Good laptop for using CAD

V

vanepico

New Member
Hello everyone.

I am having trouble finding a laptop through the pages and pages of google search, and it is all a bit confusing.

I am going to University in mid September and a high spec laptop will probably help me out with work on Pro Engineer.

If anyone can help me out with suggestions of good quality laptops I would appreciate it!

My spec is:

Dual Core ~2.4ghz or something of similar spec

3gb or 4gb of RAM

Dedicated high resolution graphics and a good screen ~15" (HD would be good)

Good wireless (probably be standard on a laptop)

A good sized hard drive maybe 200gb+

Online people have been saying getting on with a docking station for external mice, keyboards and a larger screen but not mandatory if there are external HDMI/VGA

For 4gb of RAM I would need a x64 OS, I prefer XP but I guess I could try out windows 7.

Bluetooth

Preferably a new laptop and not a reconditioned one.

Good price

Able to run high spec CAD package

And do amateur video editing but I don't think this will be mandatory


Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks, Peter
 
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You'd probably want something with a mobile Core i3/i5, as for graphics, something like Mobile HD 5xxx series (for Ati) or GT 3xxx series (for Nvidia)

Windows 7 is the way to go now, If you have problems with incompatible programs you can always run the VM of XP. Windows 7 can do that. i think you need a liscensed copy of windows, and i hear it doesn't do too well for 3D programs in VM mode.

AutoCAD and stuff like that should work in Win7 just fine. 64bit is a good move too.

With specs like that you could probably play some decent games on the side too :)
 
You do not need a high spec graphics card for CAD. I use integrated graphics on my laptop and desktop for SolidWorks 2009 and NX5 - no problems. If you look on their respective websites you will see they only support high-end workstation cards.

You need a fast processor. CAD modelling is a linear process, so will only use a single core. Rendering COULD use multi cores depending on the programme.

Bigger screen = better for CAD.

My specs

Desktop - Phenom II 3.0Ghz, Win 7, 4GB RAM.
Laptop - Centrino Duo 1.6Ghz, XP, 2GB RAM - a little sluggish with CAD.
Me - Going into my fifth year of M.Eng Product Design Engineering @ Loughborough Uni.

I hope getting a perspective from someone in the situation as you helps. You'd be surprised at how easy it is to run a CAD programme!

What uni are you going to? What course?

Doug
 
Beng Mechanical Engineering at Portsmouth.

I think Dedicated graphics cards would be better for all round, I won't just be doing CAD on it XD
 
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