New Laptop for Designing
New Laptop for Designing
(OP)
Hi guys,
I would like to ask for opinions for a new laptop to do 3D design and simulation. I know that its better to have a desktop, but i`m currently do now stay at one place to do my job, thus my boss asking me to get a good laptop for myself to get my work done. Below are the specs:
Option 1:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
15.6 FHD (LED)
DRAM DDR4 4G (1 extra ram slot)
SATA 1TB 5400RPM 2.5' HDD + SATA3 128G M.2 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM
Option 2:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
17.3 FHD(LED)
DRAM DDR3 1600 4G
1TB 5400R SATA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM
The price tag is almost the same. Any opinion?
I would like to ask for opinions for a new laptop to do 3D design and simulation. I know that its better to have a desktop, but i`m currently do now stay at one place to do my job, thus my boss asking me to get a good laptop for myself to get my work done. Below are the specs:
Option 1:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
15.6 FHD (LED)
DRAM DDR4 4G (1 extra ram slot)
SATA 1TB 5400RPM 2.5' HDD + SATA3 128G M.2 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM
Option 2:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
17.3 FHD(LED)
DRAM DDR3 1600 4G
1TB 5400R SATA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM
The price tag is almost the same. Any opinion?






RE: New Laptop for Designing
Check out BOXX slim design laptop. The cost used to be around $2500 about 2 years ago. Your going to have to head in the direction of a workstation class PC... if money is an issue check out the Lenovo brand workstation class. They don't have the best performance from what I have seen in the past, but they do offer their laptop workstations at a lesser cost than Dell or Boxx.
Scott Baugh, CSWP
FAQ731-376: Eng-Tips.com Forum PoliciesGryphon Environmental
www.2gryphon.com
RE: New Laptop for Designing
Get yourself a docking station and a couple external monitors though as 15" is tough to work on all day when you are in the office. I have a 15" screen and it is ok for working on the road but in the office I would shoot myself. I have two external monitors at my desk and sometimes even with all 3 screens showing information I feel like I need more desktop space.
RE: New Laptop for Designing
As Scott already suggested, I would look into the Lenovo P50s, it's one of the cheapest laptop with a Quadro card in it.
Performance wise I like the Eurocom brand. The Tornado F5 can be nicely configured for around 1700 USD (Including I7-6700K, Quadro M1000M, 8Gig Ram, 128g SSD, 1 TB 7200rpm HDD, Win 10 Pro, FHD Monitor) Of course with more budget you can upgrade the configuration.
Happy shopping.
Patrick
RE: New Laptop for Designing
RE: New Laptop for Designing
RE: New Laptop for Designing
I am not sure what affect the graphics card has on flow or stress simulation calculations. I believe it is used I in renderings. I do natural convection simulations of electronic components using flowsimulation and stress simulations using simulation pro. I also create a lot of renderings for our marketing department of our products. I have done this with Lenovo W5xx series workstation laptops with at least 8gb of memory. I would try to get at least 8 if not 16gb of ram. There is nothing worse than having to keep simplify your part geometry to reduce the mesh so you can run a simulation.
RE: New Laptop for Designing
Anna Wood
SW2015 SP5, Windows 7 x64
RE: New Laptop for Designing
Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog
RE: New Laptop for Designing
2) Only think SSD. Smaller if the budget is limited. Waaay faster than any spinning drive. Spinning drives for 3D CAD work have been outmoded for at least 3 years.
3) I couldn't think about running any Windows 64 bit OS with less than 8 Gb of RAM and not expect to routinely crash my software. I just bought a new laptop workstation and I got 32 GB. It's 2016: get 16 GB minimum, more if you can afford it. You won't regret it. But 4 GB, you'll DEFINITELY regret that. Don't believe me? Check out the SW system requirements site, which lists MINIMUM requirements:http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequire...
3) If your budget is limited, then don't throw away your precious money on a substandard machine. Yes, Lenovos can be a good deal. Just make sure you are getting one of the above mentioned graphics card series. Dell Precision and HP Elitebooks are fine machines for SW. If your budget will not permit a new one, look on the Dell factory outlet or chase down a used one on ebay. Something like a used HP Elitebook 8770W or a Dell M6800/M4800 would work fine and be current for the next 2-3 years.
RE: New Laptop for Designing
STF
RE: New Laptop for Designing
For the price I'm a big fan of Eurocom. Go to www.eurocom.com look for the Tornado F5 in Super Gaming Laptops and you can configure it as you want depending on your budget. The cheapest configuration I would be willing to buy goes like this: Quadro M1000m, Intel Core i7-6700, 8GB ram, Windows 10 Pro, 120GB, M.2 Samsung 850 EVO SSD. They are fully configurable and upgradable so a year or two from now you can easily add more RAM and another SSD for your files instead of the standard 1TB HDD.
Patrick
RE: New Laptop for Designing