Need a laptop for CAD (willing to buy used)

[joanne firus]

Let's cut to the chase...here's what I absolutely need:

• Display resolution bigger than 1366x768
• Dedicated graphics card (preferrably nVidia GTm of some sort)
• A quad-core processor (i5 or i7)
• Within $1000

Everything else is icing on the cake (I've got spare Samsung RAM amounting to 16GB, and a couple of SSDs).

I won't be doing any rendering; but I need decent viewport performance.
I use Autodesk Alias Automotive, Rhino 5, and SolidWorks 2011.

What should I be looking at?

 

[Throckmorton]

No option currently has a good screen unfortunately, except for the Macbooks. Maybe the next generation will.

If you're OK with a screen that displays red as orange, you can get a Sony S series 15.5"

 

[joanne firus]

No option currently has a good screen unfortunately, except for the Macbooks. Maybe the next generation will.

If you're OK with a screen that displays red as orange, you can get a Sony S series 15.5"

Then how about something with a dual-core Intel processor, but still with dedicated graphics and a resolution bigger than 1366x768?

 

[Talaii]

A quad-core processor (i5 or i7)

A mobile i5 processor is NOT a quad-core. Most of the mobile i7s aren't either - anything with qm(pre-haswell) or MQ/HQ (haswell) are - but they use more power than the dual-cores, and so tend to be really big laptops. Not to mention hitting your battery life.

Next, RAM. Is that 16GB two sticks or four? If it's four, you'll need a laptop that has four RAM slots - most don't. As far as I recall, only the quad-core chips support four sticks total - so only the larger laptops with no dual-core options will have four slots.

If you're OK with the above, some of the Clevo laptops meet your requirements and are in your price range (if only just). They are fairly no-frills laptops, and battery life won't be great, but they have the performance. Something like this works out at just under $1k with Windows 8. Their higher-end models have an option for a nicer screen, too (TN still, but better viewing angles/contrast/colour - listed as "95% Matte" or "95% Gloss" on the appropriate models). The MSI gaming laptops are often around $1k as well - exactly the same set of caveats.

 

[khel]

Should check out the Sager NP6652/ Clevo W650R,,, 1920x1080 IPS/FHD 15'6 gtx750 not bad..

You'll probably go a liitle bit over a 1k though.. around 15 or 30 depending which os you choose w8 or w7..

http://www.xoticpc.com/sager-np6652-clevo-w650sr-p-5846.html

pretty much what Talaii said

 

[Sleepingforest]

Lenovo's got a refurbished laptop with an i7-QM, room for at least 2 DIMMs, 1080p screen and a GT 650M for $900. Look in the Outlet, and limit the search down to i7 laptops with dedicated/switchable graphics, a 1080p screen, and order the list by price. It should pop up.