Laptop For Design work

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pilks

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My Gf has just bought the following laptop
https://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_Ethos_8943G_1005701.html
It has arrived and it seems 18 inch screen is a tad on the big side.

She is now looking to return it and go for other laptops on the site such as this
http://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_5755G_1091454.html

She will use the laptop for Solidworks, photoshop and other various programs required within her course (product design)
Now i have read all over the web that CPU ,RAM and Graphics card are crucial in the running of these applications.
But between the two laptops will she see a difference when using the programs? The internet seems to lack benchmark for these types of programs.
 
pilks said:
My Gf has just bought the following laptop
https://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_Ethos_8943G_1005701.html
It has arrived and it seems 18 inch screen is a tad on the big side.

She is now looking to return it and go for other laptops on the site such as this
http://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_5755G_1091454.html
Click to expand...

2638G1TBnks, Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Quad Core Processor GOOD
15.6" HD Screen,
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit,
8GB RAM, GOOD
1000GB HDD,
Blu-Ray,
Dedicated GT540M 2GB Graphics, GOOD
LX.RQ002.018

Your three main design components taken care of right there.
Nice machine!
 
My concern is the diff in the 3dcards.

But then the the CPU in the smaller one is better ?
 
Last edited:
Stevie G said:
bigger is betta
Click to expand...
luggable.jpg
 
Also never underestimate the lcd/led quality. You want a screen that can show colors correctly, specially if you are doing print designing.
 
axon1988 said:
Also never underestimate the lcd/led quality. You want a screen that can show colors correctly, specially if you are doing print designing.
Click to expand...

Depends what your doing but in general pantone colours should do the trick. I reckon it is more important to have a pantone chart than a good screen. Then again i am in screen printing so it's a bit different.
 
I have 15.6" screen its never big enough for designing
I always enjoy designing on my 24" desktop screen, it life so simple
I would stick with the 18", but that me...
 
SaladCharger said:
2638G1TBnks, Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Quad Core Processor GOOD
15.6" HD Screen,
Windows 7 Home Premium Edition 64-bit,
8GB RAM, GOOD
1000GB HDD,
Blu-Ray,
Dedicated GT540M 2GB Graphics, GOOD
LX.RQ002.018

Your three main design components taken care of right there.
Nice machine!
Click to expand...

Depending on how intensive the designs are, I would dispute the graphics card.

You generally need a workstation graphics card for design and use in CAD programs and photoshop / image manipulation programs, the card would be the Quadro line from nVidia or Firepro from AMD. Also ideally an IPS panel screen would be required for photoshop use so that you get correct color representation. Ram is rather cheap in the greater scheme of things so that isn't a factor, your second factor would be the CPU and should ideally be a quad core depending on what you are rendering (important for other courses such as architecture or engineering). A laptop that has a workstation graphics card in it are expensive, adding an IPS panel one is downright wallet slaughtering. Can your gf not use a desktop instead?
 
Does cad seriously require hardcore hardware? Somebody help me understand why. Honest question.
 
As an alternative option, I would recommend the Dell XPS15. I purchased one and I am overjoyed with its performance. It has a great GFX card with 2GB, Intel Core i7-2630QM CPU and 8GB of memory (i upgraded it from 6GB).

Monitor is HD with HDMI output. I am blown away by the 15inch screen - granted a larger display is always better.

Best of all it comes with 2 yr onsite warranty.

I was so impressed I got 2 of these babies.
 
It was from....*drum roll* Incredible Corruption @ R14k

However I do know of an online store that maybe able to get it for you...and maybe @ a better price.
 
Hmmm, Why not get a decent laptop, you need graphics and ram in essence as IIRC Auto cad can utilize the graphics chip for processing... Either way, an i7 is more than enough :).

Why not have the laptop, and then get a nice beeeg 24 inch screen for work? So the laptop does the processing, but you need a nice big screen so you can actually work efficiently?

However, as Mystic Twilight said, you do need a workstation graphics chip to run applications that can utilize gpu's,(unless you want to fiddle with drivers and what not to trick the pc into thinking your regular gpu is a workstation gpu (can be a mission to do this, so I don't recommend it)).

So find maybe a nice HP with a work station gpu, and buy a monitor if you fell like 15~17 inches is too small (and it can be if you dealing with massive designs).
 
murraybiscuit said:
Does cad seriously require hardcore hardware? Somebody help me understand why. Honest question.
Click to expand...

Its all technically the drivers that make the biggest difference. The physical hardware in something like the Quadro 600 is probably similar to the GeForce GT 430. However gaming graphics card are simply designed for gaming, with fast redraw and high frame rate and has no concern with 100% redraw accuracy (its 98-99% accurate, a box isn't going to turn into a circle suddenly. but for engineers who want an angle of 42.873 degrees, they mean they want that specific angle, not a decimal less or more). A workstation card has to render images accurately and be reliable in holding a static image (or a series of static images in video for those who nit pick) each time after a redraw as if the image has been only drawn once. In photoshop for example, if the user wanted a specific colour then the workstation card can provide that exact colour (an IPS panel screen or better is needed as well by the way, not the run of the mill TN panel you get from anywhere) whereas gaming cards will oscillate between shades above and below that colour after each redraw. Think of a gaming card as a ferrari and a workstation card as an 18 wheeler and your trying to transport a shipping container.

Depending on how complex and technical your work is, any graphics card can do. Simple MS paint, the intel GMA and their new GPU on die can easily do the trick. Try to do what pixar and disney pull off, you going to need a few of the top of the line, maybe in SLI if you don't have enough distributed work sharing.

The right tool for the right job.
 
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