Hello, I work for a small company and I want to upgrade to a laptop to run 2013. My company works with small molds and punch press dies. The assemblies are no more the 250 pieces, with the possibility of going to 1000 piece assemblies in the future. I am looking for either an HP or Lenovo and my budget is $800 dollars. Any ideas as to what I should go with?
Thanks Jerry, I checked out the thread and I got good info but my budget is set at $800 and I can not go over that.
At that price I doubt you will get a new laptop which has a suitable graphics accelerator. They will all have a GeForce, Radeon or NVS card.
Try looking through the used offerings at the HP & Lenovo Outlets.
http://www.hp.com/sbso/buspurchase_refurbished_computing.html
Kelvin
I do not do alot of rending so I am not sure what kind of graphics card I would need.
This has nothing to do with rendering. The basic program may or may not be usable at all (much less for 1000 pc assemblies) without a suitable graphics card. Some people get lucky and have no real problems. In other cases, the model display will have glitches, all the way up to not even seeing the model at all. Sometimes SW won't even start.
$800 is not business-smart for a tool that will run software that costs four times that be used by someone who costs the company 50 to 100 times that per year. Quite frankly, if you skimp on hardware to run SolidWorks, the lost productivity could easily make up the difference between your budget and a proper laptop. How many seconds of your day would a better PC have to save you in labor cost to make up the difference between $800 and $1600?
Josh,
You make a good argument but I do not use the program everyday and I am the only one that does use it, so my company does not have the resources to spend $1600 dollars on a computer that could sit unused for a couple of months at a time.
Does it absolutely have to be a laptop? You will get better value with a desktop unit, and will be able to more easily upgrade it's components when or if budget allows. With a laptop, the upgrade path is very limited.
Here's one route you could go;
Buy the ThinkStation E30 ($601) and replace the NVS card with an AMD/ATI V4900 ($150) for a total of $751.
Kelvin, My company wants me to get a laptop for portablity. The reason for this is because I have meetings in different locations and sometimes I need to be able to open a Solidworks file.
Jim, I am an IT admin with a company using SW and please make your management team listen to the others posts. If you are required to use SW at all on a laptop buy a good model. We use Lenovo W530 models with at least a 1GB graphics card to do SW work. Granted you may not use it often but you will pull your hair out using it at all on a cheap system. As the others have said go cheap on hardware and you will pay for it in lost productivity. There really is not other argument in my opinion.
There is also a Dell outlet that has some very good prices on refurbished/scratch-dent/returned workstations. I have bought 2 from them with no problems. Even there, your price will be challenge. Regardless of whether it is just you or others using it, there should be more realistic budget allowed. I can guarantee that even if you only use it 1 time per week for 3 or 4 hours, that will be the time your boss, marketing or many others will expect quick turnaround. A low-budget unit will have a much higher chance of causing a missed deadline or lost sale and you will be in the direct line of fire.
Jim,
HP or Lenovo, and you will get about the same quality product. It is like comparing a Buick with an Oldsmobile. They are just about the same thing.
SolidWorks will only support systems with professional grade graphics cards. There are no laptops for under $800 with professional grade graphics cards. You can get desktop systems for this price, they have Xeon processors with the integrated P4000 video. These are not bad machines, but they are not laptops.
My suggestion, if you are stuck with an $800 laptop, is to get one with the highest frequency (GHz) Core i5 Mobile you can find. These should meet your price point. Then, video card is mostly irrelevant, because it won't function correctly. So stick with an Intel Integrated Video chip (the consumer grade HD4000, which is not for SolidWorks). This will give you your best bang/buck to get somewhere with an $800 laptop.
Consider a ThinkPad 430u, with the Core i5-3427U processor, and 8GB RAM. This runs $843, but is about as cheap as I would want to go. That extra RAM for $80 (from 4GB) is probably necessary. How big of assemblies/parts do you use? How many parts, and how complex are they?
A better option would probably be HP, who has a better deal on their dv6t-7000. Get it with the Core i5-3210M, Intel HD graphics, 8 GB memory, and then get that extra 32 GB mSSD accelerator. That SSD accelerator is worth its weight in gold. Total price for that is $775 on the website, and you might be able to get a corporate discount.
Hi Charles and everyone
As Jim'm looking for a laptop over 1000 € in which to use occasionally Solidworks, and is in this point where I'm lost.
In your last response you recommend Jim the Lenovo ThinkPad 430U, with the Intel Core i5-3427U processor and I've raised some doubts.
A this mobile or U processor is enough to work with SolidWorks?
I was thinking about buying this notebook with NVIDIA GT650 but as I have understood this video card won't function correctly so can I "delete" the video car (only for SolidWorks) and stay with this one and its Intel HD4000?
Thanks
The HD 4000 is also not suitable for SW.
Hi Kelvin
Thanks for your answer, but I did not submit a query properly.
I have a budget of 1000/1200€, and for most of my tasks I dont need graphics card, only for SolidWorks that will be using some times. With that budget I cant not find a laptop with a graphics card suitable for SolidWorks. If the NvdiaGT650 dont work better than IntelHD4000 (on SolidWorks), isn't more reasonable spend money in one SSD or increase the RAM? or the nvidia works better although is not suitable?.
Thanks
No, this is not a laptop I would recommend for most people. It will not work satisfactorily for most people. But if all you have is $800, and need a new laptop, you aren't going to get a satisfactory laptop.
With 1200€ you can get something that is satisfactory. You need something with an Intel P4000 graphics card, found with the Xeon chips. Similarly, you need an AMD or NVIDIA professional card.
Try this:
Dell M4700 with 8GB RAM, Intel Core i7-3540M, and AMD FirePro M4000. This comes to $1,202 here in the US. You will also want to change the primary drive to a Mobility SSD. Since this depends on how much storage you need, that will be a variable adjustment to the price. You will at least want thw 128GB SSD primary drive. Then either a secondary HDD, or a larger primary SSD. You can still get it will under budget your 1200€ budget.
This will actually be an OK machine for SolidWorks.
I could not navigate HP's website to find a comparable machine, so they lose.
Here is Lenovo's site:
Try the ThinkPad W530, 8GB RAM, Intel Core i7-3740QM, NVIDIA Quadro K1000M, 128 GB SSD "hard drive". This is $1,610 (note that the dell is ~$1,330 with an SSD)
So there are some options that I actually suggest. Although, still, these are not as fast as desktops. You will always be underwhelmed when not using a full speed desktop system if you use CAD all day.
Hi Charles,
Thanks for your recomendations. I try to configure the first option (the second one is too expesive) and i cant get with this budget.
The simplest cofiguration (i5-3320M, 4GB RAM, AMD FirePro M4000 and 500GB 2,5" Serial ATA (7200 rpm) ) is 1.149€.
If i choose the Intel Core i7-3540M the budget increase 198 €, the 4GB are 60€ and the change the primary drive to SSD are 76 €, total 1483€.: http://configure.euro.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=svwm4710&model_id=precision-m4700&c=es&l=es&s=bsd&cs=esbsdt1
what about M4600 with Intel Core i5-3380M, is enought?
thanks
Javier,
The Core i5-3380M is not bad for a laptop. That would be a good choice.
I also see you have a pick between 1600 and 1866 memory. Pick the 1866, it is worth the few euros extra.
Jim,
You might want to move this question to the Administration forum, as that is where the best discussions about hardware live. I would guess that you are going to have to spend more money if you want to get a good machine from one of the established workstation suppliers. You might be able to get a good machine for that price if you build it yourself. Read the thread: "February 2013 Suggested Computer Specs" in that forum, also listed in the "More Like This" box to the right.
Jerry S.