Student Mobile Workstation Recommendation Needed

[Actnup3]

First post, new to forum so don't hate me guys. Starting a Mechanical engineering program and need a Laptop that can run AutoCAD and Solidworks. School's requirements are SSD, dedicated graphics (4gb VRAM),16gb RAM, and i5 or i7. Vague, I know. I'm well versed in building and have a rig with custom loop and all that, but I've never used CAD software. My question is which brand do I go with, and which model. Trying to keep it as budget friendly as possible, something that will last me through a 5 year program, and possibly have some upgrade room as far as RAM and SSD/M.2 goes. Would like recommendations from hands on experience if possible with regards to quality and use experience because this thing has to last. So far I think I've found out that 16gb RAM, i7-8750H, quadro P2000, 512gb PCIe SSD should get me going strong and hopefully last the full distance. Never used Xeon, so idk if I need ECC for this kind of thing and if I you think an i5 will do just fine please let me know. Lenovo P52/P1 seems to be a good bet (heard bad things about battery life though), MSI W series seems to be the best value Perf/$, and Dell precision looks solid but pricey. If I'm being dumb about something please let me know, as this is very much uncharted territory for me.

[Turtle Rig]

10 minutes ago, Actnup3 said:

First post, new to forum so don't hate me guys. Starting a Mechanical engineering program and need a Laptop that can run AutoCAD and Solidworks. School's requirements are SSD, dedicated graphics (4gb VRAM),16gb RAM, and i5 or i7. Vague, I know. I'm well versed in building and have a rig with custom loop and all that, but I've never used CAD software. My question is which brand do I go with, and which model. Trying to keep it as budget friendly as possible, something that will last me through a 5 year program, and possibly have some upgrade room as far as RAM and SSD/M.2 goes. Would like recommendations from hands on experience if possible with regards to quality and use experience because this thing has to last. So far I think I've found out that 16gb RAM, i7-8750H, quadro P2000, 512gb PCIe SSD should get me going strong and hopefully last the full distance. Never used Xeon, so idk if I need ECC for this kind of thing and if I you think an i5 will do just fine please let me know. Lenovo P52/P1 seems to be a good bet (heard bad things about battery life though), MSI W series seems to be the best value Perf/$, and Dell precision looks solid but pricey. If I'm being dumb about something please let me know, as this is very much uncharted territory for me.

Get the MSI over those other ones.  Well with i5 you pretty much lose the HT hyper threading which AutoCad loves as do other pro HT apps.  Your going to have to shell out more to get ECC..... Also no where does it state the Xeon or the model for that matter.  So you got my confused.

[SupaKomputa]

Asus TUF laptop FX505, 3rd gen Ryzen + 1660 mobile.

[SupaKomputa]

11 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Get the MSI over those other ones.  Well with i5 you pretty much lose the HT hyper threading which AutoCad loves as do other pro HT apps.  Your going to have to shell out more to get ECC..... Also no where does it state the Xeon or the model for that matter.  So you got my confused.

ECC laptop cost an arm and a leg. goodluck with that.

[Turtle Rig]

1 minute ago, SupaKomputa said:

ECC laptop cost an arm and a leg. goodluck with that.

Your wrong it actually, you need to sell your kydney.  This is for laptop it is going to be a outrageous price.  Nice one Supakomputa.  I didn't know about this MSI model.  Very costly tho but oh well what can we do.

[SupaKomputa]

5 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Your wrong it actually, you need to sell your kydney.  This is for laptop it is going to be a outrageous price.  Nice one Supakomputa.  I didn't know about this MSI model.  Very costly tho but oh well what can we do.

Yeah, but on the used market the prices are crashing, old Lenovo, Dell or HP workstation laptops with Quadro are so cheap, like $800-$1500.

[TheBean]

seriously, just get any laptop with a gpu equivalent or better than the gtx 1050. you can find out about that from https://gpu.userbenchmark.com/

get any cpu better than i5-8250u. you can compare here: cpu.userbenchmark.com 

 

this should cost about USD$800 on the low end

[TheBean]

what is your budget?

[Zagna]

Maybe Dell Precision 5530 2-in-1 (i7-8706G, Radeon WX Vega M GL)?

i5/i7 models with 512G SSD and 16G RAM are 1800-2000$ in Dell Outlet.

[Stormseeker9]

HP Zbook 17 G5.

 

my buddy has it (he’s a civil engineer and does a lot of 3d modeling and cad stuff with his laptop 

 

 

[genexis_x]

Thinkpad P52/P53, Precision 7530/7540, Zbook 15 G5/G6

 

Or their 17 inch counterparts if you don't mind the extra weight

[Actnup3]

Holy crap, just got back from work and didn't expect this level of response guys! Seriously guys thank you. Anyone actually used a quadro vs GTX/RTX for CAD? I see a lot of propaganda from Nvidia and Solidworks, but what kind of real world difference does it make? I can find systems with 2080 max Qs for the same price as one with a quadro p1000. FYI I WILL not be gaming on this laptop. Haven't set up my signature yet, but I have a liquid cooled 7700k, 2080XC, on an samsung 970 pro triple monitor setup at home.