Laptop recommendation?

I just bought a Toshiba Satellite P105-S9722 with....

2gig Ram 200gig hard drive Intel duo core processor 2ghz nvidia geforce 7900 /w 256mb ram 17" widescreen 1440 x 900 resolution (Has a number keypad on the right side. Like a real keyboard) Win XP Pro installed

Price: $2,000.00 Where: Micro Center (on the web but bought from a local Micro Center after looking at it in person)

McQ

HP Compaq NW8440: good balance of power, size, Thickness and weight.

I am using a Sony Vaio VGN-FE690 with the nVidia graphics card. andI have absolutely no problems running solidworks and a handful of other applications at the same time. The major thing you want to make sure it has for 3D CAD work is a graphics card with dedicated memory, not shared RAM. You will want a gig of ram at least and a decent processor, but as long as you have the video card it will not have to be the fastest laptop on the market to work really well.

Flynt wrote:

Been through this scenario too many times now to remember how many.

If the laptop is occassional use or field work, the equation is totally different than if most your work is done on the laptop. There is a basic upfront decision on the nature of SWks use to define first.

Laptop cost, in my personal experience (not opinion), is the lowest of my costs! Why?

1. SolidWorks Pro+ Cost = better part of k with the options
2. Maintenance alone = almost k/year
3. Addons = k + maintenance
4. Backup amortized yearly = k
5. Backup for the Laptop, when it goes down = 2nd machine & quick turnaround warranty on laptop
6. $___.__/hr = your hourly rate. Cost of slowdowns due to more limited screen size on most "inexpensive" laptops, & similarly induced slowdowns from minimal memory, crowded smallish hard drives, and less than desirable graphics cards.

In other words, if we are realistic about deciding where the real costs are located, it is NOT the cost of the lowest price laptop that determines what our yearly cost of ownership is going to be.

If lowest cost transport hardware was the norm, most of us would be on bicycles or motorcycles.

Bo

Flynt wrote:

And the resolution on your M90 makes for incredibly sharp clear work on a laptop.

Bo

Jeff Mirisola wrote:

I love my HP Pavilion,

Tom

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

F

Which is the present model of the M90? I can't find this on the Dell site any more. I am tempted to get a Mac and run Windows.

Bo wrote:

Try this:

I am using the M90 ( 4 gig ram and x64 windows) absolutely no problems yet.

will wrote:

Dell's M90 can be found on:

Go to Notebooks:Small Business:Precision Mobile Workstation

Apple has done a good job with running WinXP Pro, but there are the slight glitches, in that Apple has to write drivers and such for Boot Camp, and though it is very very good, there may be some driver issues that don't work, because the manufacturer or Apple hasn't provided them. I don't use Win XP for anything but simple Office, & SolidWorks stuff, so I consider it OK.

If I was going to use it all day every day and needed the best speed, I would buy a desktop PC in a heartbeat. If it was heavy work on a laptop, the M90 will probably still be faster than the MacBook Pro by a bit.

YMMV: It depends on the use the laptop will be put to by the person plunking down the dollars.

Bo

will wrote: