Laptop for CAD

gofer

My daughter needs a laptop for college. It has to run Autocad. Any ideas on make/model etc. Thanks

Alanstrainor

How to get help on this forum ***READ THIS FIRST***
If you are looking to buy a laptop, please include the following information in your post:

1.Budget: How much you are willing to pay. More is not always better

2. Mobility: Generally speaking, the smaller a laptop, the more you will pay for it. So if mobility is not important, make sure and state that

3. Warranty: Is a warranty important? Extended warranties tend to be expensive, do you need the piece of mind? Or would you rather wing it and fix the laptop yourself if something goes wrong? I would.

Try answer the above questions. And maybe try and organise your post to have headings each of the above questions. The more info you provide the better.

leninbenjamin

it will need at least 2GB ram, and you'll probably want a larger screen, i really wouldn't go below 17 meself if i were working with graphics intensive apps like autocad a lot.

How much will she be actually using it though? will it be once every few weeks or daily? meeting the minimum spec is grand for occasional use, but if she ends up using it a lot a high end laptop would be what shee needs, but obviously this would be at a price.

gofer

How important is a graphics card and how much ram etc, thanks for replies

leninbenjamin

gofer wrote: »

How important is a graphics card and how much ram etc, thanks for replies

it will needa 128MB dedicated Graphics card if she plans on using the more recent versions, dunno about the older ones. there more the better too, autodesk apps can be very heavy.

you really need to give us more info on budget, and how it will be used etc. for us to be able to help you further and go into more specifics.

Alanstrainor

gofer wrote: »

How important is a graphics card and how much ram etc, thanks for replies

How to get help on this forum ***READ THIS FIRST***
If you are looking to buy a laptop, please include the following information in your post:

1.Budget: How much you are willing to pay. More is not always better

2. Mobility: Generally speaking, the smaller a laptop, the more you will pay for it. So if mobility is not important, make sure and state that

3. Warranty: Is a warranty important? Extended warranties tend to be expensive, do you need the piece of mind? Or would you rather wing it and fix the laptop yourself if something goes wrong? I would.

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Try answer the above questions. And maybe try and organise your post to have headings each of the above questions. The more info you provide the better.

Like i said, there more info you give us the better. One line responses are going to mean you get very little if any help.

gofer

She is doing a course in Commercial Interior Design and needs a laptop. This has to be able for Autocad. The version I don't know. I believe that some of the rendering done on it is similar to some of the more demanding games. I presume Windows XP or Vista is o.k I'm just asking for people who do CAD and know the limitations and features needed of the miriad of options out there. I would think a 17" screen is important and a graphics card instead of integrated graphics, but beyond that, it's up to you guys.

Voodu Child

17" laptops can be pretty heavy, especially for a female. I would go with a 15" unless you know for sure your daughter will be comfortable lugging around a massive brick of a thing.

CAD programs can make use of graphics cards to accelerate rendering, so consider getting a system with a half-decent graphics card. The only caveat there is that im not 100% sure what kind of hardware acceleration current versions of Autocad are capable of, and whether it needs to be a Quadro (CAD) or if it can still make use of a GeForce (gaming) card.

That's about it. Fast processor, plenty of ram (preferably 4GB) and a good GPU if applicable. Go with Windows XP if you are using an older version of AutoCad, although newer versions support Vista just fine.

godtabh

System Requirements

For 32-bit AutoCAD 2010

* Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional or Home edition (SP2 or later)
* Intel® Pentium® 4 or AMD Athlon® dual-core processor, 1.6 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
* 2 GB RAM
* 1 GB free disk space for installation
* 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
* Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 7.0 or later
* Install from download, DVD, or CD

or

* Microsoft® Windows Vista® (SP1 or later) including Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium edition (compare Windows Vista versions)
* Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon dual-core processor, 3 GHz or higher with SSE2 technology
* 2 GB RAM
* 1 GB free disk space for installation
* 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
* Install from download, DVD, or CD

For 64-bit AutoCAD 2010

* Windows XP Professional x64 edition (SP2 or later) or Windows Vista (SP1 or later) including Enterprise, Business, Ultimate, or Home Premium edition (compare Windows Vista versions)
* AMD Athlon 64 with SSE2 technology, or AMD Opteron® processor with SSE2 technology, or Intel® Xeon® processor with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology, or Intel Pentium 4 with Intel EM64T support and SSE2 technology
* 2 GB RAM
* 1.5 GB free space for installation
* 1,024 x 768 VGA display with true color
* Internet Explorer 7.0 or later
* Install from download, DVD, or CD

Additional Requirements for 3D Modeling (All Configurations)

* Intel Pentium 4 processor or AMD Athlon, 3 GHz or higher; Intel or AMD dual-core processor, 2 GHz or higher
* 2 GB RAM or greater
* 2 GB hard disk space available in addition to free space required for installation
* 1,280 x 1,024 32-bit color video display adapter (true color) 128 MB or greater, Microsoft® Direct3D® capable workstation class graphics card

Buy a laptop that meets the specs?

Dartz

XPS Studio 15 sounds perfect.

1500 Euro.

Should do the job

Also consider:
http://www.rockdirect.com/viewNotebook.php?pName=PEGASUS%20520
Rock Pegasus 520.
The extra Graphics memory will be real helpful with CAD systems.

gofer

Thanks for replies. Plenty to think about, will talk with daughter. I think 17" is a non runner from portability point of view.