Laptop suitable for Cad work

kadman

I would welcome your advice on a suitable laptop for Cad work.

Standard acad work , 2d, 3d, and no serious rendering capability needed. Not right away anyway. No gaming requirements for me I'm afraid, all work.

So spec me an able machine, and some idea of budget, and suppliers and I'll break the news to "er indoors" gently

kadman

ps
system requirements for Acad are 1gb ram minimum .

Tom Dunne

You see the problem here is that we on this very forum know lots about laptops but feck all about CAD (or audio editing, or video editing, etc.). So when somebody asks for a laptop suitable for CAD, I don't know what the software requires, so I couldn't really give much advice.

Apart from the 1Gb memory, what about screen size, hard drive size, processor requirements? What about portability? You say rendering capability is not needed right away - you do know that laptops are not easily upgraded?

kadman

Jee..eez I thought you guys knew everything:p

Sorry about that , hope this helps.


http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/ps/item?siteID=123112&id=2865811&linkID=2475323

Thanks for your speedy reply

kadman

godtabh

I had AutoCAd 2002 running on a P4 2.4Ghz with 384mb ramn and a 32mb video cads. Worked grand.

I have autoCad 3d on a 1.73ghz Pentium M with 512mb ram and 128mb video card and it takes its sweet as time doing anything.

All depends on what version of card you use and what you want to use it for.

kadman

Hi,

I would need to run Autocad 2006-7 at some time in the near future. I dont want to get left behind , for the want of getting 2006-7.

Small projects are the likely use for the laptop. Drawings size probably wont go above 15mb , and not rendered either. There will be some drawing files , say 5mb that will be fully rendered in Acad viz.


kadman

glynf

kadman,

I have Acad 2006 running on a P-m 2.13ghz with a 7800gtx nvidia go card, drawing sizes are approx. 8-9 Mb max no probs.
Some dwgs can have up to 40 layers though, which used to slow things down. This was fixed when I upped the ram to 2 gigs.

If its mainly 2D, processor speed & ram first, but a dedicated graphics card with >256Mb ram speeds things up.

galwaydude18

kadman I'd defo get one with a 17" screen as you will have the full number keypad off to the side like a proper keyboard that your used to using! I'l find ya a nice spec for one. What kind of funds are you thinking?

kadman

Hi galwaydude,

I dont know what sort of funds I need, you're the expert you tell me what I'd need to spend to get a decent machine.

Thanks

kadman

godtabh

galwaydude18 wrote:

kadman I'd defo get one with a 17" screen as you will have the full number keypad off to the side like a proper keyboard that your used to using! I'l find ya a nice spec for one. What kind of funds are you thinking?

Not all 17inch screens have proper key pads. Mine doesnt. Cheap as sh!te to get a usb one. It is annoying when trying to input stuff.

glynf wrote:

I have Acad 2006 running on a P-m 2.13ghz with a 7800gtx nvidia go card, drawing sizes are approx. 8-9 Mb max no probs.
Some dwgs can have up to 40 layers though, which used to slow things down. This was fixed when I upped the ram to 2 gigs.

If its mainly 2D, processor speed & ram first, but a dedicated graphics card with >256Mb ram speeds things up.

I've a P3 in work running 2006 LT. Its not the fastest but it does the job. Most of the time! I do a lot of road drawings with many xrefs and well over for layers and it does the trick.

It all comes down to what you will be doing in the end. Complex 3D stuff you'd need you 7800gtx for rendering. For basic 2d stuff anything with 256mb ram and at least a P4 you should be fine.

TempestSabre

kadman wrote:

I would welcome your advice on a suitable laptop for Cad work.

Standard acad work , 2d, 3d, and no serious rendering capability needed. Not right away anyway. No gaming requirements for me I'm afraid, all work.

So spec me an able machine, and some idea of budget, and suppliers and I'll break the news to "er indoors" gently

kadman

ps
system requirements for Acad are 1gb ram minimum .

Same as any laptop. How portable does it have to be? Everything is based around that. A Laptop thats never going to leave your desk, is going to be very different to one you carry around when travelling on flights etc. Unless you are doing mega 3D ACAD drawings. A low end nivdia card would do. I find the drivers are better with ACAD, than ATI etc.

kadman

It will probably be on the desk at home most of the time, and maybe on the odd occasion out for some meetings.

It will have to run 2006 , 2006 Lt is not the same as the full version, not 3d capable in the true sense. The larger the screen the better, as any cad tech will testify to, easier to use. Has to have at least 1 gig of ram.

Am I looking at a special spec, or is there one thats readily available.
price wise, what figures am I looking at.

I have used some cad machines for Strucad and RCS timberframe that were specilly specced for the software used. Not too sure what was so special about the improvements in the spec, but it was significantly above the normal computers some of the techs were using.

kadman

TempestSabre

The main thing on a specialised machine used to be a 3D chipset with good open GL and autocad drivers. But theses days and for your use I doubt it makes a difference.

galwaydude18

Kadman have a look at this HP laptop http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ie/en/sm/WF06b/21675-283229-283229-283229-12434682-12358712-77943633.html

TempestSabre

Are the CAD drivers for the ATI Mobility Radeon X1600 any good?