Recommnedation for Touch Screen Laptop to run Inventor 2015

[wdangler]

My current Dell M4500 is starting to have graphic card failures and locking up, even when not operating Inventor, so it is time to start researching new laptops.  I travel about 30% of the time for work, and perform sales, engineering and managerial functions. Therefore I am trying to find a "proven" touch screen laptop that can be utilized to fulfill this specialized need of a cross functional laptop. I really would like to have the touch screen for sales presentation at customers and operating Windows 8.1. I do use Inventor, but I have engineers and drafters that will do the heavy work, while I do more component design or displaying assemblies for customers during visits. I have reviewed the requirements for Inventor 2015 (listed below), but really would like feedback from someone that is actually running (fairly successfully) a laptop that fills the above listed functions.

Current Laptop

Dell Precision M4500

• CPU: Intel Core i7 CPU Q840 1.87 GHz

• Ram: 8GB

• HD: 500GB

• OS: Win 7 64-bit

• Display: 15.6 (non-touch screen)

• Graphics: Nvidia Quadro FX 1800M

System Requirements for Autodesk Inventor 2015 Windows

Operating System Recommended: 64-bit Microsoft® Windows® 7 (SP1), Windows 8 or Windows 8.1

Recommended: Intel® Xeon® E3 or Core i7 or equivalent, 3.0 GHz or greater

Memory Recommended: 12 GB RAM

Minimum: 8 GB RAM for less than 500 part assemblies

Graphics Recommended: Microsoft® Direct3D 11® or capable graphics card or higher

Display Recommendation: 1,280 x 1,024 or higher screen resolution

Appreciate everyones help in advance!

[ampster401]

welcome to the forums.

Glad to see you looked up recommended system specs before asking here - that at least gives you an ideal starting point.

Sorry I don't have any advice - I do have a touch screen laptop at home but it was purchased for other tasks other than CAD use, more so to explore Win8 with an SSD instead of a reg hd.  I have installed Inventor Fusion on it - seems you can complete maybe 50% of the work with your fingers and the other 50% with the mouse cursor.

But I'm wondering if you're going to get many replies or suggestions here.  I suspect alot of people may be avoiding touch screens for using CAD apps.  I know you didn't state specifically that you wanted to use it for cad.  But if Inventor users are avoiding touch screens like I suspect, you may have very few if any suggestions.

Good luck!  While I can see it not being very practical at times with cad use due to every now and then you need that small mouse cursor to actually select what you want instead of a big ole fat finger - I will be watching to see how well a touch screen is accepted and used by any cad users.

[wdangler]

I apprecaite the quick response ampster, maybe I need to clarify.....  I mostly want the touch screen for the other functions that I fulfil on the sales side for presenting, I most likely still use the keyboard, mouse and 3DConnexion space traveler for the modeling work.

Not sure if that changes much, but I am hopeing that someone has some experience to help find a good replacement for my old laptop.

[ampster401]

Understood.

Jan of this year I picked up a Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 15 laptop, Intel i7, 128GB SSD, 8GB RAM with a 15.6" touch screen and as mentioned running Win8 - which I immediately updated to 8.1. 

At the time, it was roughly $800.00 or so.

I am really impressed with the 7 to 10 seconds it takes to boot up and is ready to use.  Sure, there might be a few more things that are still loading but it allows me to launch Firefox or email right away with no hesitation. 

I've never gotten used to the touchpads on these things - seems a ghost takes over most of the time when I use that and the pc does something other than what I intended.  So one of the first additions was a wireless mouse.

Due to the small SSD size, I also picked up a couple of 128GB usb flash drives as well as a 1TB network harddrive.

I was recently shopping for a desktop unit with SSD.  It appears the 128GB and 256GB sizes are still very common.  While I didn't read up on the details, I was surprised to see some systems appeared to be upgradeable to a 1TB SSD - at a cost of over $3,000 just for that particular upgrade.  I don't know if that was a hybred SSD or what, since it was out of my price range I avoid reading about such things for fear the bug would bite and I'd want it really bad!

The system I ended up buying is a desktop with 128GB SSD and Win7.  Will be setting it up tonight and am curious to see how Win7 fairs with that SSD.

Not much a decent review I'm sure so if you have any specifc questions just ask.  My replies would have to take at least 1 day plus to get back to you as that laptop is for home use only and I generally browse the forums during work hours. (shhh)

[wdangler]

Is anyone using a touchscreen laptop and running Autodesk Inventor with success? THe touchscreen is more for the Win 8.1 and other programs and not Inventor itself.

[mcgyvr]

---

@wdangler wrote:

Is anyone using a touchscreen laptop and running Autodesk Inventor with success? THe touchscreen is more for the Win 8.1 and other programs and not Inventor itself.

---

Simply attempt to purchase a laptop that meets all the requirements of any the software you will be using.. Then just make sure it has a touchscreen.

There is nothing about having a touchscreen that will make or break Inventor. Its all the other components of a computer (cpu speed/ram/graphics/hard drive) that will make or break it. Touchscreen is just a cool toy. 

[wdangler · Accepted solution]

Really did not get much information as to what someone might be actually running "today" for a laptop to meet this recommendations, but after stumbling upon a individual at another company that has been running the Dell M3800 for the past 4-5 months, I feel confident that this will be my next choice that meets most of the criteria.

Thanks!!

[stephengibson76]

razer edge pro looks up to spec but not sold in the UK

[CNiemarkt]

Hi Wdangler,

I am looking at the same laptop. Would you have some time to share your experience if any?

Thanks

[jdj2086]

I'd recommend taking a look at Alienware. They have recently added touch options!