I'm considering this laptop for AutoCAD (especially modeling and rendering {until I move on to another high-end modeling/rendering program . . . but sometime in future}) AND Revit. I'm a student and this seems the best I can do within my budget (about $1,000). My main concern is will these programs work without strange reactions to this configuration? Or, is there something I should ask for instead . . . ? Feedback is appreciated - thanks!
Dell XPS 17
Item 225-0587
2nd generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM processor 2.00 GHz with Turbo Boost 2.0 up to 2.90 GHz
8GB Shared Dual Channel DDR3 Memory
Standard Keyboard - English
17.3" FHD (1080p) with 2.0MP HD Webcam
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 550M 1GB graphics with Optimus
750GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Elemental Silver Aluminum
Genuine Windows® Home Premium, 64-Bit, English
Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader
Tray Load Blu-ray Disc BD-Combo (Reads BD and Writes to DVD/CD)
JBL 2.1 Speakers with Waves Maxx Audio 3
Intel® Centrino® Wireless-N 1000
Microsoft® Office Starter: reduced-functionality Word & Excel w/ ads. No PowerPoint or Outlook
McAfee SecurityCenter, 15-Months
56 WHr 6-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery
1 Year In-Home Service after Remote Diagnosis
DataSafe 2.0 Online Backup 2GB for 1 year
No Mobile Broad Band Selected
Looks like a good laptop for what you want.
What's the cost on this one? If you could lower the cost, you don't need that big a hard drive (400 to 500 is enough), & you don't need a bluray device (how many movies you plan on watching going to school?). Dump the Office stuff, and the McAfee. Get a student edition of Student edition office. Use Kaspersky.
What OS comes with it? You'll need the 64 bit version of Win 7, and I'd recommend the Pro (or higher version, no home versions).
Reid
I've got a Dell 15" XPS, ace laptop, especially with the 1080p screen.
Thought I should mention that the Nvidia Optimus graphics system is frustrating until you have it setup... Basically it's 2 graphics cards running side by side, a low power 2d card and the high power GeForce which should kick in with any 3d load. The drivers out of the box are old and bad, and it sometimes doesn't swap over to the decent graphics card - v frustrating (sadly no bios or other option to tell it to run the GeForce all the time). Use the latest Nvidia drivers (think I'm on beta 280.something) and you can now tell it which exe to use which graphics card with and solves any problems.
Sam M.
Inventor and Showcase monkey
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