Advice on Lappy to Run Cad Software

[Bahelion]

I have a small business doing cad for others. I have thought about the ability to be able to take files right to customers for review. That way I could do any changes on the spot. It is not cheap to keep running to a place with a plotter to print hardcopy and there is alot of wasted time. A plotter is in the works, but would still like this option.

What I need is good advice from thoughs of you who use the lappy for this type of purpose. Brand/processor type is not a personal issue. I need reliability and a cut through the marketing ____!

Most of my customers do not have cad workstations.

 

[Bahelion]

Sorry I forgot.....Autocad 2000 and or SolidWorks

 

[Howard]

Basically all you'd need is a big screen and lots of RAM.

comes out to $1400 with 384MB SDRAM

 

[Howard]

BTW you won't have any troubles with them, even if they do work for Christ.

They have a 7.0/7.0 rating at Reseller Ratings.

 

[Bahelion]

I appreciate the quick response Yucky and the link. Do you own one similar? Does it fit the bill?

Anyone else?

 

[Utterman]

Well since you are doing CAD work, you may want to look into a laptop running a video card that has CAD support. ATI just released their Fire GL 7800. It would be a great card to have in a laptop for CAD work. I'm not exactly sure of any systems using this card right now, but it may be something to look at. Info about this card can be found at http://www.ati.com/na/pages/technology/hardware/mobility_firegl_7800/index.html.

 

[Mingon]

I would go for a laptop which has both the athlon 4 and a geforce 2 go, this will probably be a cheaper option but will be a quite powerful performer as the nvdia cards have good opengl performance and the athlons FPU is bery strong.

 

[xyyz]

dell has a new laptop series... that incorporates the Geforce2go quadro.... i think it has a 15.4" TFT too... this system is geared towards cad... well I think that's one of the bullet points...

this is one decked out SOB... but it runs about 4g's

precision series

 

[andrey]

I'm using Dell Inspiron 8100 (15" UXGA) for both SolidWorks and ProEngineer and haven't had any problems at all.

The way today's CAD programs are designed is that they will work mostly on any video card and there is no need in my opinion to spend extra $2000 - $3000 for just a video card which has AutoCAD label on it. As long you have 32Mb video card, decent screen (15" or so) and enough RAM (512Mb + ), you should be okay.

 

[LuckyTaxi]

<< Basically all you'd need is a big screen and lots of RAM.

comes out to $1400 with 384MB SDRAM >>

 

[Bahelion]

I would like to thank all members who took the time to help with some advice. It is most humbly appreciated.