Starting an electronics engineering degree in April - what computer should I get?

Cromulent

Cromulent

Cromulent

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I've got a max budget of about £2000. This is just for a desktop. I'll get the laptop later so I'm wondering what I'll really need. Primarily be about doing maths, writing papers using LaTeX, programming and circuit design. I want to run Linux on it.

Any advice?
 
Something basic unless you want to do some gaming on the side.

If you don't want to do any gaming, I'd put your entire budget in to getting a nice laptop with an external screen, keyboard and mouse then undock it when you want to go to lectures.
 
EVH said:
Something basic unless you want to do some gaming on the side.

If you don't want to do any gaming, I'd put your entire budget in to getting a nice laptop with an external screen, keyboard and mouse then undock it when you want to go to lectures.
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Oh, sorry. I should have said. This is with the Open University so I don't need to go to lectures. I do need a headset though for video conferencing.
 
Why spend money on a desktop AND a laptop when you can get an external display and a nicer laptop?

I did a year of advanced electronics as part of my degree and you could get away with doing it on a basic office PC.
 
EVH said:
Why spend money on a desktop AND a laptop when you can get an external display and a nicer laptop?

I did a year of advanced electronics as part of my degree and you could get away with doing it on a basic office PC.
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I have schizophrenia and normally end up in a psychiatric ward from time to time. The laptop is to give myself something to do when bored and ill. The desktop is for real work.
 
This sounds like a 'spend loads of money to get setup and then the hard work will come easy'.

Start the course and find out what you really need.
 
Cromulent said:
I have schizophrenia and normally end up in a psychiatric ward from time to time. The laptop is to give myself something to do when bored and ill. The desktop is for real work.
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Real work can be done on a laptop with an external screen ;)
 
If electronics is similar to electrical to start with...

Save your money and buy a calculator, pens and paper and practice maths constantly until you get through the engineering maths phase. Especially working from home... unless your maths is on point.
 
Cromulent said:
I've got a max budget of about £2000. This is just for a desktop. I'll get the laptop later so I'm wondering what I'll really need. Primarily be about doing maths, writing papers using LaTeX, programming and circuit design. I want to run Linux on it.

Any advice?
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Save your money... Don't you already have a computer? Why would you need a desktop and a laptop? If you need additional computational power you should have some good university computers/servers with GPUs you can use for free + free credit for various cloud providers.

The only reason to buy one is if your current one is going to be a pain in the ass to take to lectures (in terms of weight). MacBooks and Dell XPS laptops might be useful there but equally a mate of mine was fine with a small 12" Lenovo Thinkpad he picked up for like £100 from an online second-hand store.

Your £2000 budget for a desktop is basically pointless these days, if you want a new gaming rig then go ahead and buy one by all means however it's not necessary for university study.

Edit - this is with the OU? So not even going to lectures in person - you don't need one then, you're posting from a computer already presumably - is there any reason you can't use that?

Cromulent said:
I have schizophrenia and normally end up in a psychiatric ward from time to time. The laptop is to give myself something to do when bored and ill. The desktop is for real work.
Click to expand...

That doesn't answer the question though to be fair - his suggestion was buying a laptop + external screen and keyboard, if you did that you'd still have a laptop to take with you to hospital ergo why do you need both?
 
As above, pen, paper Maths and the Stroud book :)

Oh and it would be wise to put some time into excel with basic scripting and formulas for all the boring calculations you will be doing for the rest of your life. Let me know if you need a placement year, could at least get you an interview doing the above.
 
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