FASTdan
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 10:24 AM |
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Laptop for 3D CAD
I know there's a few CAD users on here so thought it was worth asking the question.....
Looking to spend £500-600 on a laptop - not proper workstation money, but I'm not looking to run big models at all. Software will be inventor,
mostly parametric parts, small assemblies and drawing work.
What should I be looking for in terms of spec (graphics, RAM, processor etc)? Of course usually the more the better, but whats my priorities? I am not
very hardware-literate at all so I could do with all the help I can get. Manufacturer recommendations?
Had considered the refurbished route which would allow me to get a more capable machine, but its always going to be a gamble.
Whenever I try and reasearch cad laptops on google I just end up seeing £2k machines which are way above my range 
[Edited on 20/7/11 by FASTdan]
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MK9R
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 10:40 AM |
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Get something that designed for gaming, it should have the best graphics card in it. Get one with a seperate graphics card, not itegrated. Get plenty
of Ram too, 2gb+. I have just bought a Dell XPS laptop with Nvidea card in it. I use CAD all day long at work and our software needs the best cards
you can get, and a rake of ram, our desktops are about 2.5-3k each the laptops are more. But my £700 Dell will run it ok as long as i dont want to do
the big stuff.
Cheers Austen
RGB car number 9
www.austengreenway.co.uk
www.automatedtechnologygroup.co.uk
www.trackace.co.uk
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Kwik
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 10:46 AM |
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should easily get a 3gb+ 250gb storage with dedicated graphics.
i have a toshiba thing that was bought a few years ago, i ran solidworks on it no problem and was under £500 when new.
ram, processor and graphics are the main thing, storage can be upgraded using an external hard drive if you have to...
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phelpsa
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 10:47 AM |
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Something like this could do the job, a friend of mine runs the previous model with Solid Edge / Solid Works and it only struggles when you get really
big:
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-l702x/pd
I run a Dell XPS desktop and a 5 year old Dell Latitude laptop and never had any problems.
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UncleFista
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 11:04 AM |
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Dunno whether this one is any good for your purposes, but it has plenty of RAM and a seperate gfx card..
It's on offer at Argos Down from £630 to £400
here
Tony Bond / UncleFista
Love is like a snowmobile, speeding across the frozen tundra.
Which suddenly flips, pinning you underneath.
At night the ice-weasels come...
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Doctor Derek Doctors
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| posted on 20/7/11 at 01:05 PM |
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I wouldn't (and don't) bother with anything new or thats sold for the general public. They're overpriced and laden with bloated
operating systems and other guff.
The best thing to do is buy a refurbed ex-company laptop, they are much fsater and bogged down with so much less bullshit and usually come with XP Pro
as well. Something like an IBM/Lenovo T60.
I currently have a 7 year old IBM T42 ex-company and it still runs all the CAD (CATIA, SW, AutoCAD etc etc) with no problems, I'm going to
upgrade to a T60 soon though purely because the thing is wrecked from being so old (weld spatter on the screen etc etc)
And all this for <£200, spend the other £300 on car bits.
Designer and Supplier of the T89 Designs - Single Seater Locost. Build you own Single Seater Racecar for ~£5k.
Plans and Drawings available, U2U or e-mail for details.
Available Now: The Sports Racer Add-On pack, Build a full bodied Sports Racer for Trackdays, Sprints and Racing.
www.t89.co.uk
www.racecarwings.co.uk
callan@t89.co.uk
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FASTdan
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| posted on 21/7/11 at 06:59 AM |
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Thanks for the replies guys. Some good info.
Derek have you got any sources for such machines? Sub £200 is appealing, I've not seen much in that range!
***edited to say, a few on ebay it would seem.....
Also, Dell M90's seem in a similar used price bracket, similar spec etc....
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
NEW danST WEBSITE NOW LIVE! Bike carbs, throttle bodies and more......
http://www.danstengineering.co.uk/
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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shindha
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| posted on 21/7/11 at 08:07 AM |
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There used to be a company called Morgan Computers in Birmingham selling refurbished and some ex company hardware. I don't know if they have a
web presence but certianly worth looking up.
Amazing what google knows:
http://www.morgancomputers.co.uk/
Hope this helps.
[Edited on 21/7/11 by shindha]
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Doctor Derek Doctors
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| posted on 21/7/11 at 01:14 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by FASTdan
Thanks for the replies guys. Some good info.
Derek have you got any sources for such machines? Sub £200 is appealing, I've not seen much in that range!
***edited to say, a few on ebay it would seem.....
Also, Dell M90's seem in a similar used price bracket, similar spec etc....
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
Here you go.
http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/refurbished-ibm-lenovo-laptops/lenovo-ibm-thinkpad-t60-wireless-t2400-core-duo-processor-rated-at-183ghz-3gb-ddr2-mem
ory-60gb-hdd-dvd-ramcdrw-drive-141-lcd-xp-pro.html
Loads of places sell refurbed laptops like this, I'll be upgrading soon and an IBM T60 is what I'll get. A bit more searching will see one
for <£200 as well.
XP Pro is what you want for CAD work as well, it says something when every engineering and CAD place worth its salt is still running XP despite it
being superceded twice now.
Designer and Supplier of the T89 Designs - Single Seater Locost. Build you own Single Seater Racecar for ~£5k.
Plans and Drawings available, U2U or e-mail for details.
Available Now: The Sports Racer Add-On pack, Build a full bodied Sports Racer for Trackdays, Sprints and Racing.
www.t89.co.uk
www.racecarwings.co.uk
callan@t89.co.uk
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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FASTdan
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| posted on 21/7/11 at 03:19 PM |
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quote:
Originally posted by Doctor Derek Doctors
quote:
Originally posted by FASTdan
Thanks for the replies guys. Some good info.
Derek have you got any sources for such machines? Sub £200 is appealing, I've not seen much in that range!
***edited to say, a few on ebay it would seem.....
Also, Dell M90's seem in a similar used price bracket, similar spec etc....
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
[Edited on 21/7/11 by FASTdan]
Here you go.
http://www.thelaptopcentre.co.uk/refurbished-ibm-lenovo-laptops/lenovo-ibm-thinkpad-t60-wireless-t2400-core-duo-processor-rated-at-183ghz-3gb-ddr2-mem
ory-60gb-hdd-dvd-ramcdrw-drive-141-lcd-xp-pro.html
Loads of places sell refurbed laptops like this, I'll be upgrading soon and an IBM T60 is what I'll get. A bit more searching will see one
for <£200 as well.
XP Pro is what you want for CAD work as well, it says something when every engineering and CAD place worth its salt is still running XP despite it
being superceded twice now.
Thanks for the links guys.
We're still on XP at work but imminently changing to windows 7. Our Autodesk support group claim that Inventor on XP 64 can only access 6gb RAM
(despite our machines running 16gb) so interested to hear this about XP?
NEW danST WEBSITE NOW LIVE! Bike carbs, throttle bodies and more......
http://www.danstengineering.co.uk/
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NOTE:This user is registered as a LocostBuilders trader and may offer commercial services to other users
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