[mechgrad]

Those would do more than fine. If you go with lenovo they have a very good warranty with accidental damage protection for a couple hundred dollars for 3 years if you're worried about build quality (I think you have to buy from the lenovo site though).

[combataran]

That's good to hear. What I'm worried about is the heat and weight, less so the build quality. I'd really like my laptop to last at least 4 years, more is better, performance wise as well. Apple laptops just don't seem to hold their own after 4 years(except for the body itself, ofc).

The 13 mba when specced with 8gb/256gb is still way cheaper than the similarly specced rmbp. Does the processor matter much when talking about running cad software(and i'm aware of the retina price premium, thats why i tend to shy away from it, prefer a fhd ips external monitor).

[mechgrad]

The processor matters when you get into complicated assemblies or analysis of parts. Your school should have computers capable of running whatever you need to do and to be honest a home built computer of ~$500US would be capable of undergrad work easily.

I specced the MBA with upgraded processor which would definitely be necessary (for CAD) but even the article I linked said it was a little slow with the upgraded processor.

I personally did all my CAD work on campus and MATLAB/programming at home because of computer specs.

I think a macbook is a nicer computer choice if you don't mind doing CAD work at school, or if later down the line you decide to spend ~$500 building a computer (just the computer not monitor, keyboard, os) because working at school is a burden. Though a lot of my CAD projects were group projects, depends more on school though.

The analysis work definitely is processor heavy (I think PRO/E might use CUDA somewhat now) but it just means a slower processor will take longer to run the analysis).

Just running the CAD program usually requires an okay processor and video card but if you google around or ask on forums some other people might have better experience with running solidworks on a MBA.

Here is another experience: https://forum.solidworks.com/thread/70311

We did have some programming in basic excel formula style but that you could run in parallels or virtualbox or what have you.

[combataran]

I do think that Macs are nice to have and use, and that my school computers are only [i3, 4gb, 500gb] machines, some are even older. Weirdly so, there seems to be this one Tesla supercomputer in that lab that's off-limits...anyways, the rMBP is beyond my $1200 budget, more so the normal MBP specced with a 256 ssd, so I think I'll stick to Windows machines until I have more disposable income to afford one. Thanks for your input, it was helpful!

Which brings me back to my pc+tablet or laptop debate. This is starting to give me a headache.