange")

ThinkPad T400 - 1 Yr Depot Warranty
$1,083.00
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Processor P8400 (2.26GHz 1066MHz 3MBL2) Operating system: Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
Operating system language: Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic
Display type: 14.1 WXGA+ TFT, w/ CCFL Backlight
System graphics: ATI Mobility Radeon 3470 with 256MB
Total memory: 2 GB PC3-8500 DDR3 SDRAM 1067MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Keyboard: Keyboard US English
Pointing device: UltraNav (TrackPoint and TouchPad)
Hard drive: 160 GB Hard Disk Drive, 5400rpm
Optical device: CD-RW/DVD-ROM Combo 24X/24X/24X/8X Max, Ultrabay Slim (Serial ATA)
System expansion slots: Express Card Slot & PC Card Slot
Bluetooth: Integrated Bluetooth PAN
Wireless card: ThinkPad 11b/g Wireless LAN Mini PCI Express Adapter III
Mobile Broadband: Integrated Mobile Broadband upgradable
Battery: 6 cell Li-Ion Battery
Power cord: Country Pack North America with Line cord & 90W AC adapter Language pack: Language Pack US English

 

to be honest with you, check to see if your college/university offers laptops. They will have all of the software preinstalled, and the warranty terms are usually awesome. If it dies, you just bring it to the computing center, and you get a new one.
Sure the school laptops usually dont have the fastest components, but you could always upgrade them.

If your school does not offer laptops, than I suggest getting a system with a monteveina processor, i.e. p8400, p8600, T9600. or a slightly older santa rosa based system, with cpus like T9300, T9500.
For harddrive its best to get what fits you, for portability and speed go for a high density 5400rpm drive or one of the latest generation 7200rpm drives.
If you are going to be using software like Maya, 3dsmax, you will want a very fast processor,
I would recommend getting a nice graphics card, like a Quadro or a 9 serie geforce (9600Gt)
4Gb of memory is good to start with, some can be ugraded to 8Gb or more.

If you want a prebuilt, the Dell Precision/ Latitude series is very good.
The Lenovo business line is also a good choice.

EDIT:
I just saw your post,
WIth those specs, the only thing I can say is buy a memory option, which only uses one memory slot.
If you get a single 2Gb memory card you can simply buy a second memory card from a e-tailer like newegg and install it easily.
I dont now what harddrive it has, but if it has a 5K160 or similar generation drive it may be pretty slow.
You may want to consider upgrading to a 320Gb 7200rpm drive either from Lenovo or as an aftermarket upgrade.

K-TRON

 

You should ask your department about the CAD software you'll use in your labs. You didn't mention which school you're going to, but for the most part a first year engineer probably won't have too much computer intensive class/lab work thrown at him. Expect to spend time with calculus homework. With pencil and paper.
For the future, you should look into a notebook with discrete graphics onboard (ATI/Nvidia, NOT integrated) and lots (=>2GB) of RAM. If you really get good feedback from your school, you might even consider a 64bit OS, although that's only if you will be able to run the software they'll throw at you, AND extra RAM (>3GB) is a consideration.
Hope this helps.
Good luck.

 

I know i wont be doing any CAD for awhile, but i'll need a computer regardless and i want to get something that I wont have to upgrade in two years when i do need to use CAD.

I could not find any info on my school's website about computer programs or purchase programs, so i can't tell you about that. the school is LeTourneau U. in Longview, Texas if anyone here happens to know anything. I'll be having an interview in a couple of weeks with the engineering dept. director, so i'll be sure to ask him about that.

 

So how good/bad is the graphics card in the lenovo i posted above?

 

The ATi 3470 is a low end graphcis card. Its not a high end gaming card, but it will get the job done for all multimedia and low to middle end games. It will be enough for CAD, and so forth later down the road
The ATi 3470 is not removable or upgradeable, so you will not be able to upgrade later on.
It is more powerful than a 8400GS, and its about as powerful as the nVidia 9300GS

K-TRON