New Laptop PC Questions

[leeave96]

New Laptop PC Questions

Considering getting a new laptop. I don't want the best of the best or the worst of the worst - something down the middle.

It would be nice to have as large monitor as possible.

Any recommendations?

On another note, anyone using their laptop on site? In other words, taking the laptop to a job site - like out on the manufacturing floor, etc and taking measurements and entering them into Alibre there - rather than making sketches, back to the office and modeling in the office?

My only concern with on site CAD work is having dust and dirt getting into the pc or dropping it - you know the kind of stuff that happens outside of the office.

How would the laptop you recommend fit into the above environment?

Thanks!
Bill

 

[Mibe]

If you want a real tough one, go for this:
http://www.gobookmax.com/

 

[steved]

Laptop

Hi Bill

I use an Acer Aspire 1714Smi laptop this has a 17 inch regular format monitor with a 3.4 GB processor, 1GB RAM a 128GB dedicated graphics card.

This setup works great for running Alibre, but I dont think I would want to drop it even though it is well insured.

Cheers

Steve

 

[macinc]

Although I am not a big fan of Compaq (some products are "hit or miss" quality, their service really sucks) I have had good luck with my Presario X1030US. It is a Pentium M 1.4 with the ram raised to 1 gig. The 32 meg of vram is dedicated. I REALLY like the Pentium M for battery life and is ok in AD for site stuff like sketches and such. I have to note that although it is not to speedy sometimes with AD, it does not hang or crash, it is very stable. The Centrino works good as does the IR port with my cell phone. It has a slot for the SD card that my camara uses which is convenient also. It goes into manufacturing plants with me and gets dirty but so far no problems.

Specs:
http://reviews.cnet.com/Compaq_Presario ... ml?tag=tab

It cost me $1k new about 1-1/2 years ago, you can probably get something a little faster now for the same $$.
Stay away from Celerons, Semprons (too slow), and think twice about Pentium 4. While P4 is a better cpu for CAD than a Pentium M, the P4 drains the battery fast and makes a lot of heat. It all depends on what type of designing you will do with the laptop. Also, dedicated video memory is better , and put as much RAM as you can into it.

 

[bscott.arc-tech.com]

Re: New Laptop PC Questions

I don't want the best of the best or the worst of the worst - something down the middle. It would be nice to have as large monitor as possible.

I'm afraid those are two conflicting goals. The display is generally the single most expensive component in a laptop, so the bigger the display, the higher on the overall scale you go.

If a laptop will be spending most of it's time on a desk, a common technique is to use a docking station with a large CRT or LCD. When docked, you get all the benefits of a large screen. Undocked, you give up screen size for mobility.

Any recommendations?

As of late, I've had the best luck with Dell. In the past, I've also liked Toshiba's portables, but haven't looked at them recently.

Dell offers their "Mobile Precision" line for OpenGL certification with big-name CAD vendors. As Alibre uses DirectX instead of OpenGL, the compatability picture is fuzzy for Alibre Design. If you also use, say, SolidWorks or AutoCAD, the certifications will matter more. If you only use Alibre Design, I'd say the Mobile Precision line maybe isn't worth it.

My only concern with on site CAD work is having dust and dirt getting into the pc or dropping it - you know the kind of stuff that happens outside of the office.

I always recommend getting "accidental damage protection" -- your vendor may call it something else. This is your basic "You break it, they fix it" plan. Given the amount of abuse laptops take in the field, this is rarely a bad idea.

For true abuse resistance, I like the Panasonic ToughBook line. Expensive, but very rugged.
http://www.panasonic.com/toughbook/

Regardless of how good or bad your laptop is, BACKUP OFTEN.

Hope this helps,

 

[jwknecht]

One that is affordable, fast, widescreen but heavy: Gateway® 7510GX Notebook. This seems to be the latest of the series that I bought (at the time it was emachines ... I have M6805). This is listed retail for just under $1400, but I have seen it at Best Buy for about $1100. It is not good for travel (heavy and poor battery life), does not have good support, but it is fast and inexpensive. Mine is still running fine (it is still smoking fast for what I do).

My second notebook was a lot more money (the day job paid for it). It is an IBM Thinkpad. The battery life on it is great, it is thin and light, great for travel, excellent support, but not as fast and the screen not as wide. These retail closer to $2k.

I run Alibre on both.