GPU for CAD applicaions in laptop from pcspecialist?

DJW11

Hi all,
im shopping for a laptop for cad applications and number crunching, a friend put me onto pcspecialist and to be honest they seem hard to beat on price and value unless you look at refurbished dell precisions on ebay or something.
Anyway im stuck on GPU selection, any cad site would lead you to believe you need certain cards (open GL) for cad but iv come across some reviews for examlpe of amd's radeon 7970m which seems to blast nvidias geforce gtx670 out of the water in cad benchmarking, now nvidea quad core k3000's are available but at a much higher cost...
Can anyone here shed any light on this?

Thanks,

Declan

DJW11

got quoted this from pcspecialist:

Chassis & Display Omega: 17.3" Gloss 90% Gamut Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Processor i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache
Memory (RAM) 16GB SAMSUNG 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 MEMORY (4 x 4GB)
Graphics Card 2 x NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 670MX - 3.0GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 240GB INTEL® 335 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 450MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB SERIAL ATA II 2.5" HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (5,400rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 2 x USB 2.0 PORTS AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394b FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Omega Supreme Series 78.44WH Lithium Ion Battery
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 300W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2010 Professional Edition
Anti-Virus BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty 3 Year Standard Warranty (1 Month Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year
Labour)
Insurance 1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Price Ex VAT £1494.17
Price £1793.00
Quantity 1
Total Order Price EX VAT £1494.17
Total VAT Amount £298.83
Total Order Price £1793.00

any comments on this?

yomamasflavour

Are you buying this laptop as a cad workstation, as in do you use the likes of solidworks, Autocad etc. for work?

Or is it just that you want a highend laptop - bit of gaming, general laptop stuff?

Reason I ask is that £1800 is the guts of €2500 - a lot of money and if the laptop is going to be workstation type laptop you'd be far better off buying a workstation laptop - something easily achievable with that kind of money.

DJW11

Its only use will be for cad applications, Creo, seimans nx and matlab. Iv specd m4700's and m6700's with dell but there prices are ridiculous compared with what im been quoted from pcspecialist. Ive been able to get a company to buy through so I dont have to worry about VAT which is a great help now.

I went to pcspecialist myself after researching the CPU'S and decided for all the extra money the i7-3820 (3.6GHz) 10MB Cache isnt much better than the i7-3740QM (2.70GHz) 6MB, which frees up more money if I need it, so spec their vortex III machine at this


Chassis & Display Vortex Series: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU) Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-3740QM (2.70GHz) 6MB
Memory (RAM) 32GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (4 x 8GB)
Graphics Card AMD® Radeon® HD 7970M - 2GB DDR5 Video RAM - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card NONE
Memory - 1st Hard Disk 480GB INTEL® 520 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 550MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
2nd Hard Disk 500GB WD SCORPIO BLACK WD5000BPKT, SATA 3 Gb/s, 16MB CACHE (7200 rpm)
RAID NONE
SSD CACHE DRIVE NONE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 8x SATA DVD±R/RW/Dual Layer (+ 24x CD-RW)
Memory Card Reader Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste ARCTIC MX-4 EXTREME THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Network Facilities GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® N135 802.11N (150Mbps) + BLUETOOTH
USB Options 3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Firewire 1 X 1394a FIREWIRE PORT
Battery Vortex Series 8 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (5,200 mAh/76.96WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor 1 x UK Power Lead & 220W AC Adaptor
Operating System Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit w/SP1 - inc DVD & Licence (£139)
Office Software FREE 60 Day Trial of Microsoft® Office® 2010 Professional Edition
Anti-Virus BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Laptop Cooling Stands Zalman ZM-NC2500 Plus Ultra-Quiet Laptop Cooler, upto 17.3 inch (£32)
Carry Case NONE
Monitor NONE
Keyboard & Mouse INTEGRATED BACKLIT UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Mouse INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Gaming Mouse Pad NONE
Speakers NONE
Webcam INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Headsets NONE
Surge Protection 6 Socket Compact 2M UFO Surge Protector (£9)
Printer NONE
External Hard Drive NONE
Warranty 3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Home Installation NONE
Dead Pixel Guarantee 30 Day Dead Pixel Guarantee Inc. Labour & Carriage Costs (£12)
Intel Anti-Theft Technology FREE 90 Day Intel Anti-Theft Trial - Prevent Data Access upon Theft
Insurance 1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Data Recovery NONE
Delivery 2 - 3 DAY DELIVERY TO REPUBLIC OF IRELAND (£19)
Build Time Standard Build - Approximately 7 to 9 working days
Pricing Information
Price (excluding VAT) £1,621.67
Price £1,946.00

compare that to what dell quoted me:

Precision M6700 : Standard Silver Base 1 SR
Base Option : No Smartcard Reader Base 1 SR
Processor : 3rd gen Intel Core i7-3840QM Processor (2.80GHz Turbo, 8MB, Upgradable to Intel vPro technology) 1 SR
E-Star : No Energy Star 1 SR
Display : 44cm (17.3") UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit Premium Panel Guarantee 1 SR
Palmrest : No Fingerprint Reader and No Smart Card Reader (Contact and Contactless) Palmrest 1 SR
Camera : Integrated 1.0 Mega Pixel Camera with Microphone for HD+, FHD and 3D 1 SR
Camera : Software for Integrated Camera (Only for standard Base ) 1 SR
Documentation : English Shipping Docs 1 SR
Ship Accessory : English Setup and Features Guide 1 SR
Memory : 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3 1 SR
Hard Drive : 256GB Solid State Drive Full Mini Card 1 SR
Additional Hard Drive : 500GB 2.5inch Serial ATA (7.200 Rpm) Hybrid Hard Drive 1 SR
Raid Type : No RAID, Precision M4700/M6700 1 SR
Windows Live for Window7 1 SR
Optical Drive : 8X DVD+/-RW Drive Slot Load 1 SR
Resource DVD : Not Included 1 SR
Power Supply + Power Cord : 240W AC Adapter with UK/Irish Power Cord 1 SR
Battery : Primary 9-cell 97W/HR 1 SR
Carry Case : Not Included 1 SR
Labels : Intel Core Label i7 1 SR
Graphics Card : NVIDIA Quadro K3000M with 2GB GDDR5 1 SR
Wireless : EMEA Dell Wireless 1504 (802.11 b/g/n 1x1) Half Mini Card 1 SR
Keyboard : Internal UK/Irish QWERTY Backlit Keyboard 1 SR
Operating System : Windows 7 Professional (64Bit) English 1 SR
OS Media : MUI Windows 7 Professional (64Bit OS) Resource DVD 1 SR
System Management : No Out-of-Band Systems Management 1 SR
Additional Software : Dell Applications for Windows 7 1 SR
AntiVirus : Trend Micro Worry Free Business Security 3.5 (15 Month) Software MUI
(AR,CZ,DK,NL,UK,HE,FR,DE,GR,IT,NO,PL,SE,RU,ES,TR)
1 SR
Precision Order - Ireland 1 SR
Base Warranty 1 SR
3Yr Basic Warranty - Next Business Day - Minimum Warranty 1 SR
No Warranty Upgrade 1 SR
Keep Your Hard Drive Service - Not Selected 1 SR
Declined Accidental Damage offer 1 SR
VAT Summary
Type VAT Rate
EUR
Net
EUR
VAT
SR 23 2,229.00 512.67
EUR
Sub-total 2,229.00
Freight 0.00
VAT 512.67
Total 2,741.67

Is it just me or is the pcspecialist machine better value?

yomamasflavour

Raw performance wise you can get a better laptop from pcspecialists.co.uk but considering it's going to be used purely for cad / computing I would have thought accuracy and precision would be the most important factors?

If I was buying a new workstation type I'd probably be considering something like
m6700
- i7-3740QM (2.70GHz)
- K3000M (2GB)
- 256GB SSD (€145 - €120ex vat (amazon regularly have deals - board.ie bargain alerts))
- 500GB Hard drive (Dell m6700 standard)
- 16GB DDR3 Ram (can buy from the likes of crucial for €60-70)
Dell cost €1699 ex-vat + €170 for ssd and ram
- €1770 ex vat with 3yr NBD warranty.

Vs
- i7-3740QM (2.70GHz)
- 7970m (2GB)
- 240GB SSD
- 500GB HDD
- 16GB DDR3 Ram
Pcspecialists cost £1300 ex-vat
- ~ €1650 - 1700 ex-vat with 2yr (parts and repair, but you pay to ship it back)

brianwalshcork

It's probably also worth checking the Software vendor's, (especially PTC/) , support requirements also.

They may not provide supported drivers for graphics cards that aren't on their recommended hardware list. You'll be fairly certain that the Dell precisions are on there. This won't be an issue until you have a problem and you contact software support - thierry favourite get out of jail card is if your running on an unsupported hardware.

For peace of minc this is worth a small premium.

Brian