Best Dell laptop for engineering degree

[bradym]

My son is going to college and has to buy a laptop from the college store. They offer Dells: Inspiron, Latitudes, and XPS. All with standard configurations, mostly 4 GB of RAM (the XPS comes with 6). Any thoughts on which would be best for high end math work, the type that engineering students deal with? Thanks.

[sparkzbolt20]

Well, it really goes for the model itself. I suggest you go ahead and do a search of the model numbers. Check the stats of processor speed, not graphics or ram, but the main processor. Check it' speed and other stats and compare it to the others. The most powerful should be your choice, assuming money is not a factor.

[Sharky]

When my dell was made, the rule of thumb was the inspiron was the 'home' system, latitude the workhorse 'business' unit with different processors and dedicated graphics cards to suit, and the xps came along later as a gaming machine.

For engineering he'll probably need CAD which requires a decent amount of memory and graphics... Our CAD guys got new machines within the last couple of years with 8 core CPUs and as much or more memory - the sky's the limit I think.

[mastervezba74]

latitude or XPS.

[Smith6612]

Latitudes or XPSs as well, as suggested above. For large engineering projects you're going to need the horsepower, both on Processor and Graphics capabilities. Don't cut the machine short by giving it a fast processor but leaving it stuck with a slow graphics adapter. RAM is a good consideration, so keep that at 4GB minimum. Just keep in mind, with more power means the less the battery will hang on for, and the more heat that will be made.

[bradym]

OK, here's the stats on the XPS they're carrying:
Dell XPS 15 (15.6"), 2.66GHz, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB 7200RPM, NVIDIA GT 420-1GB.
Price: $1099.99

Your opinion?

[Skizzerz]

You should post the specs on the latitude they are carrying for comparison's sake. I can run CAD and similar things just fine on my current laptop (an older Dell Vostro model), with the following specs:
2.26 GHz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM (likely DDR2, but I'm unsure), and an NVIDIA GeForce 9600M GS graphics card.

A faster processor will obviously run things faster, and more RAM allows you to have more things open at once without slowdowns.

[bradym]

OK, here's the comparison. Thanks for Skizzerz for taking an interest.

Dell XPS 15 (15.6"), 2.66GHz, 6GB DDR3 RAM, 640GB 7200RPM, NVIDIA GT 420-1GB.
Price: $1099.99 (forget about pricing. The college is charging full price, apparently to avoid resells)

Latitude E6510 Enhanced 15.6", 2.53GHz Intel Core i5-540M, 4GB RAM, 320GB 7200RPM HDD, Vista Basic, 512MB NVS 3100M