purchasing a laptop?

Question

what type of laptop should i purchase for the purpose of doing Computer Aided Designs (CAD) can you list the specs it should have. One especially with a lot of memory

Answer 1

I use a Dell XPS M2010. It's a desktp replacement, but still very portable. 20 inch screen, dual core processor, 2 hard drives, 256MB video, 4 gigs ram, the list goes on.
Check it out. an AWESOME machine.

Answer 2

With CAD I would say you need top of the line. Fast Processor; most are 2.2 GHz and up and should be fine.
RAM here you really need 2 GB or more, the reason, just look at Windows VISTA they say a minimum of 512 KB and Microsoft even says in the fine print, some features may not work. So, most people say have at least 1 GB of RAM. CAD may be more memory intensive. So, 2 GB minimum 4 would be enough for later down the road so your computer not be obsolete in 3 years.
Hard Drive (HDD). Here will depend on how many other programs you may use and if you store a lot of your work on the computer. In your situation I would say 80 GB minimum, one many Laptops come with this. I think you can get 160 GB. Here what I would do. I would worry more with the amount of RAM that come pre-installed, it about $100 GB +/-
An 80 GB HDD be good and buy a large External HDD for storage. If, you take the Laptop into the field you can Import work from the HDD to the Laptop as needed.
Operating Systems; IF, at all possiable I would try to have Windows XP, Microsoft has extended support until 2014, if, I remember this correct. VISTA has 10 years on upper end (Which would be what you get), 5 years on some low end Vistas. So, Vista support good until 2017?
I will try to link you to a few good Laptops and more information. It will take a few minutes. Most will may have Vista.

http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,129483/article.html
http://www.microsoft.com/windows/lifecycle/default.mspx I may have told you wrong on XP support, here it say 2009, I sure I read where this was extended though, If, I find I give the link.
The Laptops are examples, some will be a CPU of 1.6 Ghz which should be fine as it the Dual Cores. These have Windows XP Pro. If, you go will Vista be very sure the Software will be compatable with Vista!
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834220089
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834146243 IBM has always been top of the line, but, a few years ago they sold the computer division to Lenovo (China) and got 35% stock in the company. So, your guess on where they stand now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834114326 This Toshiba has Vista Business and will upgrade to 4 GB RAM it the small 80 GB HDD.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148114 This is a 250 GB External HDD it for example. Most brands are good, I would look at price. But, for me from first to last pick for myself; Hitachi, Seagate or Westerndigital
Hope this help, I know it a lot to read and look. But, it best to learn and look around. You may find a nice $800 that do it. But, think of long term too. You not want to be buying Laptops every 3 years.
I have an Old CAD Program running on an old 486!!! 512 MB HDD (Not GB). I maxed the RAM 128 MB, and the Program still works for me on Windows 3.11 the computer is 12-14 years old. ;-)

Answer 3

I have a Toshiba laptop, and it is great. Sorry I don't know the specs, but it works really well. They told my husband when he bought it from Best Buy that it was one of the top models.

Answer 4

A processor above 2ghz would be fine. maybe 1 gb of RAM, but 512 mb is ok. and try to get a 256mb video card, if not possible then nothing less than 128mb video card.

Maybe a MAC...?

Answer 5

if you want power and speed go with alienware

if you want long battery life go with a mobile processor

moreover get at least a gig of ram aka 1024

if you want to be unique and functional get a mac

Answer 6

u need to have p4, minimum of 1GB ram, 80gb harddisk. it will be gud. if u go for celeron/AMD processor the speed will b very less & u need to struggle.