Best laptop 1500 and under for Autocad students in college

[Mike2121]

Looking for the best laptop for college as an Engineering student. I am commuting so their may be times I may not be able to get to my desktop at home. So I was looking for something that is preety portable and small but also is good for using AutoCad software. preferably something where i can upgrade RAM and Storage in the future. It probably would need a dedicated graphics card as well.

[genexis_x]

Budget? Location?

[Mike2121]

3 hours ago, ZM Fong said:

Budget? Location?

1300-1500. Cleveland Ohio.

[Taf the Ghost]

Curious about this, as I don't know what the programs favor heavily. Seems more GPU then clocks.

[Taf the Ghost]

Poking around at benchmarks, it looks like you'd probably be best served with a Gaming Laptop with a dedicate GPU.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-dell-g3-15-gaming/spd/g-series-15-3579-laptop/dncwgf426s

 

Something in that ballpark. A Coffee Lake 6 core with a 1050 Ti/1060 Max-Q/1060 range dGPU. You just don't want to run it too long without having it plugged in.

 

However, this isn't advice/suggestion. I don't know the program's bottleneck well enough to give that, but the GPU is going to be important, regardless.

[Mike2121]

3 hours ago, Taf the Ghost said:

Poking around at benchmarks, it looks like you'd probably be best served with a Gaming Laptop with a dedicate GPU.

 

http://www.dell.com/en-us/shop/dell-laptops/new-dell-g3-15-gaming/spd/g-series-15-3579-laptop/dncwgf426s

 

Something in that ballpark. A Coffee Lake 6 core with a 1050 Ti/1060 Max-Q/1060 range dGPU. You just don't want to run it too long without having it plugged in.

 

However, this isn't advice/suggestion. I don't know the program's bottleneck well enough to give that, but the GPU is going to be important, regardless.

Do you think it will be small enough to fit on a desk in college or be portable enough?

[Taf the Ghost]

13 minutes ago, Mike2121 said:

Do you think it will be small enough to fit on a desk in college or be portable enough?

I don't know how big your desks are, lol.

 

https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&IsNodeId=1&N=100167732 4814 601205664 600553908&cm_sp=CAT_Gaming-Laptops_7-_-VisNav-_-GTX-1060

 

An entire selection of options, of which I have no direct opinion on all of them. I'm hoping someone with a better understanding of AutoCAD bottlenecks shows up. But a i7-7700HQ based laptop with a 1060 seems likely to be the best option for your price bracket. Also, 15" seems to be the functionally smallest available option for those types of laptops. You can check specs for usability options.

[genexis_x]

1 hour ago, Mike2121 said:

1300-1500. Cleveland Ohio.

Usually mobile workstations are the best choices, however since you need portability, I'll suggest Thinkpad T480/T480s/T580/P52s