Laptop Recommendations for Computer Engineering in NTU

[chryos1029]

Hi!
I'm matriculating this year for Comp Eng and I wonder if there's some seniors that can recommend me some laptop for uni. Is there a preference in os (e.g. linux,osx,windows) due to the syllabus of the course? Maybe telling me which programming language or software that might be used throughout the course. My budget is around 3.8k sgd and wondering if the course really requires that high of a budget. Thanks.

 

[davidktw]

Hi!
I'm matriculating this year for Comp Eng and I wonder if there's some seniors that can recommend me some laptop for uni. Is there a preference in os (e.g. linux,osx,windows) due to the syllabus of the course? Maybe telling me which programming language or software that might be used throughout the course. My budget is around 3.8k sgd and wondering if the course really requires that high of a budget. Thanks.

Any laptop will do. These days laptop are too powerful for software development. If you need more powerful machines, you can always do it in the cloud like Amazon Web Services (early introduction to Cloud Computing).

If you are really into software development as your study and career, learn the unix way. That's my early hint to your roadmap. Mac and Linux are unix(non legal interpretation) variants.

Your budget can easily get you the latest Apple MBP under educational pricing for university
https://www.apple.com/sg_edu_4911/shop/buy-mac/macbook-pro/15-inch

In my days, I worked with a NEC Versa Lite that cost me 1.7K only, and I did wonders with it.
If a 1K+ machine these days can't make you a great software developer, 3.8K won't either.

 

[chryos1029]

Yup, I know that and thanks for the advice.
Because I want to know if it is better to get the best out of my budget or a sufficient machine will do.

 

[hawthorne]

I was a SCE student 10 years back and I did not buy my laptop until my final year. I managed to get by using the PCs in the computing lab and my existing rig at home. I did not stay in Hall and I lived all the way in the east.

In fact I din need to buy a laptop even for fyp actually. Cos my project requires setting up 3 hosts, my prof actually said he got enuf spares to TLoan me if I need it. So in the end i T Loaned one from him. So using my own laptop, desktop and school laptop, I managed to set up the architecture for the project

My advise is start school and see if u really need a laptop. If u need one, can buy from the school. The pricings are quite attractive.

Most of the time, laptop was used to play games rather than serious school work

Like Davidktw said, any laptop will do. If u can afford it, get a light one with alot of battery life. (That means no gaming laptops) Lugging a laptop ard, even if it's 2kg is tiring after a while. Power sockets will likely be hogged by people in the school, so there were times u need to run on battery.

I used to bring a multi plug to school too, then ask other students to share the socket with me.

 

[Laruku2017]

I gotta agree with hawthorne. I also graduated as an engineer and a laptop should be the least of your worries.

For the first year you probably won't be using them much for "projects" and the fact that you have computers labs at the school or a desktop at home is more than enough.

But you have to get a laptop anyways to help you with quick google searches, looking up stuff online, hw solutions, regular college stuff,etc.

It doesn't necessarily need to be super powerful for crazy engineering projects because even if you have them during your freshman year you won't necessarily need an expensive "engineering laptop".

What's funny to me is the fact that if you look up online every site suggests you buy a monster workstation laptop. There's only one or two sites actually recommending engineering students to get a regular laptop instead of crazy 2k-3k $ workstations which I have to agree again.

Computer engineering along with electrical engineering is one of the concentrations where there's no need to do much if any 3D design (unless chosen as elective) or even run virtual machines for programming (probably elective).

Virtual Machines (probably senior year) can run on a cheap laptop too no need for workstations unless you are running dozens of them and each VM having tons of heavy programs running but that's more for professional programming after college.

3D design are more important for Mechanical , Civil Engineering, etc, and fields where you deal with designing 3D Objects where you can to simulate stress, forces, equilibrium,moving parts,volume,etc. They use solidworks which a dedicated graphics card is a must (not necessarily an expensive laptop either).

Computer Engineering and Electrical deal with circuitry and 2D Modeling (have you designed a circuit in 3D ?). It's not helpful to have circuitry in 3D.

You might do some autocad and even then it can run on any laptop since it's only for 2D Models (even basic 3D Models can run on cheap laptops with Autocad).

Just get a cheap portable for all other college courses and you should be fine. Try to avoid laptops with a dedicated graphics card you won't need them and they might even drag you down since you'll probably be gaming like me . Of course if you plan on taking electives dealing with 3 D Modeling, a laptop with any dedicated graphics card will suffice but then you have computer labs to get it done too.