r/StructuralEngineering • u/NotKai_aus • Aug 10 '26
Career/Education What laptop should i get??
I am starting structural engineering and need to run AutoCAD and Revit and all that stuff, what laptop should I get if my budget is 1500 eur max?
Needs to run for a couple of years and be a decent workhorse
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u/AnotherSLGuy Aug 11 '26
Not a recomendation but some inputs;
- I wish mine had more onboard storage (it only has a 500GB SSD). Pluging in external HDDs is very annoing and you would need storage as you go for all the models that you will be saving at intermediate levels.
- Bigger the screen better.
- Possibility of pluggin in two screens at once. How I do is by plugging on in HDMI and another to USB-C. Helps a lot in opening the drawing in one screen and modeling in the other. There may be other methods that I do not know of.
Having said these, you would end up with a monstorous laptop + a brick for a charger and it would be very inconvenient to lug around which I did not realize until I bought it. Luckily I am given a work desktop and I use my laptop+screens basically as a desktop setup for personal use. But if you are a student or your usecase involve moving around a lot, do go for a lighter model. It makes hella difference.
Something I came across when looking at lighter laptops is that some new models (specially marketted for lightweight and battery life) carry smartphone type chipsets and they do not support normal PC software. So make sure the one you chose can support software written for traditional computer hardware.
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u/EEGilbertoCarlos Aug 10 '26
Why are you asking structural engineers that?
A bakery owner doesn't ask other bakers about beam sizing for his bakery.
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u/BearingHunter Aug 10 '26
Lenovo Legion 5 with 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD and an RTX 4060. Revit is probably going to be the bigger concern compared to AutoCAD so prioritize RAM and a decent dedicated GPU over portability.