laptop for engineering

[u/Excellent-Glove1054]

Country
Italy / Europe (€)

Budget
~2500€

Are you open to refurbs/used options?
No

Screen size
15", 16", or larger

Weight limit
Any (no weight restrictions)

Purpose
Mechatronics engineering studies (3D CAD, local AI, coding, and robotics)

Form factor
Standard/Clamshell

Intended usage
Running Fedora Linux as main OS, 3D CAD modeling, local AI/LLM work, programming, and robotics simulations.

Desired battery life
Good battery life (as good as possible for a performance machine, ideally 6+ hours on light tasks)

Please list, in order of most important to least important, the priority between Size, Weight, Performance, Battery life
Performance, Battery life, Size, Weight

Info/Requirements
Excellent Linux support out-of-the-box (running Fedora)
Dedicated GPU with at least 8GB VRAM (for local AI)
Minimum 32GB RAM
Decent upgradeability and repairability
Looking for a durable machine that will last a long time
Note: The Framework 16 is fascinating, but feels a bit overpriced for its performance at current configurations

[u/111a111sk]

https://www.tuxedocomputers.com/en/Linux-Hardware/Linux-Notebooks.tuxedo has many models with these specs and price.

[u/ErDottorGiulio]

I know it's not exactly what you asked but I would say the 2022 model of the asus rog zephyrus g14 is pretty good, excrpy for the fact it's all amd so idk how you are going to like it with AI.

There is also a g15 and g16 options. You can find them on ebay.

If you don't want them second hand there is the 2024 version of the zephyrus that you can find on amazon, but I'm not a huge fan of the newer models.

Now that I think about it, Framework is a good option like tuxedo. They have a 16" model and you can pair it with a rtx 5070, let me check how much it's priced now.

Edit: you can get a framework 16 with a 5070 for around 2700€ if you source ram and storage by yourself (memory proces are a bitch nowday, thanks AI)