looking for a notebook for CAD work

[ElFenix]

gf's aunt wants a notebook to do architectural/CAD work on. anyone have any experience with CAD and notebooks?

 

[kimagurealex]

video card isn't that important for CAD. So, get a good CPU and Fast harddrive and lots of RAM are what more important.

Alex

 

[roguerower]

Dell Precision M70. That's what i'm getting for college and it has a big screen, Quadro FX Go1400 for the vid card, and all the other good stuff for around $2600.

 

[Octave]

Originally posted by: roguerower
Dell Precision M70. That's what i'm getting for college and it has a big screen, Quadro FX Go1400 for the vid card, and all the other good stuff for around $2600.

Although i agree with you entierely, as thats what we use at work...how in the hell and why in the hell are you getting that for college?
If you want a workstation, get the dell 9300, soup it up with a 6800go and 2100 PM or whatever, 1GB or more ram and you'll have just as much power and the ability to play games somewhat decently. Not to mention a 17in screen.

As for a pure workstation replacement on the go, we use the M70/M60 at work...but with all our options on them, it comes to around 4300 US 🙂

 

[kornphlake]

Originally posted by: kimagurealex
video card isn't that important for CAD. So, get a good CPU and Fast harddrive and lots of RAM are what more important.

Alex

Actually the graphics processor can be just as important or more important than the CPU. What kind of CAD is she doing, 2D in AutoCad, 3D in Catia, photo quality rendering in Solidworks? The software vendor should be the one to ask what kind of hardware you'll need as it varies quite a bit from one software package to the next.

 

[fbrdphreak]

If you need 3D performance (i.e. rendering): Dell M70 or check out HP's options also
2D Performance: anything w/a fast CPU, fast HDD, and lots of RAM (1-2GB)

 

[Gibson486]

I have a 2Ghz laptop with a radeon 9000 and 512 MB of RAM. It has ran every cad program i have thrown at it, so i guess anything will work as long as you are not doing actual 3d rendering.

 

[Mike01]

The Gateway 7426gx is an excellent choice for CAD...if the WXGA resolution is enough for you. It has a A64 3700 processor (2.4GHz, 1MB cache), 1GB or ram, 100GB HD, DL DVD burner and a MR9600 GPU. It costs 1399 at Best Buy (on sale right now) and should be more than enough for any CAD applicatin (provided screen resolution is sufficient...it's been a while since I worked with CAD).

If I remember correctly, the most important factor for CAD is CPU...and the A64 3700 is arguably the most powerful mobile processor available today.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Originally posted by: Mike01
The Gateway 7426gx is an excellent choice for CAD...if the WXGA resolution is enough for you. It has a A64 3700 processor (2.4GHz, 1MB cache), 1GB or ram, 100GB HD, DL DVD burner and a MR9600 GPU. It costs 1399 at Best Buy (on sale right now) and should be more than enough for any CAD applicatin (provided screen resolution is sufficient...it's been a while since I worked with CAD).

If I remember correctly, the most important factor for CAD is CPU...and the A64 3700 is arguably the most powerful mobile processor available today.

:thumbsup: