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Laptop for an architecture student at the University of Illinois at Chicago?

I'm going to be an architecture student next year at UIC. I need help choosing a laptop, but the ones they recommend are very expensive. I was looking into the HP website and decided to build my own and I got this: Configurable - HP ProBook 4720s Notebook PC XP178AV HP ProBook 4720s Notebook PC with ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6370 with 1 GB dedicated memory Genuine Windows® 7 Professional Professional 64 Genuine Windows 7 Logo Intel® Core™ i7-620M Processor (2.66 GHz, 4 MB L3 cache, 1066 MHz FSB) 1 Up-to 3.33 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology Intel Core i7 Label Estar Label - if any Microsoft OS is selected, then label is required. 2 MP Webcam - Only available with and required selection for Camera Display 17.3-inch diagonal LED-backlit HD+ anti-glare (1600 x 900 resolution) with 2MP Webcam ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 6370 with 1 GB dedicated memory 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 (2 DIMM) 500GB 7200rpm SATA Hard Drive DVD+/-RW SuperMulti DL LightScribe Drive Full-sized keyboard with separate numeric keypad, ClickPad with Gestures support (gestures not available for Linux) Intel® Wireless WiFi Link 6200 (802.11 a/b/g/n) HP Integrated Module with Bluetooth® 2.1 Wireless Technology No Modem HP 90W Smart AC Adapter HP 8-Cell 73Wh Li-Ion Primary Battery Fingerprint Reader Only available with Design (WC986AV) Caviar (black) finish with HP Fingerprint Sensor (must select FP WC990AV) Limited 1-year warranty (1/1/0) Genuine Windows 7 Driver DVD Recovery Media available with any Windows 7® OS Additional accessories added from categories below will ship and invoice separately. HP 4y Nbd Onsite with ADP NB Only SVC For a total of $1,848.00 with 4year warranty rather than spending from 3-5k on their suggested laptops. The ones they suggest are amazing laptops and have all the bells and whistles, but that comes with a big price. I'm going to be a student so do i really need those laptops? Also looked into the HP Envy 17, but I found out they overheat. And the Alienware m17 r3 I believe is the name ( i heard its not that professional and its too plasticy) Laptop Computer Minimum Specifications: Processor: Intel Core i5 (2.40 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache) / Dual-Core AMD Operton Memory (RAM): 2 GB RAM Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Business (SP2 or higher), XP Professional (SP3 or higher), or 7 Professional / Apple OS/X 10.6.2 Suggested laptop computers: Apple Computers ( I don't like Apple) 15" MacBook Pro 17" MacBook Pro Lenovo (They only sell the w510, its 15" screen is too small) ThinkPad W701 ThinkPad W510 Hewlett-Packard (AWE$OME, but I rather get a car if I can) EliteBook 8740w EliteBook 8540w Dell (Heard some bad stuff about their customer service) Precision M6500 Precision M4500 The software students will be exposed to changes constantly but includes: AutoCAD Rhinoceros Maxwell Adobe Creative Suite Professional Design 5 Photoshop Illustrator Acrobat Professional MS Office 3ds Max Other Autodesk products.

Public Comments

1. being an IT pro and not anyhow related to architecture can't say for sure, but... in order to get a "desktop replacement" laptop i was looking into (mostly) the Dell Precision m6000 models but also some HPs (& ThinkPads). using Linux / GNU as my primary OS since a few years, i wasn't interested in rotten potatoes neither... what strikes me is that all the suggested models do have 1920 pixels wide displays (and, as far as the Dell Precisions are concerned 1200 pix high) i wonder in how far such a large display is a necessity for architecture work (drawings, my understanding) usually cheaper models are available w/ WUXGA or @ least HD 1080 (1920x1080) as well. the Dell XPS 17 definitely are alas, those consumer laptops usually don't come with the Professional version of the graphic adapters (NV Quadro FX or ATI FireGL) but with the consumer versions; they use the same GPU but do have different capabilities, obviously; furthermore there are also pro drivers available, but i seem to remember that those can be tweaked to install against a consumer cards as well. like i said, just my 2 cts based on the specs of the recommended lappies... i don't think they recommend that kind of configuration out of elitism. lower spec machines might be okay in the 1st year, but might turn out to be too small for more advanced courses, maybe? the best would probably be to talk to a student in 2nd or 3rd yr?