What Laptop to get?

[Monkey11]

Hello,
I am looking for some input regarding laptops and SolidWorks. I am currently looking to get a laptop, preferably a Dell something or other. While I would like to get the M60 it is out of my budget range and for the most part I will only be running SolidWorks once or twice a week on it when I have some work that I need to do at home. The laptops that I have seen that are in my price range are either running the ATI Radeon or the NVidia GForce video card. I looked at the SolidWorks website and they seem to have issues with both but how bad are they I do not know, hopefully somebody does and can help out. If anybody has any suggestions on a laptop that would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[MadMango]

Check out these prior threads.

thread559-60484
thread559-64831

"But what... is it good for?"
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[gerard1]

I have used a Dell 8600 and Latitude D600 for sw2004,both of these have mob radeon cards {9600 pro for 8600 and 9000 for D600}.
Both have issues with swx,i have spent many hours loading various drivers on and off my systems to try and get rid of the disappearing lines,no refresh,strange visual effects syndrome that is apparent with these GPU's.
The best driver i have found for both of them is Omega driver 2530 which seems to give little or no problems.
However,I do not work with anything larger than 50mb so this may not work in your case,you could always frustrate yourself by using the software openGL option ,but my experience with doing this is that unless it is an extremely simple part/assy,rotating the part becomes so jerky that it is unusable.
I've learned my lesson the expensive way,save a little longer or borrow the money and buy the M60,mine should be here in about a weeks time.

 

[SBaugh]

To save you some hair and or keep it from going gray - Get a Dell M60 or the older but still powerful M50 - How much longer the M50 will last I'm not sure, but the M60 is worth it.

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

For all Newbie's - Welcome to the nerd herd!

faq731-376

 

[Monkey11]

Has anyone here purchased from the Dell Outlet. It seems that good deals can be had though I am curious about the equipment.

 

[SBaugh]

We had an AE purchase an M60 from Ebay and it's been a great system for him.

Not sure what the outlet is but I don't see why it would be a bad thing??

Regards,

Scott Baugh, CSWP

http://www.3dvisiontech.com

http://www.scottjbaugh.com

For all Newbie's - Welcome to the nerd herd!

faq731-376

 

[MadMango]

I have been told that the Dell M50 is also known as the Dell "C840". I did a quick search on eBay, and compared specs. They seem awfully similiar. Anyone have any expereince with these C840's?

[blue]"But what... is it good for?"[/blue]
Engineer at the Advanced Computing Systems Division of IBM, 1968, commenting on the microchip.
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[DanielGraham]

I would advise only a M60. SW likes new video cards and drivers....an M60 and the FX1000 card should be current for quite some time. Highly recommended. I did buy mine new off of Ebay for a good price

 

[jacbal]

I'm using a M60 and SW 2003/2004/2005 since a year now : great performances , great Laptop. Just 1 complain: the 40GB hard drive is slow (5400 RPM), the 60GB at 7200 RPM should be your choice.

M60/Pentium M 1.7GH/512 MB/NVIDIA® Quadro FX Go700/128MB / WUXGA display (1900x1200 wonderfull)

 

[MattP]

I ordered a refurbished M50 from the Dell Outlet. Works great for what I do and I saved a bit of cash by not buying a new M60. You would never know that it was a refurb and it came with a pretty good warranty (Next day parts and labor). That may be a good avenue to check.

 

[DanielGraham]

On the subject of harddrive, jacbal, you are right, the 7200 rpm makes a huge difference.


p.s. Dell has deals on these every once in a while. I saw them (60GB 7200rpm) selling new on Dell.com for about $130 the other day. Would make a good upgrade for your machine.

 

[Monkey11]

Thanks for all your help. I ended up getting an M60 from the Dell Outlet for quite a bit less than a new compararably equipped machine. Nice machine so far.