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I ordered the 16 inch MacBook with the max chip and then my college notified me that I need to be able to run solidworks. Is parallels good enough to run solidworks well or should I return the mac save some money and get a dell laptop?
Any other engineering majors find another way around this problem?
MacBook Pro
aden166 Said:
"Is a MacBook Pro good for an engineering student?: I ordered the 16 inch MacBook with the max chip and then my college notified me that I need to be able to run solidworks. Is parallels good enough to run solidworks well or should I return the mac save some money and get a dell laptop? Any other engineering majors find another way around this problem?"
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Mac for Engineering Student:
I assume you'd presume some multitasking. So, a MacBook Pro with a Quad Core processor, and at least ˆ of RAM, and 256GB of storage and macOS 10.15 Catalina would work fine, for starters.
aden166 Said:
"Is a MacBook Pro good for an engineering student?: I ordered the 16 inch MacBook with the max chip and then my college notified me that I need to be able to run solidworks. Is parallels good enough to run solidworks well or should I return the mac save some money and get a dell laptop? Any other engineering majors find another way around this problem?"
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Mac for Engineering Student:
I assume you'd presume some multitasking. So, a MacBook Pro with a Quad Core processor, and at least ˆ of RAM, and 256GB of storage and macOS 10.15 Catalina would work fine, for starters.
My son made it to his senior year in Engineering school with a 2012 MacBook Pro, largely because Computer Engineering did not require CAD-CAM or drawing software. He used Terminal and did his coding there.
His senior year, classes required a Win-only program. HIs old Macbook Pro would have required serious and, back then, expensive RAM and storage upgrades to even run BootCamp, so he bought a PC laptop.
...should I return the mac save some money and get a dell laptop?
As there are no full-release emulators and no Boot Camp for M1 Macs, that sounds like a good plan. However, don't limit yourself to Dell. My son, now an engineer for a major memory and storage manufacturer, still uses the up-spec 17-inch Lenovo he bought in college.
Ask the school. My grandson's engineering school advised Windows but stated a Mac could work but the student had to provide the software at his own expense and provide 100% of his own IT needs. The school provided the Windows apps free of charge along with Windows IT support. As is the usual case, YMMV.
He chose Windows and based on his comments he's glad he did. He'll get his Mac soon enough, but when it came to school, he went with their recommendation.
You need to be 100% compatible with the course requirements, other students, and the professors. If they require Windows apps you need a Windows computer. The new Mac M1/M2 computers can not run Windows.
Is a MacBook Pro good for an engineering student?
