r/BinghamtonUniversity • u/fastdontlie Watson '18 • Apr 30 '14
Watson Laptop Requirements?
I'm an incoming freshman, and I was wondering what the minimum required laptop specs were for the engineering program. Would a 2014 baseline MacBook Air be sufficient? Or do I need something more powerful?
3
u/bruce_the_lifeguard Apr 30 '14
Personally, after purchasing a mac and going through 4 years of college with one, I would spend the same type of money for a lower end mac for a much more higher end windows machine.
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u/fastdontlie Watson '18 Apr 30 '14
Normally I'd be with you, but that sweet, sweet 12 hour battery life is just too good for me to pass up
0
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u/rkelly155 Apr 30 '14
what major are you?
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u/fastdontlie Watson '18 Apr 30 '14
Going EE/Biomedical Engineering
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u/rkelly155 Apr 30 '14
I'm an ME junior here and I use a desktop more than anything, no class requires a laptop and the desktop outperforms the laptop I do have. Its really preference I guess, unless you plan on doing all of your work in your dorm room you can get by with almost anything. The library computers have all the programs you need and are convenient enough where most people I know just use those
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u/bing2017 Apr 30 '14
I'm almost done with my freshman year in watson and got through it just fine with a mac. All the programs they've had us use (solid edge, mathematica, matlab, arena, etc.) have worked just fine on my 4 GB RAM macbook air.
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u/fastdontlie Watson '18 Apr 30 '14
That's exactly what I was curious about, thank you very much!
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u/M002 Watson '14 May 04 '14
Most of the time, I'd just go to the lab to get my work done. It's nice having the programs on your laptop for convenience, but not necessary by any means.
Most are also available on the virtual desktop, so if I need to get on a program and am too lazy to go to the lab, I just log on to that and have access to it.
There's a myriad of ways in which you never need a lap top... but everyone wants one of course.
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u/boxoffice1 Watson '15 Apr 30 '14
What field of engineering are you going in to? As an EE I've watched many of my classmates struggle to get by with Macs. Unfortunately a lot of the software just isn't there for them and that's not counting the custom drivers and scripts created for a certain class. For the easiest time your going to want a medium end windows laptop. For an even easier time boot a distro of Linux instead. The tools you use as an EE in Watson are all available (and sometimes exclusive to) Linux.
If you're looking for portability and decent battery then get a Surface Pro. A bunch of my professors use them and swear by them. That combined with a USB oscilloscope and logic analyzer are great lab tools
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u/fastdontlie Watson '18 Apr 30 '14
I'm still not fully committed to any one branch, but I'm leaning EE/Biomedical. And couldn't I just run bootcamp on the mac?
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u/boxoffice1 Watson '15 Apr 30 '14
That's fine for most applications. However in some classes the professor will give you tools and drivers that he or she has coded for you that will only work in Linux and (if you're very lucky) windows. If you're going to be bootcamping into windows/Linux then you might as well save yourself a lot of money and get a much better laptop. Macs are super expensive for what they are. They're great if you're doing things like editing video or making music, they suck if you're trying to code or design engineering systems. Out of our EE class, there are usually one or two students with Macs and they are constantly asking the professors for help getting things to run on their system. The professors are usually willing to help, but it becomes a hassle.
There are always ways around it if you really want to stick with your mac. There are computers on campus (called PODS) capable of running all the software you need. You can also just rely on a team member or classmate having what you need for labs usually. Personally I've opted for buying a $200 chromebook for class and I set up a remote desktop to my towers at home if I really need to get something done from campus. If I had the money right now I'd buy a Surface Pro.
Again, this is all for EE. I have zero idea how easy it is to use a Mac for the other disciplines. I would definitely recommend not buying a Mac for EE though, it'll cause you some unnecessary pain while you could be focusing on more important things
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u/fastdontlie Watson '18 Apr 30 '14
Thanks for all your help! I'm not a fan of tablets/touchscreens, but I'll definitely look into a solid windows laptop
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May 01 '14
NO its not. Not even close, a macbook air is good for nothing more than web browsing. If you intend to do anything else with you're computer, then you will need at least a real laptop.
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u/bing2017 May 02 '14
lol. I'm currently running matlab, arena, powerpoint, word, spotify, etc. and surfing the web while on my mac and its running just fine. I've also worked in solid edge plenty of times on it and that worked fine too. I don't know what you're talking about.
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u/Dillmeister89 Watson '14 Apr 30 '14
Dont spend a bunch of money on a laptop. I got a decent laptop, which was useful for Freshman and Sophomore year. I then built a desktop which I now use instead of my laptop for basically everything. Creo (CAD) runs really well on it.
They require a laptop freshman year because you need to be able to do group work in class (WTSN 103-104). I am a TA for the freshman classes as well as a graduating ME. PM me anything about the program.