jbgraphic Posted November 6, 2013 Posted November 6, 2013 So I need advise on a laptop for a cad student. I have a desktop at home so just need something that I can do some work on between classes that will cope, it does not have to be fast or anything just workable. Currently I have a home PC with these spec's - Gigabyte GA-Z68P-DS3 - Intel i5 2500K - G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB DDR3 1333 RAM - ATI FIREPRO V4800 - DUAL Dell P2311H monitors I will be using AutoCAD Solidworks Pro-E Creo And then your usual Office type products. No gaming really or very little and playing at med settings is fine for the amount I would do. Budget is ~$500-700. Any ideas? Quote
ReMark Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 The hardware gurus didn't have any suggestions? That's unusual. Can you bump the budget up some say to $1250? Quote
jbgraphic Posted November 7, 2013 Author Posted November 7, 2013 For a workstation laptop? Not really that is my limit. It is a luxury at the moment. My desktop will be what I use most of the time anyway. Quote
ReMark Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 Might as well go into a big box store and pull something off the shelf. Another option would be to buy a used laptop off of eBay or craigslist that meets the minimum system recommendations as per AutoDesk or Dessault (which ever one is more stringent). Quote
Barneel Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 I'd look into Acer. They do a lot of budget workstations that are very strong for the price. But at the end of the day you get what you paid for. $500-700 is a very low budget for a work laptop. As ReMark suggested, a second hand laptop is your other option but that kind of thing is always going to be at your own risk. If you find any on eBay within your range I'd be happy to give an opinion on it, but the end result won't be as concrete as if you buy it new Quote
jbgraphic Posted November 7, 2013 Author Posted November 7, 2013 That is prob what I will end up doing. Was just "hoping" but I kinda thought I would be out of luck. . Worth asking the question. Quote
ReMark Posted November 7, 2013 Posted November 7, 2013 (edited) Go craigslist. Why? If you find something local you can actually go look at it to make sure of the condition and if it boots up. Although, that said, I bought my last (used) laptop off of eBay and I was very satisfied. I got it at a good price and the seller answered all my questions quickly and thoroughly. Is all your software 32-bit or 64-bit? What OS would you like to use? It looks like the system requirements for AutoCAD and Solidworks are pretty much the same. Edited November 7, 2013 by ReMark Quote
Mike_Taylor Posted November 8, 2013 Posted November 8, 2013 Here is something I found real quick that would do what you need and is within your price range. Pricing may vary on site and I am guessing you are outside of Canada but the search features they have are very good and the pricing is almost always accurate to what other stores offer. Quote
jbgraphic Posted December 23, 2013 Author Posted December 23, 2013 HP ENVY 15t-j100 Quad Edition Notebook PC (ENERGY STAR) E2E34AV Windows 8.1 64 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7-4700MQ Processor NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 740M Graphics with 2048MB of dedicated video memory 15.6-inch diagonal Full HD BrightView LED-backlit Display (1920x1080) 8GB DDR3 System Memory (1 Dimm) 1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive 24GB flash Hard Drive Acceleration Cache No Additional Office Software Security Software Trial Two 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Batteries No Internal DVD or CD Drive Backlit Keyboard HP TrueVision HD Webcam w/ integrated digital mic 802.11b/g/n WLAN [1x1] I know it is not a workstation but......? Quote
Barneel Posted January 6, 2014 Posted January 6, 2014 Saw this laptop the other day ^^^ For anyone in the UK it's currently in the John Lewis clearance - the best place to buy pc's imo (or any electricals). I bought myself a new god-laptop from there the other day in the clearance Quote
jbgraphic Posted January 15, 2014 Author Posted January 15, 2014 Well I actually went for a Lenovo Y510P with the 2G GT755 card. SO far with AutoCAD it is fine, I will try it with Solidworks as soon as I get back to school and get the software loaded. Quote
Barneel Posted January 15, 2014 Posted January 15, 2014 I had a look at that one when I was looking for laptops. Looks like a really neat laptop. I really liked the detachable 'ultrabay' thing that you can put an sli graphics card/harddrive/blue-ray reader/cooling in. I was very tempted. Solidworks should work on it flawlessly, but let me know how you get on, it'd be interesting to know. Quote
tomshow000 Posted March 6, 2014 Posted March 6, 2014 Here is the list of budget laptop . Check it out : Business laptop under 500 Quote
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