I am on the hunt for a laptop workstation that will handle C3d 2013. I realize there is a spec sheet listing requirements for the software, but thought someone might have some good advice/pros and cons on machines they are using.
Thanks
Really depends on how much you want to spend. The usually advice is get the best you can afford. The usual top 2 for Civil are Memory and Processor Speed. There are some advantages with SSDs if you can afford one.
I've had a Sager in the past. My last laptop I got from the Dell Outlet site. A reconditioned M6500 for about 2 grand. It's been working great for the past couple of years.
Allen
Allen Jessup
CAD Manager - Designer
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My laptop specs are part of my signature. I've been running Civil 3d on it since 2010. It's a heavy beast to carry around but I like it as a CAD system.
I use Civil 3D 2012 on a ASUS G73SW gaming laptop. Most of my grading work is in mountanous regions with massive surface data. Even though my graphics card is not supported by Autodesk, I am currently not having any problems. I had to adjust the video card setting slightly in the beginning.
ASUS G73SW
8 GB RAM
i7 processor 2630QM
64 bit window 7 (love it!)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 460M with CUDA - 1GB video memory
700GB hard drive. Not sure of the manufacturer (this seems to be holding this laptop back).
I am looking into SSD, but I heard Civil 3D's temp files never truly delete on SSD drives and therefore will eventually fill the hard drive until it is disabled. Now... the source of this info is a great IT guy, but doesn't know much about Civil 3D, so take it as you will. I had a workstation that the SSD hard drive filled up to critical, in about 6 months. IT told me it was the way Civil 3D handles temporary and operating files.
@Anonymous wrote:
I had a workstation that the SSD hard drive filled up to critical, in about 6 months. IT told me it was the way Civil 3D handles temporary and operating files.
Change where Windows' TEMP folder is located. I did this by moving all of my USER files from the SSD to my data drive using a Symbolic link so everything thinks it is still on the C: but it is actually on my E: I've been using this laptop, with a 128gb SSD, without issue for 2+ years.
Change where Windows' TEMP folder is located. I did this by moving all of my USER files from the SSD to my data drive using a Symbolic link so everything thinks it is still on the C: but it is actually on my E: I've been using this laptop, with a 128gb SSD, without issue for 2+ years.
Thanks for all the input. I went with a Toshiba X875Q7380, but it came with windows 8. I am going to have to strip 8 off and install 7.