Recommend me a laptop

jamesman32

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2009
Messages
427
I've got about $1000-1300 to spend on a laptop. This will serve as a desktop replacement, as well as being carried around daily. I'd like something with a 15-17" screen, as I have a 22" monitor for when I'm home. The lappy needs to be good for CAD work, labview, virtual machine, and games such as COD4, TF2, CSS, HL2, L4D, etc. OS doesn't matter, I'll be installing Vista 64. Resolution doesn't matter too much, but the higher the better. Dedicated graphics is probably a must, as with a high end dual core, and 4 GB of ram. As for HDD space, I don't need much more than about 300 GB I think. Any suggestions?
 
For Solidworks I highly suggest a professional video solution, (i.e. Nvidia Quadro or ATI Fire GL), a gaming card (i.e. Nvidia Geforce or ATI Radeon) is simply inadequate. Given this, I highly suggest a Lenovo W series laptop, they are a bit on the costly side, but you get what you pay for. I have had multiple Lenovo laptops and they have never let me down. My latest purchase was a Lenovo T61p. I paid around $1400, 15.4" widescreen, 1920*1200 rez, Nvidia Quadro video card, 4 GB ram, yada yada yada. You can find them brand new still from Lenovo on their factory outlet site, or from an authorized dealer on Ebay. I'm still watching this thread so any questions you have I'll be able to answer.
 
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My 8800GTX gave me 1 FPS with Solidworks 2007-2009 until I soft modded it. The thing with gaming cards is that it is a crapshoot if it will work with solidworks. Now if you are set on using "real view", you will have to use an OpenGl type card.

The last GeForce that can be soft modded into a Quadro is the 6800s, with newer cards, you can change the name in Windows but you can't unlock the professional capabilities anymore. I have one of those 6800 Ultra and my HD 3870 just blows it away in Catia.
 
Yeah, in my desktop I have (4) 3870's, and I've put the FireGl bios on all of them. They're insane for CAD work, but this laptop will be for robotics, so I need to carry it around to meetings and competitions.
 
...(4) 3870's...They're insane for CAD work...

I bet they are. Get yourself a laptop with a Quadro or FireGl card. That will be your best bet for CAD work. They will also play games, of course not as well as a gaming card, but not bad at all. I loose about 10 frames playing games on my softmodded 8800GTX. Lenovo has their T61p and W series laptops, and HP has some workstation laptops as well, I think they are also W series as well. If you get a 15.4" screen, go with 1680*1050 rez, 1920*1200 is almost a waste, I got it for the wow factor.
 
I just picked up a Dell Precision M6400. A pretty sweet machine and could easily handle everything you have specified.....a bit outside your budget tho. But if you are looking for a machine that is great for solidworks and CAD then you cant go wrong with a Quadro or FireGL as mentioned above. But be prepared to pay for it!
 
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