What Laptop Should I get for CAD/CAM

Anonymous · ‎02-14-2018

Hey guys,

I had a surface pro 4 and it could run fusion 360 and other software but there was a definite lag. Fusion 360 even told me my graphics card was not good enough. I am not replacing this surface pro 4 due to damage and would love some input.

I am an engineering student and I have $1800 to spend (thank you insurance).

I went to best buy and the person I spoke to didnt really trust dells, so they turned me to the lenovo yoga 720 with 4k display, 16gb ram, 512 ssd, and its 7th gen i7 with a really good video card, i think it is GeForce gtx 1050.

The other option was the HP Spectre x360, with 4k display, 16gb ram, 512 ssd, and its 8th gen i7 and a good video card (not as good as the lenovo aparently) with a nvidia mx150 2gb.

This lady gives a great review of them both: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXmOf68y96s

And the takeaway that I have, is for ultimate video card and gaming, go with the lenovo, BUT it only has like 6 hours of battery life, on mild use, and I have seen other articles about throttling due to temperature, where as the HP had double the battery life.
In that same article though, they did talk about a Dell XPS 15 that did really well, but the lady at the store said she had been hearing about battery problems with dells. (https://www.pcworld.com/article/3220519/laptop-computers/lenovo-yoga-720-review.html)
I purposely am buying a 2-in-1 because I like being able to take notes especially in one note, for my lectures.

Your input would be greatly appreciated on what you think would be some good choices and why!

etfrench · ‎02-14-2018

Fusion 360 uses DirectX instead of OpenGL, so get the laptop which has the best DirectX support.

p.s. I wouldn't expect a sales person at Best Buy would know the difference

ETFrench

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

@etfrench wrote:
Fusion 360 uses DirectX instead of OpenGL, so get the laptop which has the best DirectX support.

p.s. I wouldn't expect a sales person at Best Buy would know the difference

If I am using multiple programs though, what would be the best option? We use multiple programs at school, featurecam, inventor, fusion360, autocad. etc.

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

It looks like both graphics cards support windows directX 12

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

I am using a Lenovo Legion 720 using 7th gen Intel I7 with 16 Gb ram and GTX 1060 with 6 Gb . I chose it because it has 2 hard drive one of them is 512 Gb solid state drive far quicker than normal hard drives and a 1 Tb conventional hard drive to be upgraded to solid state. This runs Fusion 360 quite well unless it is a large file with lots of computations we are talking 15 seconds as opposed to instant. I have Intel I5 as well that it will run on. There are better video cards like 1080 but don't think it is needed. What I found needed was amount of video ram as it won't run a game and CAD together as well. The nice thing about the Legion 720 is the backlite keyboard and the only weak spot was WiFi adapter in weak areas and just added an external and works great. For Fusion 360 the Lenovo Legion 720 is a great match.

TrippyLighting · ‎02-15-2018

Fusion 360 and Inventor both use the Direct X API. Both also use the same Geometric Modeling Kernel ASM (Autodesk Shape Manager)

Anonymous · ‎02-15-2018

@TrippyLighting wrote:
Fusion 360 and Inventor both use the Direct X API. Both also use the same Geometric Modeling Kernel ASM (Autodesk Shape Manager)

As i mentioned above, it appears that both laptop video cards work with direct X. Could you provide input on which laptop would be better or another comparable 2-in-1 computer

Thanks!

Anonymous · ‎02-16-2018

Well running multiple CAD programs one with a dual hard drive makes more sense not so much for Fusion in the cloud but the others.

Anonymous · ‎02-17-2018

Here's my opinion.

I wouldn't look at laptops with 4K screens unless you really want 4K; it takes more battery juice and it's really not something very essential to CAD design. Either way, the FPS for 4K with GTX 1060 is a little low for demanding games if you're into that. SSD are neat and even better if your OS is installed in the SSD disk instead in the HDD; it speeds up everything from browsing files to opening programs. Downside is that SSD are usually more expensive and that's why they're usually packed in 250GB or 500GB.

My recommendation is to look for a laptop that has the following:

-1920 x 1080 (FHD) Resolution to 2560x1440 (QHD) Resolution

-7th gen i5 to 8th gen i7 (Good for computing in local simulations and anything that uses CPU Power)

-16GB DDR4 Ram or more

-NVIDIA GTX 1060 or greater

-250GB SSD with 1TB HDD Combo (OS in SSD and all your other files in HDD except programs you want to work smoothly)

Important observation: for all this specs, you might see laptops priced at $1100 - $1300 so, if you want to use all your budget, I would pump up the CPU, RAM, SSD, or consider Touchscreen if you liked that.

I'll look for Laptop options in the market and come back a while later with answers.

Also, due to demands in cryptomining, most GPUs in Amazon, Newegg, and other popular stores are either out of stock or selling via third party members with inflated prices. I wouldn't recommend building a PC unless you're buying prebuild.

Any questions, hit me up!

Yeray Pabon

Anonymous · ‎02-23-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Here's my opinion.

I wouldn't look at laptops with 4K screens unless you really want 4K; it takes more battery juice and it's really not something very essential to CAD design. Either way, the FPS for 4K with GTX 1060 is a little low for demanding games if you're into that. SSD are neat and even better if your OS is installed in the SSD disk instead in the HDD; it speeds up everything from browsing files to opening programs. Downside is that SSD are usually more expensive and that's why they're usually packed in 250GB or 500GB.

My recommendation is to look for a laptop that has the following:
-1920 x 1080 (FHD) Resolution to 2560x1440 (QHD) Resolution
-7th gen i5 to 8th gen i7 (Good for computing in local simulations and anything that uses CPU Power)
-16GB DDR4 Ram or more
-NVIDIA GTX 1060 or greater
-250GB SSD with 1TB HDD Combo (OS in SSD and all your other files in HDD except programs you want to work smoothly)

Important observation: for all this specs, you might see laptops priced at $1100 - $1300 so, if you want to use all your budget, I would pump up the CPU, RAM, SSD, or consider Touchscreen if you liked that.

I'll look for Laptop options in the market and come back a while later with answers.

Also, due to demands in cryptomining, most GPUs in Amazon, Newegg, and other popular stores are either out of stock or selling via third party members with inflated prices. I wouldn't recommend building a PC unless you're buying prebuild.

Any questions, hit me up!

Yeray Pabon

Thank you so much for that info!

The xps 15 by dell is something I have looked at, it seems to meet all the requirements you are talking about and I can save 200 bucks by not getting a 4k screen. It has a GTX 1050 not a 1060 idk if that is a huge deal

Anonymous · ‎02-23-2018

Not bad at all.

I think you gotta keep looking for even better choices. I just found this:

https://www.amazon.com/Dell-Inspiron-Gaming-Laptop-i5577-7359BLK-PUS/dp/B06XVQF486/ref=as_li_ss_tl?i...

7th Generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ Quad Core (6MB Cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
12GB 2400MHz DDR4 up to 32GB (additional memory sold separately)
Dual drives with 128GB Solid State Drive + 1TB 5400 rpm Hard Drive , No Optical Drive option
15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) Anti-Glare LED-Backlit Display
NVIDIA GTX 1050 4GB

All that for $800. That's $1k saved but it depends on what you want. If you want all the performance with your budget, you'll get a monster laptop. If you want what's necessary to run Fusion 360 and other CAD programs, you can lean on a more affordable price without sacrificing much performance. I'm running on 6th Gen i5, 8GB RAM, 128GB + 1T HDD, GTX 970 for 2 years now and it's still going strong.

This is a really good affordable choice at $1050:

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-i7-7700HQ-1060-6GB-G3-571-77QK/dp/B06Y4GZS9C/ref=sr_1_2?s=elect...

Here's one at $1530:

https://www.amazon.com/GL702VS-Gaming-Display-GeForce-i7-7700HQ/dp/B075KX1MJS/ref=sr_1_3?s=electroni...

All it adds is a more powerful GPU (GTX 1070 instead of 1060. ~40% performance increase) and a bit faster refresh rate for your screen (75Hz) which is mostly used in gaming for butter smooth gameplay. It also adds G-Sync, a feature for gaming that matches the refresh rate of the screen with the GPU. Basically a smoother gameplay. However, it has 12GB RAM instead of 16GB RAM but still great.

GPUs are used in gaming, 3D simulations, rendering, and other things that require graphical power. Local rendering in Fusion makes use of this.

GTX 1050 is a lower grade than GTX 1060 but it's cheaper.

From Low-end to High-end for the Pascal Architecture (think of it as the newest generation), it goes like this:

GTX 1050 -> 1050Ti -> 1060 -> 1070 -> 1070Ti -> 1080 -> 1080Ti

Note that there are no laptops with 1080Ti & 1070Ti yet. (Correct me if I'm wrong, I haven't seen one anywhere.)

Anonymous · ‎02-23-2018

Reason I was looking at the XPS is because I am a student and being able to write on my screen is super helpful for how I learn. And I really appreciate all the Info I am learning a bunch

Anonymous · ‎02-24-2018

Ah, then yes. If you're leaning on touchscreen, then that's a good choice. I had been looking at Surface Book 1 & 2, HP Spectre, Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon, and some others but they're either too expensive, not state-of-the-art, or does not have most of the requirements listed. Make sure to search on every store for the best deals! 🙂

If you think I answered your question, pick my post as the Solution to your post.

If you have more questions, don't hesitate in sending me a PM.

Hope the best for you,

Yeray Pabon

Anonymous · ‎02-24-2018

@Anonymous wrote:
Ah, then yes. If you're leaning on touchscreen, then that's a good choice. I had been looking at Surface Book 1 & 2, HP Spectre, Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon, and some others but they're either too expensive, not state-of-the-art, or does not have most of the requirements listed. Make sure to search on every store for the best deals! 🙂

If you think I answered your question, pick my post as the Solution to your post.
If you have more questions, don't hesitate in sending me a PM.

Hope the best for you,
Yeray Pabon

Yes I was looking at HP Spectre, but the video card is not as good as the lenovo yoga 720, but Ive talked to quite a few people that dont like lenovo, but they all agreed that dell is not bad. It seems like unfortunately, right now, 2 in 1's just do not have the power that we are looking for, I am sure as the technology improves it will, but I think a touch screen laptop might have to be what I get. There are still just so many options that it is hard to decide.
I honestly cannot get myself to consider a surface book because I had a poor experience with the surface pro 4, I got the blue screen of death multiple times a week, onenote always ran horribly and would screw up my notes, and the performance was limited, (obviously the book is more powerful), but I dont want to disconnect from the keyboard and lose capabilities.

Anonymous · ‎02-24-2018

DELL and you believe them as far as HP = horrible product they use to make
oscillosopes they should have stayed there

theo.k.schaffer · ‎08-30-2018

I'm in the same boat, I use a good pressure sensitive touchscreen to communicate on projects. It seems to really be limiting my options, but it's become so critical.

Did you ever select a computer? Can you give us a review on what you got?

Thanks,

T

theo.k.schaffer · ‎08-30-2018

I can verify that the Surface Book 1, even the higher spec i7 6600u & dedicated Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M gpu, is too out of date for anything other than really light CAD work now in Inventor and Fusion. The Surface Book 2 with the i7-8650U & GTX1060 looks good on paper (except the $3K price tag).

(Posted from my Surface Book 1)

Anonymous · ‎08-30-2019

Hi ,

i am using LG gram and it works great. Check below to get a bit of ideas

chrisplyler · ‎08-30-2019

Get a black one. Black laptops are the coolest laptops.

TrippyLighting · ‎08-30-2019

LOL!

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What Laptop Should I get for CAD/CAM

What Laptop Should I get for CAD/CAM

What Laptop Should I get for CAD/CAM