New Drafter

[ZAWARUDO]

I just started my first drafting job with a designing/manufacturing company for walk-in freezers with floor plans for bulk stores, we mainly use AutoCAD and Inventor. I need a laptop or tablet that I can grow with in my career. I've been looking at the Surface book, but I don't know if I even need the touch screen capability for my job, but I do like taking notes on my current Samsung Galaxy 2018 10.1" tablet. The Surface seems pretty good to me, but mostly I would like something lightweight but can handle all the programs I need for my job. Any recommendations would be much appreciated!

[tzframpton]

For Inventor I would recommend equivalent to an HP Zbook with a Core i7, and 16GB RAM minimum, with a high performance NVMe SSD drive. A Surface or any Tablet for that matter doesn't really suit the needs of 3D CAD design in a practical manner. 

 

-TZ

[f700es]

+1 to TZ and also add in Nvidia GTX 1060 or higher graphics card. Here's one I'd get....

https://www.newegg.com/p/N82E16834155029

Thin and light (.69" thick and 4.14 lbs) and all the specs you need to get work done.
$1,400

[BIGAL]

An ASUS NX750 similar price but a 17" screen.

[tzframpton]

I prefer 15" screen with 1920x1080. I have had both 17" and 15" models and there is little difference in screen size, but a huge difference in weight and compactness. I'm always on a docking station so it's not too often I am in "laptop mode" where I'm actually doing production. I will stay 15" for good now that I made the switch on my last laptop. 

 

-TZ

[f700es]

I'm with Tanner, a 15" 1080 screen is more than enough for CAD work when not attached to a larger screen. The max I'd go on a laptop is 1440. 4K on a laptop screen is just stupid imho.

[ZAWARUDO]

Thank you everyone for your replies! I'm doing some research on your suggestions now and will post again with more questions.