Good T61 config for an Engineering student

Hi I am looking for a good T61 config for an Engineering student. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

Depends on what type of work you do and how much you're willing too spend.
Tell us that doesn't give much information to help you.

 

If you're going into Civil/Structural engineering the most basic laptop configuration will do.

 

Fill out the FAQs and then explain what your going to be doing on it at the bottom.

 

Not sure how much this will help as I am not an engineering student but here are my T61 specs straight from the invoice.

I'm a senior currently and I found this to be a nice balance between power and price that should last through grad school. Primary uses are for graphics and animation (Adobe CS3 suite, Maya), and music production (Ableton Live, Reason, Adobe Audition).

This config cost me $910.97 after EPP and whatever Memorial Day discount applied. Hope this helps you.

edit: Ignore the Vista option, I will be reformatting with XP as soon as I get it - too many headaches with music software and Vista.

43Y3427 SBB INTEL CORE2DUO PROC.T8300
42V8012 VBB MS WIN VISTA HOME BASIC
42V8568 SBB MS WINVISTA HM BS32 US ENG
42V8286 SBB 15.4 WXGA TFT
42X5975 SBB NVIDIA QUA. NVS 140M-128MB
41W2063 VBB 2GB PC2-5300 667MHZ 2DIMM
42V8195 SBB KEYBOARD US ENGLISH
42V8295 SBB UN(TRACKPOINT TOUCHPAD)
42X5218 SBB 160GB HDD,7200RPM
42V8171 SBB CD-RW/DVD-R24X24X24X8XUB-S
42X0805 VBB PC CARDSLOT EX CARDSLOT
42V8177 SBB INT.WIRE.WIFI/LINK4965AGN
62P6054 VBB INTEGR.BLUETOOTH PAN
41W1508 SBB 6 CELL LI-ION BATTERY

 

Does Maya run like a dog with 2GB of memory? I haven't played with it in about five years; I'd be curious.

 

I'll let you know after I get my T61 and flatten & reinstall

edit: Come to think of it, I think most of our computers in the Graphics and Animation labs have a minimum of 2GB RAM and they seem to handle Maya fine. Either way, I'll let you know how things go.

 

I will fill in the FAQs just as soon as I can but in the mean time my son will be studying Alternate Energies Engineering with a minor in Electronics Engineering. Thanks again for your help,

 

You should check with your school and see if they have a min. standard for freshmen getting new laptops. If so, use that info to figure out what you need.

Most EE & CS students can actually get away with really minimum configs assuming your college doesnt enforce minimum standards.

The only time you might run into a little trouble is 3d gfx classes. But usually most colleges provide worskstations to handle this.

So it really comes down to:

1) what can you afford
2) does you college enfore minimum standards for new laptops
3) will you choose to take 3d gfx classes (more likely if you are going into CS)
4) how much do you value battery life

need the most battery life? get intel gfx card. Need a little more power for cad or gaming? get nvidia (if you can live with about 1 hour less battery vs intel).

either way you should get the thinkpad wifi card and the biggest battery you can afford.

 

My school uses CATIA which runs acceptably on a X3100 and the intensive stuff can always be down on the workstations. So essentially, go with whatever.

 

If he's planning to use big models on CATIA (such as for structural engineering) then I would get a "p" model. That program can bring dedicated computers to their knees.

 

I'm studying Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and took a CATIA course a few years ago. Just a bit of warning: CATIA is one of the largest pieces of **** software out there. It's buggy, the interface is horrible, and it runs slow.

 

Hi,
if it helps, my job is CAD support and i work with Catia V5, Alias Studio 9, Icem Surf 5.
I opened a part in Catia on my notebook arround 200MB and was able to 'move' it with no 'lags'. It behaved almost like the HP 8600 workstations with 6gb ram we use. I was very surprised. Anyway so far Catia doesnt run on Vista, so i'm fine with my Win. XP 64bit on my notebook and also for such work i recommend ntb with nvidia vga and 4gb ram .

 

Whatever you do decide to buy, make sure you get a copy of Windows XP + sp3 and strip it down. This will guarantee the fastest possible performance from your laptop!

In a simple start-up test using "strip down" versions of XP, two different laptops (1 year apart in age) had a difference of 15 seconds during startup! The older laptop won.

 

Like I said, CATIA can destroy any PC in existence today. The big stuff should be done on the workstations. Your laptop should only really be used on the go / small / quick stuff.

Yeah? You ever flown in a Boeing airliner? Those have all been designed on CATIA since the 1980's. Same with the current American Super Carrier, same with the new Submarine (Virginia Class), same with all Airbus aircraft...

CATIA is by far the best CAD solution on the market.

CATIA works on Vista. It installs natively in Vista64 and must be installed in safe mode on Vista32.

 

CATIA works on Vista.... ?
Hmm, will have to try it thanks for the tip! Anyway, our company wont be switching to Vista for next 2 years, actually we'll see if in 2010 MS has that new promised system...

 

I'm not sure about CATIA, but if you're going to be doing any 3d modeling on programs such as ProE or Solidworks, go with the T61p.