Buying laptop
Buying laptop
(OP)
I'm looking a laptop that would be good for using autoCAD, Revit, Solidworks, and Mathcad, etc, as well as being a good all around laptop that a college student uses to study with.
I've heard things like processing speed, ability to render well (for CAD programs), and CPU size.
So, two questions: 1) is it feasible that a Bootcamp-equipped Mac can run these programs? Ideally, I'd like to buy that; and if not, 2) what is the best non-Mac laptop for the job? Does anyone know any good laptops for these purposes?
Thanks!
- Dan from Philadelphia
I've heard things like processing speed, ability to render well (for CAD programs), and CPU size.
So, two questions: 1) is it feasible that a Bootcamp-equipped Mac can run these programs? Ideally, I'd like to buy that; and if not, 2) what is the best non-Mac laptop for the job? Does anyone know any good laptops for these purposes?
Thanks!
- Dan from Philadelphia






RE: Buying laptop
As for the everyday student side of things, any mobile workstation will be just fine for that.
Jeff Mirisola
My Blog
RE: Buying laptop
Depending on your budget, I would choose between Dell, Lenovo and Hp in that order, they all have "Mobile Workstation" that you should look into such as the M4700 for Dell, the W530 for Lenovo and the 8560W with HP. The entry level Nvidia Quadro 1000m should be enough for most task. I don't know yet if the AMD Firepro 4000 is proven enough. Those cards would be for 15" laptop that depending on the options you choose can still have a native resolution of 1920 x 1080 which I recommend. I don't know for the other softwares but SolidWorks is very dependent on the speed of your CPU so it's a place where you should not compromise and get faster clock speed instead of more cores. Another make that I'm currently using is Eurocom which offer good hardware for a decent price but I find the laptop is not as well built as with the major OEMs.
I've never used Macs so I can't comment on those.
Happy shopping!
Patrick
RE: Buying laptop
Note: (the desktop machine was built in order to do non-linear video and audio editing, the laptop would show a marked speed reduction for these tasks, more cores do help with these types of computations, SW in particular doesn't benefit from the additional cores as much.)
Nick
RE: Buying laptop
Best to you,
Goober Dave
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RE: Buying laptop
RE: Buying laptop
Patrick
RE: Buying laptop
I'll provide you with tech support. Even when I worked at a Reseller I always gave the best recommendations I could to the Mac users who called me the other AEs usually just hung up the phone and I ended up taking their call and solving their issues.
The following link shows supported systems and graphics cards certified to work with solidworks.
I'd Recommend an ATI Fire Pro. or if NVidia you'll want a Quadro FX card.
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/hardware.html
http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtest...
Of course they won't list Macs yet but running Parallels or Boot Camp should get you going smoothly just try to avoid telling your VAR your on a Mac.
Gaming Cards are not a serious show stopper but I would avoid the ones you'll typically find at a chain store e.g. GeForce. I used one on my home system and had no issues with it aside from the no Real View capabilities.
You should never run a graphics board with higher memory than your RAM it will cut into the amount available to your PC
UGNX runs natively on Mac so you may want to check their software out.
When Looking at Laptops make sure they don't come with a lot of extra processes in the Task Manager CTRL+Shift+Esc will launch it. I used an HP once with a HPQToaster.exe process which I'm still curious of.
I'm trying to run CAD not burn a bagel.
Are you studying at the school that does the engineering Egg Drop protection competition? "UPenn" I think.
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