Need laptop recommendations 1

[Philrock]

My Fujitsu C2310 laptop has died, and I'm in the market for a new laptop, and looking for recommendations. The Fujitsu was under-powered for what I'm doing, which includes SolidWorks 2001 Plus, AutoCad, Excel, MS Word, web browser, and email client - sometimes all at the same time.

I'm debating whether or not to make the new laptop my main computer. If I did this, I would hook up external keyboard, trackball, and TWO external monitors. If I can't find a laptop that can handle two external monitors, this will just be my home and travel machine. In this case, I'm not real concerned about blinding speed, but I don't want it to choke on solving mates in small to medium sized SolidWorks assembly models.

I might upgrade from SolidWorks 2001 Plus to 2010.

I'm inclined to go with Windows XP, unless someone twists my arm convincingly in some other direction.

Dell seems to be popular in the engineering community, but I've seen some scathing reviews of some of their "mobile workstations". In fact, those bad reviews were on the Dell web site.

Suggestions? Recommendations?

 

[ctopher]

faq559-1447
faq559-986

Also search the threads here, there has been other discussions on this topic.
I would go with Vista 64 bit. The XP OS will be obsolete soon and not supported by SW after the 2010 version.

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

You will notice a huge difference between 2001+ and 2010 in both appearance and computer resource requirements. You may also have some "sticker shock" regarding the upgrade cost.

Laptop specs depends on how full your wallet is.

Skip Vista and go direct to Win7. Whether you need a 64 bit system depends on your models and assys complexity and size. However, a similarly spec's x64 system will cost as much as an x32 system, but will be more scaleable due to added RAM capacity.

 

[msquared48]

Sorry, but I didn't get her name.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[ctopher]

??

Chris
SolidWorks 09 SP4.1
ctopher's home
SolidWorks Legion

 

[msquared48]

Nevermind.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[Theophilus]

If you can tolerate a bit of working-out of bugs, I'd recommend running Windows 7, 64-bit as well. Along with the improvements to interface and functionality, newer editions of SolidWorks require ever-more amounts of RAM for the same assembly size. The 64-bit system will allow you to use much more.

I'm no fan of Dell, by personal experience. Lots of people use Dell and like them, but lots of people have never used anything else, either, so you might want to look at places such as cadalyst.com for some comparative benchmarks.

Early in the year I used a 64-bit HP laptop and was quite impressed with the speed and quality. Remember the reputation of a given company always follows its true product quality.



Jeff Mowry

http://www.industrialdesignhaus.com

A people governed by fear cannot value freedom.

 

[m1mason]

Make sure that you choose an OpenGL professional Video card when buying your laptop. Stay away from Geforce or Radeon as they are for Gaming. Look for Quadro or ATI GL series. NVS from Nvidia is no good either. it;s many for 2D.

MTM
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[RawheadRex]

Nothing against Windows 7 but unless you're sure that you'll be upgrading to SW2010 there's no guarantee that you'll be able to run SW2001+ on that OS. I'm not sure about Vista either. What OS are/were you running on? Hate to see you spend money and not be able to run your version of SolidWorks on the newer OS.

Best regards,


Chris Gervais
Application Engineer
CSWP, CSWST

 

[MadMango]

If you make a jump to a 64-bit system you will not be able to run SW01+, 100% guaranteed. If you upgrade to a 64-bit system for the greater memory (which is nice) you will have to get a 64-bit version of SW. I don't know how ACAD will run on a 64-bit system.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of these Forums?

 

[m1mason]

ACAD does run fine on my XP64 Bit. I can't comment on Win 7.

MTM
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[Philrock]

CorBlimeyLimey, you're right about sticker shock - holy mackerel!

RawheadRex, I'm on Win XP SP 3.

Everyone else - thanks very much for your posts.