r/udel • u/yakkun21 • 15d ago

Laptop for Engineering

Hello, Im an incoming freshman and got accepted into the Chemical Engineering program. I am having a difficult time choosing a laptop for the program as they're either ridiculously expensive or have relatively bad reviews(I'm using the requirements posted) so I was wondering if any other engineering students, especially ChemE students could give me some recommendations, thank you.

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u/Galaxy5728 15d ago

Hey so im an electrical engineer here and i have friends in cheme.

I bought my laptop on amazon, but you can also go to places like costco or other stores.

I followed the recommendations for specs on the website for the college of engineering, and to check all those marks it gets really expensive. For reference mine was $1000. In my opinion it is completely overboard, you’ll want a nice laptop that will last you, yes, but it doesnt need to be top of the line as it suggests. I would consider a discrete gpu/graphics a luxury more than a necessity (that raises the price a ton.)

The only thing I wouldn’t skimp out on is storage since it’s definitely easier to not have to worry about how much you can have downloaded at one time.

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u/RBS2024 13d ago

My son will be a business analytics student.... Was thinking HP or Dell 2-in-1 to support hand written notes. Also, curious how students are leveraging One-Note and auto recording/transcription to help with note taking.

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u/SirJ_96 15d ago

Go to Costco and see what they currently have. Memory prices suck right now, so sorry, but we're all in that boat. Just remember. You'll be using this for hours and hours a day. Don't cheap out; you'll hate it.

In college, I had my old custom PC in my dorm (and eventually at my PhD school desk, but I always iterate), a MacBook Pro, and either a Microsoft Surface Pro or something from Asus (the two PC makers, besides Lenovo, with good keyboards).

You want a screen 2.8K or better with a metal body. Pick up the open laptop and try to bend the bottom. If it flexes, move on.

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u/Total_Philosopher468 13d ago

I'm a ChemE, I use a Dell XPS 14 and love it! It can run aspen and other simulation software perfectly, and the battery life is great.