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Need new hardware. Laptop, desktop or both?

Question asked by Robert Pickeral on May 3, 2016
Latest reply on May 16, 2016 by Christian Kniat

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Let me briefly explain our business.
In engineering that supports commercial aircraft on an almost hourly basis. I know desktop computers are capable of much more computing power. BUT we also need to be mobile. We sometimes have users travel to airports to support our work. Or we have other needs where we are not in the office and when we get the call, the work is needed almost immediately. If at home, driving into the office for some engineers is simply not a viable solution. We presently have laptops - some about 4 years old. And a couple of users have desktop computers - not engineers, but still support these immediate needs.

Our IT team would like to see us with all desktops, but our director is saying no no no - saying we must be able to support when out of the office. IT has also stated we could get some laptops for simple needs; then when needed, remote desktop to the desktop to perform Solidworks engineering type work. Would this work? Seems risky.

I'm looking for ideas about recommended hardware - either laptop or desktop. But please keep in mind the business case I've described above. Any suggestions?

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Anthony Remis May 4, 2016 8:09 AM

Hello,

Im personally a fan of powerful desktops but when the budget allows there are laptops that now have actual desktop cpu's in them, I believe xeon based now too! These systems usually need to be powered off the AC outlet as battery life is not very good since they are desktop components but you can search these laptops with google terms such as "workstation laptop". Its not a subject I am well versed on though. MSI has workstation laptops and they are one of the few to make a 6700k based laptop (desktop not mobile version).

Hope that at least helps point you in the right direction.

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Robert Pickeral May 16, 2016 9:03 AM

Looks like we are going with an HP Z Book G3 with 16GB RAM. It meets the suggested config from Solidworks and after testing on s cpl of large models, handles things well. This is the consensus from the engineers and application users. Thanks for the feedback.

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Paul Wyndham @ Robert Pickeral on May 16, 2016 12:09 PM

We use HP ZBooks here with good success. Engineers have a range of setups, some have both laptop and desktop others have one or the other all depends on their need. I would say the biggest thing to look out for is to make sure you have enough memory to load the largest assembly without using hard drive swap space.

Then, if you have floating licenses make sure you have borrowing allowed as they might not always be able to get a VPN connection to pull a license. I have users that say their systems are slower when connected to VPN. But make sure you limit the time users can borrow as they might get in the habit of borrowing for the maximum time and then borrowing again when it expires.

I personally like the 17" laptops but some engineers prefer the lighter 15" option. Make sure the graphics card supports OpenGL and not just DirectX. If the default windows driver is used Microsoft only provides DirectX support because OpenGL is not their architecture.

Good Luck

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Christian Kniat May 16, 2016 12:24 PM

Robert,

We use both laptops and desktops here for the same purposes that you described. For the road we use lenovo thinkpads, which we've had great success with. We put together our own desktops and have had good luck most all of the time, especially after switching from AMD graphics to NVidia. Here is a parts list from one of our recent builds. (We may have made a revision or two after, but the main components are the same)

Hope this helps!

Christian

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Anthony Remis May 4, 2016 8:09 AM
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Hello,
Im personally a fan of powerful desktops but when the budget allows there are laptops that now have actual desktop cpu's in them, I believe xeon based now too! These systems usually need to be powered off the AC outlet as battery life is not very good since they are desktop components but you can search these laptops with google terms such as "workstation laptop". Its not a subject I am well versed on though. MSI has workstation laptops and they are one of the few to make a 6700k based laptop (desktop not mobile version).

Hope that at least helps point you in the right direction.
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Robert Pickeral May 16, 2016 9:03 AM
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Looks like we are going with an HP Z Book G3 with 16GB RAM. It meets the suggested config from Solidworks and after testing on s cpl of large models, handles things well. This is the consensus from the engineers and application users. Thanks for the feedback.
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- Paul Wyndham @ Robert Pickeral on May 16, 2016 12:09 PM
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  Correct Answer
  We use HP ZBooks here with good success. Engineers have a range of setups, some have both laptop and desktop others have one or the other all depends on their need. I would say the biggest thing to look out for is to make sure you have enough memory to load the largest assembly without using hard drive swap space.
  
  Then, if you have floating licenses make sure you have borrowing allowed as they might not always be able to get a VPN connection to pull a license. I have users that say their systems are slower when connected to VPN. But make sure you limit the time users can borrow as they might get in the habit of borrowing for the maximum time and then borrowing again when it expires.
  
  I personally like the 17" laptops but some engineers prefer the lighter 15" option. Make sure the graphics card supports OpenGL and not just DirectX. If the default windows driver is used Microsoft only provides DirectX support because OpenGL is not their architecture.
  
  Good Luck
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Christian Kniat May 16, 2016 12:24 PM
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Robert,
We use both laptops and desktops here for the same purposes that you described. For the road we use lenovo thinkpads, which we've had great success with. We put together our own desktops and have had good luck most all of the time, especially after switching from AMD graphics to NVidia. Here is a parts list from one of our recent builds. (We may have made a revision or two after, but the main components are the same)
Hope this helps!
Christian
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Need new hardware. Laptop, desktop or both?

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