Question about possible Laptop for Revit 2010

Anonymous · ‎03-14-2010

Best Buy sells the following Laptop, and I would like to ask this Newsgroup
if you think that it is enough or good enough to handle Revit 2010 and
possibly 2011 (when it is released), and maybe also AutoCAD Architecture
2010 or 2011 installed at the same time (only one program will be running at
one time, of course). Please advise. Thanks in advance.

TOSHIBA LAPTOP MODEL A05-S6025 $799.99
Intel Core i-3 330 M Processor Laptop
Windows 7
Professional 64 Bit
4 GB - DDR3 Memory
500 GB Hard Drive
Battery Up to 5 Hrs, 20 min.
16" 16:9 Display
NVIDIA GeForce 310M Graphics w/ 512MB Dedicated DDR Memory
Dedicated Graphics
7.17 LBS
Includes Best Buy Software Installer

Anonymous · ‎03-14-2010

Octavio-

i suspect you are pulling our leg with this..

because you know this is what i have been
telling everyone to wait for all along..

new 32 nanometer i3- perfect..

16:9 wide screen but not movie wide- perfect..
(now that we know RAC 2011 will use both
sides of the screen).. infact- i would want to see
RAC 2011 before i bought a screen size because
we don't know just how wide that thing on the side
is going to be.. who knows- maybe movie wide for
RAC 2011 will be good too..

win 7 pro- perfect..

4GB of ram and probably can handle 8GB- perfect..

additional graphics not necessary unless you do games..

nice batteries..

hard drive way too big unless you partition it with a
small partition for your system and programs where
you can wipe it all off and reload when a virus attacks..
otherwise if you use it all as one you could lose all
your valuable stuff..

you can send this laptop to me if you're not happy with
it and you don't want to bother returning it..

BTW- that reminds me- best-buy has a nasty restocking
fee.. lol

it's quite possible you would get better graphics
performance with RAC 2011 on that laptop if
you used the on-chip graphics instead of that
video card.. and you would get longer
battery life too.. you can try them both
by switching in the BIOS.. Edited by: vector2 on Mar 15, 2010 1:26 PM

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2010

Looks good my only question is what is the speed of the hard drive? If 7200
RPM, great."

Octavio" wrote in message
news:6354535@discussion.autodesk.com...
> Best Buy sells the following Laptop, and I would like to ask this
> Newsgroup
> if you think that it is enough or good enough to handle Revit 2010 and
> possibly 2011 (when it is released), and maybe also AutoCAD Architecture
> 2010 or 2011 installed at the same time (only one program will be running
> at
> one time, of course). Please advise. Thanks in advance.
>
>
> TOSHIBA LAPTOP MODEL A05-S6025 $799.99
> Intel Core i-3 330 M Processor Laptop
> Windows 7
> Professional 64 Bit
> 4 GB - DDR3 Memory
> 500 GB Hard Drive
> Battery Up to 5 Hrs, 20 min.
> 16" 16:9 Display
> NVIDIA GeForce 310M Graphics w/ 512MB Dedicated DDR Memory
> Dedicated Graphics
> 7.17 LBS
> Includes Best Buy Software Installer

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2010

my recommendation is to always use at least 8 gigs of RAM in a 64 bit
machine.

"Octavio" wrote in message
news:6354535@discussion.autodesk.com...
Best Buy sells the following Laptop, and I would like to ask this Newsgroup
if you think that it is enough or good enough to handle Revit 2010 and
possibly 2011 (when it is released), and maybe also AutoCAD Architecture
2010 or 2011 installed at the same time (only one program will be running at
one time, of course). Please advise. Thanks in advance.

TOSHIBA LAPTOP MODEL A05-S6025 $799.99
Intel Core i-3 330 M Processor Laptop
Windows 7
Professional 64 Bit
4 GB - DDR3 Memory
500 GB Hard Drive
Battery Up to 5 Hrs, 20 min.
16" 16:9 Display
NVIDIA GeForce 310M Graphics w/ 512MB Dedicated DDR Memory
Dedicated Graphics
7.17 LBS
Includes Best Buy Software Installer

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2010

If I was only using the laptop to demo or "play with" Revit, maybe. But if I had
to actually do work on it, no way. Look for a real Professional model with
professional specifications.

For your mom's laptop, the i3 is fine. But for Revit, the i3 is a seriously
crappy processor. It's only a dual-core (not a quad-core) CPU, and doesn't have
the internal efficiencies which makes the Core i7 such a barn burner.

4GB isn't sufficient for serious Revit use. Look for one that can have 8GB
installed. That's the minimum today.

Windows 7 Pro 64-bit is the only choice in operating systems these days, so
that's a non-issue.

Make sure the hard drive is 7200 RPM, not 5400 RPM. You can probably get by with
320GB for typical online data needs and use an external eSATA drive for
near-line data and backups.

16:9 screens are gimmicks to sell "large" screens which really are not large at
all. A 16:9 screen is nice if you watch a lot of movies. Otherwise, you are
losing a lot of vertical pixels which is important in Revit.

The graphics card is anemic at best.

And the words "Includes Best Buy Installer Software" just gives me the heebie
jeebies on an AOL scale.

My minimum Revit laptop specs:

15.4" 1920x1200 WUXGA+ screen
i7 CPU @ 2.0GHz
8GB RAM
Decent dedicated graphics with 1GB RAM.
DVD/RW
Built-in SD card reader
eSATA external connector
DVI or DisplayPort external connector

Matt
matt@stachoni.com

On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:21:57 -0700, Octavio wrote:

>Best Buy sells the following Laptop, and I would like to ask this Newsgroup
>if you think that it is enough or good enough to handle Revit 2010 and
>possibly 2011 (when it is released), and maybe also AutoCAD Architecture
>2010 or 2011 installed at the same time (only one program will be running at
>one time, of course). Please advise. Thanks in advance.
>
>
>TOSHIBA LAPTOP MODEL A05-S6025 $799.99
>Intel Core i-3 330 M Processor Laptop
>Windows 7
>Professional 64 Bit
>4 GB - DDR3 Memory
>500 GB Hard Drive
>Battery Up to 5 Hrs, 20 min.
>16" 16:9 Display
>NVIDIA GeForce 310M Graphics w/ 512MB Dedicated DDR Memory
>Dedicated Graphics
>7.17 LBS
>Includes Best Buy Software Installer

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2010

Octavio-

Matt has good advice: wait a couple of more
weeks for the new i7 "barn-burner" laptop..
the new barn-burner will have 6 cores instead
of only 4.. the old barn-burner i7 laptop ran a
little hot and ripped though batteries like crazy-
but it only costed $3000..

and of course for that kind of money you will
get a solid state drive..

you can be sure your mom won't touch THIS
professional laptop..

Anonymous · ‎03-15-2010

On Mon, 15 Mar 2010 16:16:07 -0700, vector2 <> wrote:

>Matt has good advice: wait a couple of more
>weeks for the new i7 "barn-burner" laptop..

I suggest no such thing. Core i7 laptops have been out for some time, and
represent a very good high end that balances the power needs of a Revit user
with those attributes favored in a laptop, namely, portability and at least some
semblence of a battery life.

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/blogs/2009/09/18/intel-core-i7-for-laptops-first-review/

I personally like the Dell Precision M6500, as do others:
http://reviews.dell.com/2341/precision-m6500/reviews.htm

Matt
matt@stachoni.com

Anonymous · ‎03-16-2010

"Matt Stachoni" wrote
> I personally like the Dell Precision M6500

I bought an M6500 as a desktop replacement for one of our project managers.
The performance has been great and he's happy with it, but the thing most
people who see it walk away talking about is how big and heavy it is, and
what's up with that enormous power supply. I haven't been able to get across
to them that it's a serious workstation and not something you're supposed to
whip out at the coffee shop to check the weather.

Anonymous · ‎03-19-2010

Thanks to all who responded.
I went back to Best Buy and found out that the drive is 5400, they said.
Also I found that the model number is A505-S6025, with an additional number
5, which I originally missed.
Thanks to all again.

"Matt Stachoni" wrote in message
news:6355089@discussion.autodesk.com...
> If I was only using the laptop to demo or "play with" Revit, maybe. But if
> I had
> to actually do work on it, no way. Look for a real Professional model with
> professional specifications.
>
> For your mom's laptop, the i3 is fine. But for Revit, the i3 is a
> seriously
> crappy processor. It's only a dual-core (not a quad-core) CPU, and doesn't
> have
> the internal efficiencies which makes the Core i7 such a barn burner.
>
> 4GB isn't sufficient for serious Revit use. Look for one that can have 8GB
> installed. That's the minimum today.
>
> Windows 7 Pro 64-bit is the only choice in operating systems these days,
> so
> that's a non-issue.
>
> Make sure the hard drive is 7200 RPM, not 5400 RPM. You can probably get
> by with
> 320GB for typical online data needs and use an external eSATA drive for
> near-line data and backups.
>
> 16:9 screens are gimmicks to sell "large" screens which really are not
> large at
> all. A 16:9 screen is nice if you watch a lot of movies. Otherwise, you
> are
> losing a lot of vertical pixels which is important in Revit.
>
> The graphics card is anemic at best.
>
> And the words "Includes Best Buy Installer Software" just gives me the
> heebie
> jeebies on an AOL scale.
>
> My minimum Revit laptop specs:
>
> 15.4" 1920x1200 WUXGA+ screen
> i7 CPU @ 2.0GHz
> 8GB RAM
> Decent dedicated graphics with 1GB RAM.
> DVD/RW
> Built-in SD card reader
> eSATA external connector
> DVI or DisplayPort external connector
>
> Matt
> matt@stachoni.com
>
>
> On Sun, 14 Mar 2010 17:21:57 -0700, Octavio wrote:
>
>>Best Buy sells the following Laptop, and I would like to ask this
>>Newsgroup
>>if you think that it is enough or good enough to handle Revit 2010 and
>>possibly 2011 (when it is released), and maybe also AutoCAD Architecture
>>2010 or 2011 installed at the same time (only one program will be running
>>at
>>one time, of course). Please advise. Thanks in advance.
>>
>>
>>TOSHIBA LAPTOP MODEL A05-S6025 $799.99
>>Intel Core i-3 330 M Processor Laptop
>>Windows 7
>>Professional 64 Bit
>>4 GB - DDR3 Memory
>>500 GB Hard Drive
>>Battery Up to 5 Hrs, 20 min.
>>16" 16:9 Display
>>NVIDIA GeForce 310M Graphics w/ 512MB Dedicated DDR Memory
>>Dedicated Graphics
>>7.17 LBS
>>Includes Best Buy Software Installer