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Laptop for 3d work - Architect

C

cHedYIR

Junior Member
My father is looking for a new laptop, so he has asked me for some help but my knowledge on this matter is limited.

He's looking for a very powerful laptop and there's a price limitation at 25000 Danish kroner. He's going to be using it for his work in China where he runs his own architecture-business(primarily for drawing in autocad).

So he's basically asking for the best laptop on the market. He won't be getting a stationary as he needs to be able to carry it with him on business trips. There are no preferences when it comes to brands.

Any advice? 😀 I'm guessing quadcore and gtx 280 or something would be best?

 
Once you get past the specs for the machine, there are reasons to consider the brand.
My personal experiences with HP/Compaq's tech support for my laptops and my friends' machines has been great. For example, on my recommendation, my neighbor bought this HP dv7-1232nr on sale from Staples. When he tried to burn the Recovery Disk set, the burn failed. That's when I told him he would find out why I recommended HP.

He phoned their toll free tech support line, and the tech said he would send him a copy of the disk set. They shipped it FedEx overnight, and they phoned the next day to confirm it had arrived.

They've been equally helpful when I needed help with my current Compaq laptop, and they even helped me through their support chat system at no charge for my previous Compaq machine well after it was out of warranty.

I've also had good tech support responses when helping friend with his Fujitsu laptop, although their site is a little more difficult to navigate.

When I've tried to help friends with Gateway machines, I found that you won't get that kind of help from them. The FIRST thing they want to do is sell you a service contract. :thumbsdown:

Lenovo is reputed to have one of the strongest builds of laptops, but I've never had one or had to deal with their support people.

I don't know how things work in Denmark, but you may want to check your friends' about their experiences.
 
Just make sure you don't get a laptop without a dedicated graphics card, and no single core. Aside from those two you should be OK, do you know of any retailers that ship to Denmark or wherever you are?

This is a godly notebook and I think in your price range.

http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/s...figurator.aspx?mid=427

I don't know how battery life is >_>. Or if they ship to where you are.
 
Originally posted by: F1N3ST

Just make sure you don't get a laptop without a dedicated graphics card, and no single core.
Click to expand...

You can overcome at least some of the limitations of shared memory video by simply adding enough RAM to cover the video tasks and still leave enough free to run heavy apps. For example, I'm running XP Pro on my more modestly priced machine with 4 GB of RAM.

The OS sees only 3+ GB, but most of the other GB is available to the video sub-system, and it "sees" all 4 GB in the BIOS. You know the machine uses at least some of the RAM independent of the OS because you see the BIOS at startup before it ever knows there's a hard drive, let alone a 32 bit OS.
 
"chuckles" im not use to this hole "thread" thing. 😉 the link you posted .. Its looks like an insanely great computer if you choose to spend the entire amount available, and then there is the issues (shipping, taxes, customs) other money expenses witch will become a total far greater than originally planned
 
Something to consider on the video card end (and the separate card is A MUST) is what version of AutoCAD/Architecture will he be using? 2007 and prior were more designed with OpenGL in mind (which would mean a quadro type card which is expensive). 2008 began the transition to DirectX with each preceeding release more in tune with DirectX. Present versions are 2010 versions.

And whereas multicore will help out if you render on it, the last I heard AutoCAD wasn't overly mulithreaded. It's foolish to not get multicore still, but don't expect huge benefits from it while editing.
 
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