flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

My wife works for Dassualt. They load Solidworks and Catia on all her laptop images whether they can handle it or not. That's my random what do you know ****.

As for Video cards, I agree 100% with Y8s. If you are going to get pretty serious, buy a laptop with a professional card like a Quadro in it. Also, get as many cores and memory as you can squeeze in that bitch and if you really like quick iops solid state hard rive. Ofcourse, like Joe says, you can do this for a lot cheaper with a desktop.

flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

Oh, and buy Dell, PLEASE.

blaen99

iTrader: (6)

y8s is right about multiple cores for certain applications like this.

Multi-threading that stuff is a gorramn nightmare.

I'll be in the market for a laptop in the near future, can you hook a bro up with some awesomesauce Dell deals?

shuiend

iTrader: (24)

I read Joe's response as in he was saying any card discrete card will be better then any integrated card. While yes the Quadro/Firepro cards are much better then normal gaming cards, they are much harder to find on a laptop. I think for Buffon as long as he has a decent discrete graphics card he will be more then fine.

There are differences. Are those differences enough to offset the additional cost of going with a "work" card over a "gaming" card is the question. With what you sound like stating your budget and such, you seem to not be doing the CAD professionally. At least not in a job where you depend on it. Which in that case a "gaming" card should be more then good enough. If you are going to get into doing CAD full time then I would make the recommendation of a "work" card over a "gaming" card.

buffon01

iTrader: (9)

Desktop is out of the question. I can't bring the instructors to my room. Then workshopa and courses are done in school. I need a laptop.

And why Dell?

Yeah, I won't be doing any professional renderings nor do I have a job that depends on it. Internships are coming up and I want to be able to list CAD in my application and be able to not be full of **** when it comes to using it.

flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

You could say I may have a vested interest in such purchases.

Joe Perez

iTrader: (8)

If you're working in 2d (or wireframe 3d), than the fancy graphics card is not a requirement.

If you're using solidworks in the fancy shaded solid mode, then a decent graphics card will come into play.

And thanks, shuiend, for better articulating what I could not find the words to say. If we are focusing specifically on the laptop market, then I am making the assumption (uninformed, admittedly) that you're not going to have nearly as much choice as one would if shopping for a desktop card, and that most (all?) of the discrete graphics chipsets available are going to be of the gamer-oriented variety. That being the case, a gamer-class discrete video card is going to be better than an integrated (in-CPU) graphics system for any kind of solid, shaded 3d work, be it Solidworks or Call of Duty XVI: Overnight Mall Security.

flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

If you are just wanting it to learn on for experience just get a good laptop PC with decent video card like every else says as well.

If it were a tool to earn you income, I would buy the best I could afford especially if I were planning to do any computation analysis.

y8s

iTrader: (8)

True Story: Pro/Engineer (now CREO) is significantly slower and crappier when working in wireframe mode than it is in solid mode.

also, before you all go around in circles again with me:

quadro is better for CAD than GeForce.

only about 5 laptops have quadro cards.

Dell, Lenovo, Fujitsu (overseas) and HP have a few.

Same thing with FirePro graphics. Dell and HP.

I have used the Dell Precision old school Quadro machine and now I use a slightly less old old school Lenovo T61p with a Quadro.

start here:
Quadro Workstation Solutions | NVIDIA
AMD Mobile Workstations from Dell and HP



Another option is going crazy with the cheez whiz. Find one of those laptops that has a PCI-E dock compatible with the Quadro cards. They are probably more rare than a Leprechaun riding a Unicorn with a horn made of Adamantium, but they do exist.

flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

It's settled, buy Dell

Reverant

iTrader: (10)

My previous laptop (HP 8540w) had a Quadro and it rocked in Solidworks.

flying_solo

iTrader: (5)

The answer is always Dell.

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

My Dad does a lot of CAD work and we've got back and fourth on this. His last machine was a Dell with a Quadro and it was great. He cheaped out this time around and picked up a W series ThinkPad with an Intel HD integrated card and it blows chunks. I've got a 6 year old dual core IBM T61 Thinkpad with a Quadro and it kicks the **** out of his W.

If you plan on getting serious about the 3d modeling stuff, you want to spend the money once and do it right. If you can't afford new, I got my Dads previous Quadro equipped Dell @ DFS Direct Sales > Dell Refurbished Laptops`Used Laptops`Used Notebooks`Dell`PCs`Desktops`Monitors`Parts DELL Deals . You will have to dig through A LOT of **** listed on that site, but the deals are pretty good. It's all 1-2 year old lease return machines that have all kinds of random *** configurations, so you will need to dig. I outfitted an entire non-profit with hardware from that site, plus 15-20 additional machines over the years. I had 1 problem machine that they replaced no questions asked.

buffon01

iTrader: (9)

Well after looking for months I came to a compromise. I got the Acer TimelineX 3830tg.

Specs

I5 processor 2.4GHz (2.9GHz boost)
NVidia GeForce 540 1GB of dedicated RAM
4GB of RAM
500 GB of storage
6 cell batterry
13.3" HD screen
Windows 7

For $470 Shipped to my house.

I looked at many other brands such as Dell and the prices were out of my budget if I wanted to get a graphic card. I think this laptop should serve me well. I've used my shitty notebook and for what it is I really cannot complain. I hope this notebook does well.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

BBC News - Gamers hired by father to 'kill' son in online games

Bryce

iTrader: (24)

My brother was just given a few new Xeon X5690 CPUs. It will drop in place of my current i7 920 hopefully. Then I'll have the best possible processor for LGA1366. I'll save all the coin and outperform a 3770 with a 4 year old motherboard.

Braineack

iTrader: (62)

Best quote on earth:

“I've come across very excessive players - playing for 10 to 14 hours a day - but for a lot of these people it causes no detrimental problems if they are not employed, aren't in relationships and don't have children”

Really!? Gaming isn’t getting in the way of the otherwise robust lives of unemployed virgins living in their parents basements? I am shocked!

Bryce

iTrader: (24)

It works! 6 cores at 4.5ghz. Awesome. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680 video card benchmark result - Intel Xeon Processor X5690,ASUSTeK Computer INC. P6X58D-E score: P10673 3DMarks

EO2K

iTrader: (37)

Nice. Where's the hookup?! I've got a VM box that could use 6 cores of win and awesome

rleete

iTrader: (21)

Y8s, you seem to have the answers. I'm in about the same situation. However, I'm looking for a desktop, not a laptop. Looking to keep it under $700. If it's a good deal, I'll get a second one for the wife at the same time.

I surf the web, post on and moderate forums, and play the occassional (older) game. I also use Solidworks on a regular basis. It's a home machine, so needs to handle the usual pics/home videos, but storage space has never been an issue. I can't imagine ever coming close to filling up a 1/2 TB HD, so whatever is cheap, but I want 7200rpm for good transfer speeds.

Requirements for Solidworks is to be able to make assemblies (model steam engines) having roughly 20-30 individual parts and have them move together reasonably smoothly. I rarely do any rendering or fancy finishes on the parts.

Gaming is limited to mostly older titles. No FPS, no high framerate stuff. Things like the Civilization series. So, whatever can handle the Solidworks will probably more than suffice for whatever gaming I do.

I want enough processor & memory to handle the Solidworks. Say, an i3 processor with 6-8 GB of RAM?

Any suggestions?