Installing Suites on laptop ... Does it have the goods?

[Anonymous]

First of all let me say I have looked at the install videos and gone through the system requirements screens, though I am still unsure. Packages to be installed are AUTOCAD DESIGN SUITE ULTIMATE V2014 WIN64 & ENTERTAINMENT CREATION SUITE ULTIMATE V2014 WIN64.

The machine specs are as follows... Win 8 64-bit .NET frameworks 4.5 full / client, and lower. I know the requirements are for Win 8 pro or better, but I can't find any reason why.

CPU... Intel Core i7 3630QM

RAM... 8 GB Duel-Channel DDR3 @798 MHz

Graphics... 2048MB NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M and a base Intel HD 4000

Motherboard chipset model - Ivy Bridge revision 09, Southbridge model HM77 revision 04

Drive... 1TB RAID

Monitor... 1920X1080

My question... Is this enough machine for the software? If not then would a combination of Ultimate and Premium work? Again - If not then would a  recommendation of using 2013 packages be viable>

Thanks for any input,

Jim.

[pendean]

It's "enough", but I personally would at least double the RAM as a minimum (triple or more even better) and opt for an SSD drive if it's a production unit and not a 'travel' companion only.

[braudpat]

Hello

0) The fastest Core i5/i7 possible ...

1) Please I prefer Win Seven

2) If it's to work really on medium/large projects, you need at minimum 12/16 Gb (or more)

On small projects (or trainings), 8/12 Gb could be enough ...

3) A very fast HD, maybe SSD you have the budget

4) The graphics card seems ok

Bye, Pat

[Anonymous]

Dean & Pat, Thanks for the quick response and the good news. The machine is to serve a dual purpose as both a development platform and a 'travel companion'. As for doubling RAM, I will look into it further (have read a few articles), though it already runs a little on the warm side, around 140 - 150 F at the motherboard, CPU, and GPU in an air conditioned environment and the battery life is only a little over 2 hours when running under load.

The machine is a DELL Inspiron 17R SE 7720. If anyone has any experience / knowledge with memory bumping this or similar models I would appreciate hearing from you. I do not think overclocking the CPU is something I would be considering at this point as the processor seems to be adequate and it is throwing off enough residual heat as it is.

Pat - From what I understand Dell codes the registration of the OS into the motherboard so swapping out the OS may not be very straight forward and require a bit of a workaround. As for Win 8 I'm still undecided - but don't like the direction it's going. I guess I'm more of an old school guy having built my first Heath-Zenith 8088 DOS machine in the mid 1980 running bumped to a blistering 4.77 MHz with a NEC chip. With he exception of ME and Vista I have used about every flavor OS Microsoft released. My favorite OS being able to walk the box is DEC VAX VMS, UNIX, MS XP Pro SP3. Still using XP on the file/printer/router server and on my workhorse desktop to support various WIN 7 & 8 machines.

Thanks again for your help,

Jim.

[braudpat]

Hello from France - Sorry for my US/English

I mean that Win Seven 64 would be better than Win Eight 64 : that's all ...

As soon as you will run 2014 versions : no problemo with Windows EIGHT !

The memory will be your MAIN problem !

<<< Jurassic Park Mode ON >>>

A long time ago, I have used : TRS80, Apple II, CPM-80/CPM-86 PCs, MS-DOS PCs, IBM 34/36, UNIX (HP, Sun, etc) 

I have programmed in Assembly, Fortran, Cobol, GAP, Basic, PL1, Pascal, C, etc

So I see very well that you mean ... Beginning on ACAD v1.4/v2.0 in 1984/1985 ...

<<< Jurassic Park Mode OFF >>>

Good Luck, Bye, Pat

[Anonymous]

Laptop memory shortage solution... If anyone is interested.

I found what appears to be a good match for the machine.

KVR16S11K2/16
16GB 1600MHz DDR3 Non-ECC CL11 SODIMM (Kit of 2) from Kingston. 

The CAS# Latency requirement and sodimm 16GB kit availability kind of limits the pool to choose from.

(I am not an advocate for any particular vendor on this forum, just a heads-up)

Solid-State drives are still a bit too expensive so I'll hold off for now.

Pat - We are both really showing our age now... Ever hear of a Timex Sinclair? Still have my VIC20 and Commodore64. Back in the DOS -vs- CPM days I went with DOS. Was tempted by the short lived Franklin, but never did the early apples or the TRS80. Did all those languages as well and once made the mistake of admitting I knew PL1, so I was stuck with rewriting a legacy system into Progress and Cobol. I guess there is now a whole generation that will never know when you booted a system and seen a black screen with only a blinking cursor, it was a good thing.

Thanks for the input from all,

Jim.