New Laptop for Designing 7

[MhFitri]

Hi guys,

I would like to ask for opinions for a new laptop to do 3D design and simulation. I know that its better to have a desktop, but i`m currently do now stay at one place to do my job, thus my boss asking me to get a good laptop for myself to get my work done. Below are the specs:

Option 1:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
15.6 FHD (LED)
DRAM DDR4 4G (1 extra ram slot)
SATA 1TB 5400RPM 2.5' HDD + SATA3 128G M.2 SSD
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM


Option 2:
Intel® Core™ i7-6700HQ Processor 2.6 GHz (6M Cache, up to 3.5 GHz)
Windows 10 (64bit)
17.3 FHD(LED)
DRAM DDR3 1600 4G
1TB 5400R SATA
NVIDIA GeForce GTX960M (N16P-GX) with DRAM DDR4 4G VRAM


The price tag is almost the same. Any opinion?

 

[SBaugh]

Geforce Cards are not supported... Check out the SW website for a list of certified PC's and Video cards. PC are found within the list when looking for a video card.

Check out BOXX slim design laptop. The cost used to be around $2500 about 2 years ago. Your going to have to head in the direction of a workstation class PC... if money is an issue check out the Lenovo brand workstation class. They don't have the best performance from what I have seen in the past, but they do offer their laptop workstations at a lesser cost than Dell or Boxx.

Scott Baugh, CSWP
Gryphon Environmental

http://www.2gryphon.com

"If it's not broke, Don't fix it!"

faq731-376

 

[GRF]

I would go with option 1 is the faster machine. It will make a difference on your lager simulations and hopefully you can get the OS on the SSD partition as it will drastically increase your boot times.

Get yourself a docking station and a couple external monitors though as 15" is tough to work on all day when you are in the office. I have a 15" screen and it is ok for working on the road but in the office I would shoot myself. I have two external monitors at my desk and sometimes even with all 3 screens showing information I feel like I need more desktop space.

 

[PatCouture]

You seem to be on a tight budget! If you can only choose from those two options, then I would emphasize the need for the SSD on option 1. It will make the laptop a lot more responsive. Only 4 gig of ram? You need more than this to work with SolidWorks! I don't really know the gaming cards so I can't tell.

As Scott already suggested, I would look into the Lenovo P50s, it's one of the cheapest laptop with a Quadro card in it.

Performance wise I like the Eurocom brand. The Tornado F5 can be nicely configured for around 1700 USD (Including I7-6700K, Quadro M1000M, 8Gig Ram, 128g SSD, 1 TB 7200rpm HDD, Win 10 Pro, FHD Monitor) Of course with more budget you can upgrade the configuration.

Happy shopping.

Patrick

 

[DiegoLGraves]

I'll recommend talking to Xi. They build great products for cad.

 

[MhFitri]

Haha yeah, i`m kinda on a tight budget, plus the laptops that you guys recommend were not in a local store. The one that with quadro cards is also hard to find, unless the cards it self which i prefer to building a desktop. By the way, does graphic card affect the simulation time?

 

[GRF]

Why does it need to be at a store? Easy to order from Lenovo.com. I have been using their workstation laptops for 6 years now and have been pretty happy with them. I think typical cost for us is around $3k with docking station. Nice thing is docking station comes with it's own power supply so you can leave that at your desk and carry the other with you.

I am not sure what affect the graphics card has on flow or stress simulation calculations. I believe it is used I in renderings. I do natural convection simulations of electronic components using flowsimulation and stress simulations using simulation pro. I also create a lot of renderings for our marketing department of our products. I have done this with Lenovo W5xx series workstation laptops with at least 8gb of memory. I would try to get at least 8 if not 16gb of ram. There is nothing worse than having to keep simplify your part geometry to reduce the mesh so you can run a simulation.

 

[AnnaWood]

CAD workstations or laptops are not bought at the local store. Order online and spec out the components needed that are within the budget.

Anna Wood
SW2015 SP5, Windows 7 x64

 

[JMirisola]

As Anna said, you need to order the correct machine online. You're going to want a minimum of 8gb of RAM and an approved graphics card. You'll be wasting money otherwise, not just on the computer but on lost time while you struggle to complete projects.

Jeff Mirisola, CSWE
My Blog

 

[bigbenbob]

1) Don't waste your money on a machine with a GeForce or a Radeon card. These are gamer cards. In certain cases they may have identical hardware as a quadro or an AMD Fire Pro, but the firmware is totally different, designed to reproduce pixels at a huge rate, not designed to calculate geometry from a model. GeForce and Radeons are known crashers to the SW Support team and they will rapidly back off of any support case involving such a card.
2) Only think SSD. Smaller if the budget is limited. Waaay faster than any spinning drive. Spinning drives for 3D CAD work have been outmoded for at least 3 years.
3) I couldn't think about running any Windows 64 bit OS with less than 8 Gb of RAM and not expect to routinely crash my software. I just bought a new laptop workstation and I got 32 GB. It's 2016: get 16 GB minimum, more if you can afford it. You won't regret it. But 4 GB, you'll DEFINITELY regret that. Don't believe me? Check out the SW system requirements site, which lists MINIMUM requirements:

http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html

3) If your budget is limited, then don't throw away your precious money on a substandard machine. Yes, Lenovos can be a good deal. Just make sure you are getting one of the above mentioned graphics card series. Dell Precision and HP Elitebooks are fine machines for SW. If your budget will not permit a new one, look on the Dell factory outlet or chase down a used one on ebay. Something like a used HP Elitebook 8770W or a Dell M6800/M4800 would work fine and be current for the next 2-3 years.

 

[Sparweb]

Interesting. I just bought a system much like your Option #1, with the Geforce. For my son. To game on.

STF

 

[PatCouture]

Bigbenbob explained very well what's important.

For the price I'm a big fan of Eurocom. Go to

http://www.eurocom.com

look for the Tornado F5 in Super Gaming Laptops and you can configure it as you want depending on your budget. The cheapest configuration I would be willing to buy goes like this: Quadro M1000m, Intel Core i7-6700, 8GB ram, Windows 10 Pro, 120GB, M.2 Samsung 850 EVO SSD. They are fully configurable and upgradable so a year or two from now you can easily add more RAM and another SSD for your files instead of the standard 1TB HDD.

Patrick

 

[ThirdString]

I'm running a Lenovo W530 that I upgraded to SSD and 16GB memory and Solidworks doesn't have any problems. I haven't done much simulation on it though. The SSD is a MUST, no matter what laptop you choose. Get the basic P50s with Quadro M500M for US$825. (MAYBE upgrade to the i7 for US$40, I don't know the performance difference.) An extra US$120 gets you a 480GB SSD, and US$80 gets you 16GB memory. (Lenovo's price is much higher, of course.) As long as you can do the install yourself, you have a nice system for US$1000.