I am a junior in highschool and I am looking for a laptop that I would be able to use cad on as well as for regular day use.
My main question is whether or not there is a laptop out there that is under $1500 that would be able to run cad(I do not plan on doing 300+ assemblies or much rendering)?
would a bootcamped macbook pro work or is it not powerful enough?
I've run SW on MacBook Pros using bootcamp for years and it runs perfectly fine. At times, faster than my fully SW certified desktop if that were more than a couple years old. It should be plenty powerful enough for what you'd like to do.
Dave
There is also a Dell Outlet site with pretty good deals on M4700 Mobile Workstations.
what is the lowest level processor that would work?
is a 1.4GHz dual-core Intel Core i5(Turbo boost to 2.7GHz) enough?
would a 1.7GHz dual-core Intel Core i7(Turbo boost to 3.3Ghz) be better or do neither have enough power?
That depends on the types of models (simple, "swoopy-shapes, etc) and numbers of parts in an assembly. The graphics card will also be a big factor in success.
would it work to have either or specifically one of those processors with an Intel HD Graphics 5000?
I will not be running anything with more than 300 parts and i will only do 300 ocasionally
My strong suspicion is that what you are contemplating will work sufficiently well for your needs as a high school student (and likely further than that). The only "kicker" is that for less than $1500 you can get a M4700 from the Dell Outlet that would likely suit your needs for a longer time. When the M4700's are available there they start at about $1100. They could be reconditioned or scratch/dent units. I have used 2 of them over the past 7 years with no warranty problems. The M4700 is about 3 years old but still used by a good number of SW users. I just updated to a brand new M4800 for $1800 (not from the outlet).
I was wondering which operating system to buy from windows?
should I get 7 or 8.1?
does it matter?
I would suggest the Windows 7 at this point and then possibly chane to Win 10 after it is released and has had a chance for any problems to be resolved. Of course, this is based on SW use. If you are primarily using other programs which benefit from Win 8.1, it would likely work. I am pretty sure that 8.1 works with SW2015. Win 7 is more proven however.
Dell Precision M6700 Mobile Workstation 3920XM K5000M 1080P FHD 16GB WIFI BT DVD
Add a 500GB SSD (Working), a 250 msata (operating sys) and a 500GB disk drive (storage)
I've bought one on ebay for under $1500
I do assemblies over 300, no problem.
Your good to go!
Dell: The Dell Online Store: Build Your System
HP: HP ZBook 14 Mobile Workstation | HP® Official Site (This one will probably end up over $1500)