Need some insight on laptop purchase

[U.S. Patriot]

I'm going to get a laptop mostly for running AutoCAD, and school in general. I have 0 experience with laptops in general. Basically wanting to know what brands are good, and what to stay away from.

 

[Suprtek]

Dells rock IMO. I've had a couple of them and they hold up great bouncing around in my work truck all the time. They also have decent support should you need it. I'm not a mac person but I've heard they are the bomb when it comes to any kind of graphics applications.

 

[eldirector]

We have used Dell for years. Fairly dependable, and good support. I'm not too familiar with other venders.

If you want to drop some coin, look at AlienWare. Currently owned by Dell, but they are the "high end" brand. Not cheap, but they will blow anything else out of the water. Backed by Dell's support folks as well.

For AutoCad, I'd max out the RAM. Heck, I always get the max. That seems to be the bottleneck on about everything.

 

[spasmo]

I've never owned a Mac but Autocad was just released for the Mac this year so it will run directly on the OS now. I don't know what kind of problems there are or if there are any with it. I know Macs are great for graphic software so this may be a good thing for you.

Now, I have owned laptops and I prefer Dell over anything. I've owned Dell PCs and laptops now for years. You need to make sure you have a fast processor and LOTS of memory. I can't stress the memory enough. Max it out if you can.

I have a 17" laptop and it's actually kind of big to be lugging around. I like the big screen but it's heavy and large to be carrying around all day. I carry it in a backpack. So you might want to stick with the 15" if you'll be carrying it a lot.

I think the most memory you can get out of a 15" dell laptop is 8GB. You can get 6GB for less than $1K but if you go up to 8Gb, then it'll be around $1500. They have 17" models though that can support 16+GB (which are expensive though and cost around 2K). You may be able to get a better deal with a student discount though.

 

[sepe]

I'm going to get a laptop mostly for running AutoCAD, and school in general. I have 0 experience with laptops in general. Basically wanting to know what brands are good, and what to stay away from.

Do you have a price range and how urgent is the purchase? You should be able to find something pretty cheap that will work just fine. If you want to spend more and get something nice and pretty light, Samsung is putting out a new laptop October 2nd (one 15.6" model has the same or better specs than the 15" MacBook Pro and also comes in at $700-900 cheaper). It is all about what you think you need vs. what you actually need.

 

[Mr Evilwrench]

Is there a reason it needs to be a laptop? I've always found a desktop to be better suited for CAD. You want a hot graphics card and as much RAM as you can shoehorn in. It may not be so bad now, as all the pointing devices are running USB, but a good mouse is the bare minimum. The last Dell I bought was in 1987. Not that there's anything wrong with them now, but they use a non-standard pinout on the power supply, so if you try to change either that or the motherboard, you let the smoke out.

 

[Bunnykid68]

Averatec has always served me well.
I think the most important thing with any laptop is cooling. If you are going to be on it for long hours I would suggest a laptop cooling pad.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

Is there a reason it needs to be a laptop? I've always found a desktop to be better suited for CAD. You want a hot graphics card and as much RAM as you can shoehorn in. It may not be so bad now, as all the pointing devices are running USB, but a good mouse is the bare minimum. The last Dell I bought was in 1987. Not that there's anything wrong with them now, but they use a non-standard pinout on the power supply, so if you try to change either that or the motherboard, you let the smoke out.

The issue is that currently I can only do my drawings at home. I have to housesit my Moms house next week and I need to be able to do my drawings over there. I got a free student version of CAD and I can only install it on one computer, my home computer. So, besides a laptop I have to get the program also. My Moms computer does not have powerful enough graphics to run CAD. I need something with duo core processors, at least 4 gigs of ram, and dedicated graphics.

 

[redneckmedic]

There is a great buy from a trust worthy feller in the classified section, ask him about its abilities.

https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/non_firearms_related/168071-netbook_asus_eee_pc_1201n.html

 

[Doty]

A Mac would be nice to have but you should worry more about the specs then the name. There are several brands (Dell, HP, Toshiba, Sony, etc) that would be good to have but you do want the best RAM with a fairly decent processor as well. Maybe an i5.

 

[Indy_Guy_77]

If you MUST have a laptop...

Then buy quality and, as said above, MAX out the RAM. And if you can at all upgrade video on a laptop, do that, too.

Lenovo...Sony...Toshiba...

-J-

 

[snowrs]

I could not imagine doing my drawings on a laptop. The screen is aay to small. To run ACad efficiently I have found I need 2 monitors one being at least 24". 4 gig of ram will be ok just don't multi task. The home video cards are also not optimized for cad rendering and can be painful and cause Artifacting

 

[spasmo]

The issue is that currently I can only do my drawings at home. I have to housesit my Moms house next week and I need to be able to do my drawings over there. I got a free student version of CAD and I can only install it on one computer, my home computer. So, besides a laptop I have to get the program also. My Moms computer does not have powerful enough graphics to run CAD. I need something with duo core processors, at least 4 gigs of ram, and dedicated graphics.

hehehehe... You should have stated that last part in your initial post. hehehe

Dell is my preferred computer although I wouldn't mind trying alienware out.

 

[Amattern]

I just got a macbook pro that I'm using for college and it meets all your criteria. I had an HP for years and after using my mac ill never go back.

 

[Double T]

Mac us actually used a lot for graphics. PC's not so much.

That being said, CS5 runs great on my PC (Quad Core, 5GB RAM)

Laptops get hot REALLY fast, so perhaps buy a tower and a smallish monitor to go with you, I had a laptop...and will never again have one due to the overheating issues from graphics tasks.

PS: Dell's are notorious for overheating and fans crapping out.

 

[spasmo]

I run CS5 on both my Dell laptop and Dell PC. I could use more memory in both since I tend to have a couple of applications open at once. I have yet to have an over heating problem on either of them. I do not even have a cooling unit for my laptop to sit on. It usually is just sitting in my lap (but my legs get warm). The only problem I have had is on my laptop and they had to replace the battery and while they were at it, they went ahead and changed the motherboard but I think all it needed was a new battery. My warranty was up on it in a couple of days and that was about 3 years ago.

 

[U.S. Patriot]

I could not imagine doing my drawings on a laptop. The screen is aay to small. To run ACad efficiently I have found I need 2 monitors one being at least 24". 4 gig of ram will be ok just don't multi task. The home video cards are also not optimized for cad rendering and can be painful and cause Artifacting

I have my computer hooked up to my TV, before I was using a 19" monitor. The monitors at school are 19" I believe. It is going to take getting used to using a smaller screen. It's a pain though always having to be home to do my drawings.

 

[Bflo]

Before you order anything check to see if you can get a student discount on a computer through your school.

Edit: As far as laptops go, I have not had good luck with Dell. However, we have had good luck with our Dell desktop. For a laptop I use a mac, and it has been good.

 

[Harry2110]

I also have a macbook pro and it'll run autocad very well. In fact i have run it a little for fun and maya runs well also. If you have the money go mac.

 

[jkfletcher]

for AutoCAD, the more RAM the better, as has been said. Brand wise...Dell is good, I've had very good luck with Toshiba(I'm posting this from an 8 year old Toshiba that has never given me a problem), I'd even think an Acer would be ok...wife loves hers and I haven't had to fix it at all