Laptop for CAD work

[Adamfres]

I am looking for a Laptop that is very capable for running CAD software. What components are important for running CAD software? And any laptop suggestions are welcome. 

[Jurrunio]

1 minute ago, Adamfres said:

I am looking for a Laptop that is very capable for running CAD software. What components are important for running CAD software? And any laptop suggestions are welcome. 

Does it have to be portable, i.e. suitable for uses outdoors? Or you are buying it to use in a proper place, like a desk?

[19_blackie_73]

Most important is cpu + as much ram as possible if you are dealing with big assemblies. And a dedicated gpu even if its not a quadro/firepro helps too in larger assemblies

[TVwazhere]

21 minutes ago, Adamfres said:

I am looking for a Laptop that is very capable for running CAD software. What components are important for running CAD software? And any laptop suggestions are welcome. 

12 minutes ago, 19_blackie_73 said:

Most important is cpu + as much ram as possible if you are dealing with big assemblies. And a dedicated gpu even if its not a quadro/firepro helps too in larger assemblies

CPU, 16gb+ RAM and a decent dedicated GPU (doesnt have to be extremely powerful for "most" CAD applications) are the most important things. Depending on your workload, these can vary. Smaller assemblies dont need any more than 16gb of RAM. Some programs like Inventor and Solidworks are actually pretty Single thread heavy (regular drawing, modeling, assembly) with multi threaded features at the more advanced levels (rendering, analysis, etc) so a high IPC cpu like an intel 7700hq or 7820hk is recommended

 

[Adamfres]

43 minutes ago, Jurrunio said:

Does it have to be portable, i.e. suitable for uses outdoors? Or you are buying it to use in a proper place, like a desk?

I will be taking it to university so I will be taking it between by accommodation and the design school each day.

[Adamfres]

22 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

CPU, 16gb+ RAM and a decent dedicated GPU (doesnt have to be extremely powerful for "most" CAD applications) are the most important things. Depending on your workload, these can vary. Smaller assemblies dont need any more than 16gb of RAM. Some programs like Inventor and Solidworks are actually pretty Single thread heavy (regular drawing, modeling, assembly) with multi threaded features at the more advanced levels (rendering, analysis, etc) so a high IPC cpu like an intel 7700hq or 7820hk is recommended

 

The laptops I have been looking at have an i7 7700HQ, 16gb of Ram, GTX 1050ti and differing combinations of HDD and SSD. Will a better GPU make a difference for CAD? How much of a difference does 32gb of ram make to 16gb of ram? And is there anything else I should take into consideration?

[TVwazhere]

Just now, Adamfres said:

The laptops I have been looking at have an i7 7700HQ, 16gb of Ram, GTX 1050ti and differing combinations of HDD and SSD. Will a better GPU make a difference for CAD? How much of a difference does 32gb of ram make to 16gb of ram? And is there anything else I should take into consideration?

Generally not beyond a certain point for certain applications. A 1050ti shoud do perfectly fine for university work. 

You would only need more RAM if you had large assemblies (AKA, assemblies that have more than 10,000 individual parts) so I almost guarantee 16GB will be enough (unless youre doing high end CAD work)
 

I would recommend at least a 240gb SSD, I'm running a 120GB one at work and I have to constantly clean files on it to get Autodesk Inventor to work (it has a minimum 1gb of drive space to even boot) NVME is not needed, as it seems to make no difference other than maybe loading the program for the first time.

[domandric034]

1 hour ago, Adamfres said:

I am looking for a Laptop that is very capable for running CAD software. What components are important for running CAD software? And any laptop suggestions are welcome. 

Dell Inspiron 7567 is your way to go.

This model is nice

[Adamfres]

8 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

Generally not beyond a certain point for certain applications. A 1050ti shoud do perfectly fine for university work. 

You would only need more RAM if you had large assemblies (AKA, assemblies that have more than 10,000 individual parts) so I almost guarantee 16GB will be enough (unless youre doing high end CAD work)
 

I would recommend at least a 240gb SSD, I'm running a 120GB one at work and I have to constantly clean files on it to get Autodesk Inventor to work (it has a minimum 1gb of drive space to even boot) NVME is not needed, as it seems to make no difference other than maybe loading the program for the first time.

Thank you, You have been very helpful.

[Adamfres]

10 minutes ago, domandric034 said:

Dell Inspiron 7567 is your way to go.

This model is nice

Coincidentally that was one of the laptops I was looking at already. Are any of the other i7 7700HQ and GTX 1050TI laptops worth looking into?

[TVwazhere]

14 minutes ago, domandric034 said:

Dell Inspiron 7567 is your way to go.

This model is nice

This model is good. I do wish the SSD was larger, but if you dont put your CAD programs on the SSD then you will be okay. 

Theres also this MSI Laptop from Newegg that has more USB's including a usb 3.0 type c port, a bit more video out options, and a 512gb SSD but no hard drive (which might be able to be put in later, I'm not sure. (edit yes it has an open 2.5" ssd so oyu can install a hard drive in it)

[honor]

You might as well customize your own Laptop based on clevo barebones. Sites like xotic or eurocom offer such barebones, with loads of option to customize those to your needs. (They usually don't look very great, but they can be pieced together in a way to fit your budget).

[Adamfres]

1 hour ago, TVwazhere said:

This model is good. I do wish the SSD was larger, but if you dont put your CAD programs on the SSD then you will be okay. 

Theres also this MSI Laptop from Newegg that has more USB's including a usb 3.0 type c port, a bit more video out options, and a 512gb SSD but no hard drive (which might be able to be put in later, I'm not sure. (edit yes it has an open 2.5" ssd so oyu can install a hard drive in it)

Is SATA faster than PCIe as a rule?

[JoostinOnline]

1 minute ago, Adamfres said:

Is SATA faster than PCIe as a rule?

It's the other way around.  However, it tends not to matter much unless you're doing content creation and work with large files.

[TVwazhere]

1 minute ago, Adamfres said:

Is SATA faster than PCIe as a rule?

PCI-E is a form factor, SATA is a protocol. What you're thinking of is NVME, which yes, is faster than SATA, but it's not going to make a big difference like going from a mechanical hard drive to an SSD

[Adamfres]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

It's the other way around.  However, it tends not to matter much unless you're doing content creation and work with large files.

Okay thanks, so it does not effect application boots speed much?

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, TVwazhere said:

PCI-E is a form factor, SATA is a protocol. What you're thinking of is NVME, which yes, is faster than SATA, but it's not going to make a big difference like going from a mechanical hard drive to an SSD

PCIe is an interface.  M.2 is a form factor.

[JoostinOnline]

Just now, Adamfres said:

Okay thanks, so it does not effect application boots speed much?

No.  NVMe drives (which work through PCIe) have a much higher bandwidth, so they can manage large files much faster.  However, the speed they read small files is what affects boot/load times, and there isn't much difference between SATA and NVMe drives.

[Adamfres]

1 minute ago, JoostinOnline said:

No.  NVMe drives (which work through PCIe) have a much higher bandwidth, so they can manage large files much faster.  However, the speed they read small files is what affects boot/load times, and there isn't much difference between SATA and NVMe drives.

Okay thanks.