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LOOKING FOR A NEW LAPTOP THAT WILL RUN INVENTOR 2011/12

9 REPLIES 9
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Message 1 of 10
jwalls
6457 Views, 9 Replies

LOOKING FOR A NEW LAPTOP THAT WILL RUN INVENTOR 2011/12

HI All, does anyone have any recomendations on some laptops that will run Inventor 2011/2012? thanks James, i have a budget off £1000.00 only

 

Thanks

9 REPLIES 9
Message 2 of 10
sam_m
in reply to: jwalls

just look for a gaming laptop mate - don't get told you need an expensive "cad" system with an expensive workstation graphics card.  Might be more true for other cad software but Inventor uses DirectX for it's graphics (instead of OpenGL) which is the same as most games - a great move by Autodesk which is rarely touted...

 

Main thing to look for is something with a dedicated graphics card (avoid anything integrated or that shares memory between graphics and main system) - aim for a GeForce GTX 260 or higher (GTX460 would be even better...) for Inventor 2011. (win7, 64bit and at least 6gb ram would be the other starting points).  If it saves cash then dont worry about the i5 or i7 systems and drop down to a fast Core 2 Duo - outside of rendering or FEA Inventor is only single-threaded (only uses 1 processor core), so dual core is minimum (2nd core for Windows, drivers, etc) but more than that and it's kinda wasted - go for as fast a clock speed as possible ideally 3GHz+ (and would personally stick with Intel over AMD processor).  My home pc is a E8500 Core 2 and is comparable to my work i7 (and probably far cheaper).

 

The only suggestion I might have... are you after a laptop to be able to use it on the move, or need a laptop for uni or other work and probably more likely to use Inventor at home/dorm?  only ask 'cos inventor really needs a display with a higher vertical resolution than 1024 (as stated on min system requirements) - a lot of laptops get by with less than this...  But, if you're using it in 1 place the majority of time then just get yourself a 20-22" widescreen tft (and proper mouse etc) and plug that in when you're not on the move - will be FAR better than the laptop screen.



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

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Message 3 of 10
jwalls
in reply to: sam_m

thanks for the reply,SAM,

 

to answer your questions, it has to be a laptop, that moves around with me, i was looking at this,

http://www.morelaptops.co.uk/ProductReviews.asp?pn=NP%2DRF710%2DS03UK

 

 

wonder what you think, would this be a suitable machine, just spoke to dell there , they said there closest machine to this spec would be 2.5k, i nearly fell over.

 

then i spoke to dell again and they said my requirements and budget were unrealistic.Smiley Surprised

 

 

Message 4 of 10
sam_m
in reply to: jwalls

had a quick look around and what size are you after?  bigger means better keyboard and screen but heavier and less mobile.

 

cant see why Dell are saying that.  ok, accept you probably have to drop to around 4gb ram but check the Dell XPS range, the top one is a decent i7 for about £800 or under Alienware the M11x can be upgraded with more ram (but only 11" screen so might want a monitor for long-use) M15x is decent but possibly could do with some upgrades which would soon send it over a grand.

 

other places:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3227/2494/-/5314343/Acer-Aspire-8920G-Core-2-Duo-T5750-2-0GHz-4GB-320GB...

or for ATI graphics:

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3227/2494/-/12050212/Sony-VAIO-FW51-MF-H-Core-2-Duo-P8700-2-53GHz-6GB-5...

or

http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/-/3227/2494/-/14955678/Dell-XPS-1640-9638-Intel-Core-2-Duo-P9700-2-80GHz-...

 

not had a chance to go through overclockers, scan, dabs, ebuyer, etc.  might be worth a look around them to see what's on offer tho.

 

personally prefer Nvidia graphics, but the two ATI laptops are probably better.  The Sony has Win7 and 6gb ram but the Dell has a better graphics card (also, its Vista might only be 32bit - cant see a comment either way).



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

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Message 5 of 10
jwalls
in reply to: sam_m

thanks for that sam , think im going to go for the samsung laptop, nothing ventured and all that, but thanks for the very helpfull information, and spending the time to post,

 

so im going for this,

 

http://www.morelaptops.co.uk/ProductReviews.asp?pn=NP%2DRF710%2DS03UK

 

 

wish me luck 🙂

 

 

Message 6 of 10
sam_m
in reply to: jwalls

it looks like a decent cheap machine.  6gb ram i7 with win7 64bit with a year's warranty 😉

 

The 330M is DirectX 10.1 and Shader Model 4.0 so meets Inventor's latest top-tier requirements.  It's not as powerful as a desktop's graphics card, but should be fine and certainly good for the price.  But, you have your answer why a 10k piece assembly is struggling as it's DirectX score (from Passmark) isn't stella.  Saying that, from my quick look at shops over lunch there's no way you can get a top-spec gaming graphics card in a laptop for under a grand and the ones I linked to are all about the same ball-park.  From Google Shopping you're looking at £1500+ for anything with a GTX460M (except for an odd-ball from Sainsbury's of all places - so imagine it's a miss-print).



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

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Message 7 of 10
jwalls
in reply to: sam_m

one last this sam, do you recomend any decent inventor books?

Message 8 of 10
sam_m
in reply to: jwalls

honestly have no idea about books, let alone what's available this side of the pond...  might be worth asking about books on Sean Dotson's website: 

http://www.mcadforums.com/forums/index.php

 

depends what you're after learning.  eg surfaces - JD Mather's online tutorials are probably best.  Saying that, believe he's also written some pretty detailed "best practices" guides which would be a good general start for Inventor.

 

Years ago there used to be a monthly challenge (Inventor World Cup) which used to be great as a way to improve your skills - think it's still going, but certainly not as advertised as it once was.

 

at the end of the day, no matter how good the book it's no substitute for proper training...



Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey

Please mark this response as "Accept as Solution" if it answers your question...
If you have found any post to be helpful, even if it's not a direct solution, then please provide that author kudos - spread that love 😄

Message 9 of 10
sumayo
in reply to: jwalls

I have a Dell M6400 mobile workstation. Am I happy with it & Inventor?

 

NO!!

 

Just not sure who to blame, the Software or the Computer

 

Good Luck

 

SolidWorks 2016
Message 10 of 10
Bill.Schmid
in reply to: sumayo

I have the Quadro 3700 (no M).  It's no speed demon and the mobile version is likely slower yet.  So I'd blame the video card.  Your RAM looks sufficient.  Exactly what CPU does it have?

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