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Advice on a Laptop for Heavy Architectural Rending.

D

Draez

Junior Member
Looking for a laptop that can handle the following the programs:

  • 3DS max
  • Autocad
  • Sketchup
  • REVIT
  • Photoshop
  • illustrator
  • Vray
  • keryThea
Will be using for heavy graphic rending. Architectural Design work. So need a laptop with a very good processor and a top of the line Graphics card. Need at least 750GB of space.

My Budget: $1000-$1500

I was looking at this laptop

Any suggestions would be great. Thanks
 
If you're wanting to carry it around, 15.6" is a lot more portable than 17". The screen will be 1080p either way, so you don't really gain any extra real estate from the bigger screen, it's just heavier, and harder to fit into a backpack.

I have a Clevo P150EM and I love it. 15", good options for either glossy or matte 95% gamut screens (upgrade is worth it, much nicer than the default screens). From here, it's a touch under $1400 with the screen upgrade, an upgrade to Intel Ultimate N 6300 wifi (well worth the money) and your choice of windows 7 or 8. If you're spending that much, I'd recommend getting a SSD as well - it'll take a mSATA drive as well as the hard disk/dvd drive.

The other option is to go for a proper workstation laptop - Dell Precision or a Lenovo W530. You'll spend more (and get less graphics horsepower), but they tend to be much nicer laptops in general - better built, better keyboards, etc; and I've heard good things about thinkpad support in the US.
 
"Will be using for heavy graphic rending. Architectural Design work. So need a laptop with a very good processor and a top of the line Graphics card. Need at least 750GB of space.

My Budget: $1000-$1500"

That... isn't going to happen. Use $1100 to build a top of the line desktop with a lot more power than any laptop then use the remaining $400 to get a laptop with low power hardware and good battery life and use something like VNC to control the desktop system from the laptop system for the computation heavy stuff (eg 3DS Max) and run the stuff that requires fast input (photoshop) locally on the laptop.
 
can you get a mx18 for 1500? I know we've got a bunch of users who use the w520 for 3ds, I would get a thinkpad maybe a w530 or w540 when it arrives. The great thing about the thinkpad is there are so many professionals that use it any non hardware problem is solved by the large community.

These guys figured out why 3ds wasn't running properly.

http://forums.lenovo.com/t5/W-Series-ThinkPad-Laptops/w520-3dsmax-certified/td-p/624545

Having used toshiba tecra and dell latitudes for business, the toshiba forums isn't as active and the Dell forums doesn't seem as technical. The thinkpad forum users are really sharp, some making bios to improve sata and whitelist to use non lenovo hardware.
 
Have you made sure the software you listed is compatible with Windows 8?

Oh, and whatever you decide on, I would highly recommend an SSD for your purposes. That might involve getting a laptop around $200 under budget and buying the SSD separately.
 
If the screen quality matters, you only have one choice as far as I'm concerned... the Samsung 15.6" Series 7 Chronos with the PLS screen. Otherwise you'd have to get a "workstation" laptop with a dim grainy antiglare IPS screen, or an even worse consumer laptop with a TN one.

Are you sure you need a top of the line graphics card for architectural rendering?

Or do you need a Quadro or FirePro? If so, you only have a few options and it will have one of those awful screens.
 
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