Good laptop for interior design (autocad)....

[suprasteve]

like LaptopExtreme said, you can't go off pure Ghz when comparing processors, especially since the mobiles are so efficient. Anyways, I'm running Solid Edge (3D CAD) and Autocad 2004 (I use it for 2D) on both my desktop and laptop, and the biggest thing I will say is get a dedicated graphics card, and it doesn't need to be good at all, as long as it's dedicated. I've got a 3.2 P4 and an x800xl in my desktop and have yet to run into any dificulties with either program. The lappy has a 1.73 PM and integrated graphics. Rotating and zooming are rather choppy, but the integrated still puts the stuff out that it needs to, and the processor is fine. My university has 3.0 P4's with integrated and my laptop does just as well as them, so in my opinion, just having a dedicated card, however cheap it may be, helps significantly.

 

[fade2green514]

i'd rather have a card that does 3d at all. i used to have a radeon 7000 and it had 64mb of ram. that wouldn't do 3D barely at all, if it would it would be choppy.
get an HP with ati radeon xpress whatever its called. also get 1gb or more of ram.

 

[mtnman2888]

So from what i understand, an intel core duo processor (1.66GHz) is better than most processors right? What exactly is the best processor out right now? I've heard the pentium m is really good as well. I'm just a little confused about the different processors, so if anyone could shed some light for me i'd appreciate it.

 

[apj101]

so if anyone could shed some light for me i'd appreciate it.

http://www.computerforum.com/showthread.php?t=13239

 

[suprasteve]

okay, you will want a mobile processor because they use a lot less power, these include the Turion, Pentium M, Core Duo, and some Celerons. Typically the non-mobiles will process quicker, but their power requirements far surpass the increased productivity for a laptop. The Pentium M is kind of the precursor to the Duo, but it isn't necessarily replaced by it, the biggest difference is the duo is dual core and the M is a single core. The M will get a litttle better power consumption but not work as well for processes that benefit from dual cores or multitasking. So between those two is kind of up to you. As far as THE best, it's probably already been said, but ATM, either the intel extreme edition or the AMD FX-60, neither of which you will be considering so don't even worry about them

 

[mtnman2888]

Thanks everyone again for all of the help, i really appreciate it. I think that we will probably get the sony vaio with the specs that i listed earlier. I think the core duo is the way to go and everything else we can upgrade later on if the need arises.