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Engineering student just bought a computer

post #1 of 7
Thread Starter 
I'm going to be an engineering student at a state university in the fall and i realized i needed to upgrade my laptop. I tried to buy over what i needed to try and get this one to last til i get out of school

Dell XPS M1530
Core 2 Duo 2.4ghz
4gb ram
WXGA 1440x900 screen
NVidia 8600GT 256mb
320gb 5400rpm HD
3year service/accidental/lojack

Does anyone have any recommendations for anything i might need?

Also, how do i tell whether i got the samsung or the LG lcd screen?

1320-607815.4 inch Wide Screen WXGA+ TrueLife LCD with 2.0 MO Camera for XPS M1530
Thats what it says on my order status page, yet i dont' seen any clues.
post #2 of 7
Probably not the best choice... perhaps would have been better going a latitude/ precision model using a quadro GPU given doing engineering you will likely be using 3d modelling programs such as CAD...

Stu
post #3 of 7
Thread Starter 
i built a latitude with the same specs and a quadro and it came out to over 1800, i think you missed the part where i said i'm a college student. And the computer i'm using now is a core single, and 1 gb of ram with a shared vid card and i can run 3d CAD, not well but i can. I'm sure the computer will work fine.
post #4 of 7
Solidworks 2006 runs like crap on my Vostro and XPS m1730....my previous Precision M65 ran it about 20 times faster and everything displayed properly.

I think Autodesk Inventor has the option of using the D3D api rather than openGL,they also seem to have sat on their bums less than the others when it comes to vista compatability as well from what I've heard.

What type of software will be part of your courses?
post #5 of 7
Thread Starter 
i really don't know yet, i'm only in my first year of pre-engineering classes and currently using AutoCAD. I'm sure there will be plenty though.
post #6 of 7
OK....good luck with the courses,awesome to hear younger guys still interested in engineering career's

You can tell what brand of screen you have by going into control panel/system/device manager/monitors/plug and play monitor/properties/details, and you should see something like SEC5443 for example,which would indicate a samsung....LPL for LG etc.
post #7 of 7
go with what you have. M1530 will impress some other hot girls in class :P
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