Laptop for Noise and Vibration

[Acoustiholic]

Hi folks,

I need to purchase a Laptop for school this fall. I will be taking a master's mech. eng with focus in noise and vibration. I will be trying to learn as many different software as possible. i.e. MatLab/Simulink, ANSYS, Labview, IDEAS, LMS.

Can anyone please provide me with any recommendations on what brand of laptop I should consider. Also, any tips on hardware? cpu, RAM, and sound card with the above software in mind.

Thanks a million

 

[GregLocock]

Running what OS?

Cheers

Greg Locock

Please see FAQ731-376 for tips on how to make the best use of Eng-Tips.

 

[alexit]

Get desktop-replacement level laptop, not ultralight. I like Dell so I'd say M20 (or M70 if budget can handle.) I say this becuase analitical software likes desktop graphics cards and these units use real ATI FireGL or nVidia Quadro cards...everything else use "mobile" cards which may not be supported.

Othwise suggest same as always - biggest & fastest HD and most RAM you can afford.

 

[PJMT]

alexit is spot on regarding the graphics cards. For the software I use (MTS Sound Quality and various LMS software) Dell was the recommendation for precisely that reason, the software companies didn't support anything else.

For info, I'm running a 2 year old Dell Precision M50 laptop. It's Pentium 4 with 1Gb of ram and an nVidia graphics card. The ability to run high screen resolution (1600x1200) can be important for some analysis applications as there's a lot to fit on the screen. Also, important if you want to be able to perform testing/analysis away from an electrical outlet, it can run 2 batteries simultaneously for double the run-time.

As for sound cards it depends on the level of quality you need. I'm invloved in sound quality analysis so I use a Digigram Pocket VX card that sits in the PCMCIA port. It's got digital in/out and 4 analogue in/outs but cost about £600, approx. $1000!!

The M50 is fine for what I do but is big and heavy, especially with 2 batteries on board. I think the latest ones are a little more streamlined.

 

[Acoustiholic]

Probably Windows based OS Greg. Thanks for the replies. I will look into the suggestions a little deeper. So Dell appears to be popular with a few of you. Thanks

Paul

 

[tomirvine]

I recommend focusing on basic principles and theory during your graduate studies.

Learn to write your own sound and vibration programs using a language such as C/C++.

You can learn "application software" when you get out into industry.

Tom Irvine

http://www.vibrationdata.com

 

[Acoustiholic]

Certainly will Tom. I am enrolled in a grad. course called Applied Acoustics at UofT. Thanks for your advice.