Buying new laptop for CAD (Architecture student)

[Jaden lim]

Hi, im an architecture student studying in malaysia going into my 2nd sem and i'm planning on buying a gaming laptop to use for the next 3 years for CAD, BIM, and Rendering. I am planning to buy at the end of march(29-31) and I want to know your recommendations. My budget is around 1800 USD. My current laptop is a early 2015 macbook air which is why I need the upgrade.

 

the specs that i want to get are;

Intel i7-9750H

16 GB of ram with room for expansion

125gb SSD with 1tb hard drive

RTX 2060

15 inch display

 

i have been eyeing the Asus ROG strix scar 3 but the RTX 2060 version is only available in the 17.3 inch version here in malaysia 1684 USD (RM 7,099). i'm not sure if its a good idea to buy a 17 inch laptop as it might be harder to carry around in campus. But on the plus side a bigger display means it will be easier to use CAD (and better for content consumption haha). 

 

I was also thinking about waiting for the ROG Zephyrus G15 that is supposedly supposed to come out soon but due to the shut down of manufacturing I don't know if i should wait. I wanted to wait because the new AMD Ryzen chip will have 8 cores, 2 more than the intel i7-9750H and i know that the more cores the better for rendering. 

 

thank you in advance! 

 

[TVwazhere]

7 minutes ago, Jaden lim said:

Hi, im an architecture student studying in malaysia going into my 2nd sem and i'm planning on buying a gaming laptop to use for the next 3 years for CAD, BIM, and Rendering.

What software are you using?

[jdfthetech]

It sounds like you are doing serious CAD work.  For that I would not recommend a gaming laptop.
I would recommend the Lenovo P1 Gen2.

this is basically an X1 Extreme laptop but with Quadro graphics rather than a 1660 so it is specifically designed for CAD work.

They are absolute beasts.  I run an X1 Extreme Gen1 (bought refurbished) as my Daily Driver and cannot say enough great things about it.


A word of warning about Lenovo:

They have awful shipping and horrible customer service for the purchase.
I would recommend buying on Amazon or another third party to make sure you get it on time.

You can always go with a refurbished Gen1 as well, they are still very good.
If you decide to go the refurb route, you can PM me and I'll send you the seller I bought from on Amazon, they shipped an excellent product that appears brand new and it saved me a few hundred bux.

[Jaden lim]

40 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

What software are you using?

the lecturers have not told us what software we will be using yet and i can't find anything on the university website. but from a friend that knows some seniors; autocad, revit, sketchup, 3ds max, and lumion.

[panzersharkcat]

I second the option of the X1 Extreme and the P1. I'm typing this on an X1E1 and it's been great so far. Bought it manufacturer refurbished on eBay and it come in practically new condition. I see X1E1s for sale between $1020-1220 on ebay. Prices are a little higher on the P1G1 with P2000 GPU. If you don't mind more weight and some cosmetic near the back ports, there's this P52 with a Quadro P3200, the Quadro version of the GTX 1060, for $1500. Just need to add another stick of RAM in there for dual channel. Maybe get a matching pair of 2666 MHz ones since the item description says it's 2400 MHz.

[Jaden lim]

8 minutes ago, jdfthetech said:

It sounds like you are doing serious CAD work.  For that I would not recommend a gaming laptop.
I would recommend the Lenovo P1 Gen2.

this is basically an X1 Extreme laptop but with Quadro graphics rather than a 1660 so it is specifically designed for CAD work.

They are absolute beasts.  I run an X1 Extreme Gen1 (bought refurbished) as my Daily Driver and cannot say enough great things about it.


A word of warning about Lenovo:

They have awful shipping and horrible customer service for the purchase.
I would recommend buying on Amazon or another third party to make sure you get it on time.

You can always go with a refurbished Gen1 as well, they are still very good.
If you decide to go the refurb route, you can PM me and I'll send you the seller I bought from on Amazon, they shipped an excellent product that appears brand new and it saved me a few hundred bux.

thank you for the recommendation! i'll look into it.