[irockdabari]

So im planning on gettin a powerbook for college. I plan on majoring in engineering (mechanical, civil, or electrical). i was wondering if anyone knew if there are features on the PB that would best assist an engineering student (AKA RAM, Cinema Display, HD etc.) Im really liking the 15" PB, even though the 12" catches my eye... but I don't like the 12" screen. All in all, i relaly need help with features i need vs. features i want, and if i should just go with an iBook for now and get a PowerBook when I actually get to the college of engineering (junior year). can anyone help?

[Randman]

Do a quick search. Just the past few weeks, quite a few threads from people with the same situation as you asking the same questions as you. Basically, you should be fine no matter what route you go. Just max the ram and enjoy.

[SplijinX]

If your PB will be your primary computer the harddrive upgrade and RAM down the road will keep you in good shape.

Does your school have any particular computer requirements? If you plan on doing and CAD work in civil or mechanical, you'll probably need to get an el cheapo PC if you don't have one already. That or you could make do using school computer labs. Just something to keep in mind.

[wuzup101]

First check to see that the software that you need for your classes will run on a mac (IE: cad and such ... already stated). Many programs for engineers, like mathematica, matlab, and maple are all avaliable for mac. I believe the CAD programs are the week point. This isn't really a big deal if you go into medical. I myself am in the college of Bio Engineering at Penn State U-Park. I'm only going into my second year but I'm a bit ahead so I'll have a few courses that are already in my major this year as I'm almost done with the pre recs...

Anyway, though I have a PC desktop that I put up with last year (yes I built it so it is probably better than 99% of PCs out there) I am confident that I could make due with just this PB this year. If I could somehow get my hands on a 1gb dimm of ram, an external enclosure for my curren DVD+/-RW drive, and a 250gb firewire HDD I would just give my parents my PC (and keep my Samsung 191T for spanning). The Powerbook really is a great machine. I would definitely recomend getting the 15" over the 12" for your applications. Chances are you'll greatly appreciate the extra screen resolution when multitasking. And, lets face it, multitasking is what you do at college, and you learn to do it well. Get yourself a nice PB, maybe some ram, spring for the 80gb HDD, and possibly the extra vram if you like games.

BTW... what school are you going to?

[irockdabari]

right now im going to a local community college (Lansing Community College, Lansing MI). IM here because i earned a engineering scholarship program for 2 years at LCC and then off to MSU for Engineering. My CAD classes will be at LCC, and MSU actually sends its engineering to LCC for CAD classes. Way excited.