Computers and Monitors

Should you get a Mac or PC?

If your major uses Solidworks or Inventor software, such as most engineering majors, you should buy a laptop with windows on it. Although using the Georgia Tech VMs is possible, it is a bit slower than just having Windows 10. (I'm not so sure about this; see Talk:Computers and Monitors)

Gaming Laptop or Business/Personal Laptop?

Whether you get a gaming laptop or a more "professional" laptop completely depends on your preferences. Many high school students already have gaming laptops, and gaming laptops can sometimes be cheaper than regular laptops. On the other hand, professors will respect you more if you walk in to office hours with a sleek professional laptop rather than a large, colorful laptop. Another consideration is the battery life of gaming laptops, as they usually only last a few hours, while most professional laptops can last 8+ hours on a full charge. The final consideration is that gaming laptop's fans can sound like industrial power plants while running Solidworks, so you it would be awkward to use them in quiet spaces.

Which Brand of Laptop?

The name brand laptops are Dell, Lenovo, HP, and Mac. There are other brands of laptops that may be cheaper, but its *usually* smart to spend an extra $100 on the name brand product, as debugging is usually easier.

Which Intel Processor Should You Buy?

When you see "Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 Processor", the numbers and letters are actually codes for basic information about the processor. There are four generations of Intel processors: i3, i5, i7, and i9. Most laptops under $1000 will have i5 or i7 processors, with high level laptops having the newer i9 processors. Although there are a few i5 processors that are faster than some i7 processors, generally, i7 processors are faster than i5 processors. The next two numbers in the label (11 in this case) are the generation of the processor. The newest generation is the 11th generation, which is kind of like buying an iPhone 12. Most cheaper laptops that college students will buy have 9th or 10th generation processors in them, but make sure to not buy an 8th gen processor (comparable to an iPhone 7), as they are mostly outdated. The next numbers are called "SKU Numeric Digits", which are basically numbers assigned to processors as they are produced, with the higher number being better. After the numeric digits, the processor title will either say G1 to G7 or a letter; please consult the following chart from Intel(Source 1) to understand what the suffix means.

Suffix	Meaning
G1-G7	Graphics level, G1 being the lowest, G7 is the highest
E	Embedded
F	Requires discrete graphics
G	Includes discrete graphics on package
H	High performance optimized for mobile
HK	High performance optimized for mobile, unlocked
HQ	High performance optimized for mobile, quad core
K	Unlocked
S	Special edition
T	Power-optimized lifestyle
U	Mobile power efficient
Y	Mobile extremely low power
X/XE	Unlocked, High End

The processor will also come with a certain amount of cores; make sure to have 4 or more cores to effectively run a 3D modelling program and multiple Chrome windows.

Battery

Laptop manufactures often exaggerate the battery life of their laptops, so make sure to watch youtube videos (don't read Amazon comments, they may be fake) about the laptop you want to buy. As long as the battery last 6+ hours, it should be fine, as there are outlets around Georgia Tech.

Which NVIDIA Graphics Card Should You Buy?

If you are an engineering major that will be using SolidWorks or Autodesk, you will need a dedicated graphics card. The main producer of graphics cards is NVIDIA, and their two main lines are GTX and RTX. There are also MX graphics cards from NVIDIA, such as the MX450, but these will struggle with most gaming and 3D Modeling programs. The GTX graphics cards are the cheaper of the two, which are usually in laptops around $1000, and the RTX are the top-of-the-line cards, which usually are overkill for most gaming and 3D modelling applications. GTX and RTX graphics cards are arranged by numbers, with the larger number equaling a better graphics card. To run 3D modelling programs, make sure to buy a graphics card equal to or better than the GTX 1050-Ti. Please refer the to the following website to see the levels of performance for the cards. https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/

How Much RAM?

In beginning engineering classes, you only need 8GB or 12GB of RAM to do basic programming or CADing. As you move into your third and fourth year, and classes become more specialized, you will need at least 16GB of RAM to manage large assemblies in CAD and run other programs at the same time. Upgrading RAM in a desktop computer is extremely easy: just remove the old RAM sticks and insert the new ones. Upgrading the RAM in a laptop is more complicated, as the RAM is sometimes below the keyboard, causing you to have to remove the entire board. Basically, upgrading your RAM is easy, provided you have an easily upgradable laptop. Some higher-end laptops have 32GB of RAM, but that is overkill for most of today's applications.

The one exception to this rule is for Computer Science majors. It is effectively required to get 16 GB of RAM if you are planning to get a new machine, because you will most likely be running at least one VM for either a class or a club, and good VM performance is highly dependent the amount of RAM allocated to the virtual machine.

SSD or HDD?

A solid state drive, or SSD, is a drive with no moving parts. Thus, it is usually faster and quieter than its counterpart, the HDD (hard disk drive). Most laptops either come with a 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB drive. Most people opt to purchase a laptop with 512GB or 1TB of storage, so they have enough room for files, games, and programs.

802.11ac vs. 802.11ax WIFI

Make sure your laptop has 802.11ax WIFI, more commonly known as WIFI 6. WIFI 6 will operate better in dense WIFI systems, as it will get premium access to public WIFI routers compared to WIFI 5. Because WIFI 5 is the "old' technology, many laptop manufacturers are selling their WIFI 5 laptops at discounts, so look for 802.11ax or WIFI 6 in the product name.

Monitors

While most students don't have an extra portable monitor, it can be extremely helpful for CADing/Programming and using Chrome at the same time.

Sources

1. https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/processors/processor-numbers.html