AutoCAD on a laptop?

This is what we have as our work laptops. We run AutoCAD, Pro-E, etc...

http://www.dell.com/us/en/business/notebooks/precision-m6500/pd.aspx?refid=precision-m6500&s=bsd&cs=04

 

We use Solid Edge and I have a copy on my laptop and it works just fine. It isn't as fast as on a high powered computer so you need to think a bit about what type of modeling you are doing and do the complex models on a coumputer that has more power.

If you have to have a laptop if you get one that is really powerful you it can be adequate, but I really prefer to use two screens so that I can have a spreadsheet to do calculations on in the other screen. One of my part time employees uses a high powered laptop and it works for him he has a Sony Viao but it's maxed up on memory and video capability.

Also depends on the program you are using, some are more video and memory dependent than others and they will bog down the machine.

 

Core i5 at minimum... and preferably at least 4 gb of ram for a design student. You can run the current software on an older computer, but after 4 years, it will feel its age. I'd also recommend replacing the hard drive proactively after only two years. A good sized tablet at least is also something that would be a good purchase.

 

My computer doesn't LIKE that link.....malware loading.....it's for a Dell 6500.

Laptop really don't have the staying power for AutoCad 2011 and then the BIM software Navisworks, in my experience, allthough I have one Dell and two HPs in my department.

We are moving back to desktops as these all fail, which as noted they WILL as it's hard on components.

Also hate to say you might as well buy the quality large monitor, or she'll go blind......happily my guys all trundled off and got flat screen tvs and are happy.
With the price wars $400 buys a lot in that market these days....

HTH......good luck to her!

 

Hmmm....it loaded okay that time, the Dell.....

 

HP has the fastest laptop hardware that I knew of last year, and it is not as pricy as the others. I am an architect in CA and my employees use it with 2008 AutoCad. We use 2011 in our office now and I have not heard of anyone using it on the laptop yet. I don' think any laptop will be favorable to Revit and Autocad operating at the same time which is required now and why so much hardware is required. Hope I helped.
Darryl

 

Running Catia V5, Autocad 2008, Solidworks, Ansys, and several other CAE/CAD programs on my Toshiba Satellite and have no issues whatever with the programs crashing but I reccommend running as much DRAM as your machine can hold... I'm running 4Gigs memory and although the programs run fine... more memory would help.

Hope this helps...

 

To the OP, my question is what version of AutoCAD are you thinking about? Since your Daughter is a Design Student, I'm going to assume that you're talking about the latest version of AutoCAD (2011)? Here's my 2 cents...We run AutoCAD 2010 on a Dell Precision laptop. We're a Dell House. Although bulky it's the only one we've had good results with. Forget trying to get it to work with a Latitude.

The BIGGEST concern you really have to worry about is the video card. Especially for a Design Student that will probably be doing a lot of rendering and such. Choose a video card that will is SUPPORTED by Autodesk. NVIDIA is the brand to stick with, but not all cards are supported. You should check the Autodesk Graphics Hardware List (http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/hc?siteID=123112&id=6711853) If the video card is not listed or supported, don't get it. Try to spec out another card or look for another brand of laptop.

All processors available today are overkill. By that I mean, Autodesk only uses a single processor. In this day and age, Autodesk has not been able to get their software to take advantage of Dual or Quad processors. I'm speaking of ONLY AutoCAD. I don't know about Revit. So if you spend the money on Quad Processor, you will not be able to take full advantage of it.

Laptop memory I would recommend the most you can get. Since the processor is limited, RAM will be your BEST friend. So a minimum of 8GB would be ideal, 12 GB would be better (if you can afford it).

Hope this helps?

Bill P.

 

f1_nix,

Sorry for my late response. I didn't realize you already found a laptop. I'm glad you found something that will work for her!

Hopefully the info I posted might help someone else.

Bill P.