I am looking for a new laptop which will easily run solid works, but I have a limit of how much I can spend. To be honest I do not have a clue about laptops.

So need some help!!

Can anyone give me an idea of what I should be looking at?

p.s. any help or comments are much appreciated.

 

Ok...First Thing to consider is that Designing Softwares are Graphics Intense Softwates and usually need quite a good amount of resource to work smoothly. Second thing is that heating issues, operating at full cycle for quite amount of period generates a lot amount of heat... For example mine is a portable heater... , it get really hot while operating at full cycles and it quite pleasing in Winters and annoying in Summers... Lastly Ergonomics, few eliminates because they think its irrelevant but I always put it into my consideration list, Always look for laptop with a comfortable keypad, Track Pad and palm rest. And also get mouse with high Dpi to round off your overall experience.

Happy Shopping.....

Zhivot.

 

Thank you =) I am actually annoyingly considering a light weight desktop now which I could move around so I have the capability of dual screens. But I still need a usable laptop to take everywhere.

 

Ok. You are right: a lot of data to compute, processor at 100% and a lot of heat. But here are some complemantory advice:
- the first thing to have in mind is resolution vs usage.
What are you going to do with that Laptop? What would be your usage?
For example I have a powerful desk PC with huge ram and multi-screen for heavy duty computing and multi-tasking. But I can do practically everything I need on the day via my laptop, everywhere I need to be at any time.
SW is a 3D design software and a lot of others extra things. 3D design is less resource consuming than many PC games.

So if you are planing FEA for a large assembly or 3D rendered animations, forget about Laptop. They are short in RAM and battery (you'll need to stay plugged for hours what is not always compatible with a laptop usage).

But if you are planing to use it as a 3D design platform, a laptop is perfect.
Look at the image bellow*:



Everything was done on a NoteBook at the office of the customer with only a 16:9 TFT screen plugged on it (the new cost-cutting fashion that goes past the absolute stupidity - and I use to be an IT manager, so I know how this policy is pure BS).

- Tuning your configuration
The key for performance and ease of usage of a SW on a laptop is to look closely at the resolution vs range and processor. Take the smallest screen convenient with your usage with a quad or bi-proc and the maximum amount of ram (order some extra and install it by your self). Personally, I have switched to powerful Notebooks instead of heavy and cumbersome Laptops for some years. It suites perfectly my usage (I leave extra screens at clients offices for eyes comfort), it's more cost-effective, far more robust (depending of the brand - forget about Samsung) and can be carried every where (I have been traveling and trekking extensively with my notebooks to manage some light file's modifications or update in the evening !) and never had any reliability problem.

- Working that way with Solidworks you can open any Office softwares and share your screen with a dozen of applications without too much difficulties, given that you don't launch any CFD/FEA tasks or try to generate 3D rendered animations (although rendered images is quick and smooth).

So as you see, working with SW on a laptop is possible, useful and cost effective. Keep in mind that you'll need a powerful desktop station for all the extra stuff (FEA/CFD/Rendering mainly).



*Read more about it here:
http://www.mechanicaldesignforum.com/showthread.php?1026-Rendering-enhanced-reality

 

Your graphics card is a very important piece of the pie. Note that "gaming" computers do NOT translate well into workbooks. when you think you have something picked out, make sure it has a certified card here: http://www.solidworks.com/sw/support/videocardtesting.html

 

my advise is to get one of dell workstations. maybe are not cheap but are designed for CAD. workstation 4800 does the job, but my opinion is to use powetful PC. Even if you are using solidworks for design simple parts, in the future you will have to work with large assemblies or do rendered animations.

 

RAM	8GB or more recommended
Disk Space	5 GB or more

Processor	Intel or AMD with SSE2 support. 64-bit operating system recommended
Install Media	DVD Drive or Broadband Internet Connection

 

For Solidworks design services look for laptop which had high configuration. High configuration would make the work easier and simple as the file sizes would be bigger.

 

Dear Rhaya,

Other members have posted some good insight into the subject matter and I would like to add the following:

If you are planning to buy a workstation (mobile or desktop), then check for ISV certification. ISV certification includes products from Dassault Systems (SolidWorks, CATIA, Abaqus, etc.) and also from PTC (CreoDirect, Creo Parametric, etc.).

If you are planning to buy a high performance PC which is NOT a workstation i.e. gaming laptop, then you must remember that even the top graphics card (as of April 2017) can not run engineering programs to their maximum performance because they are meant for gaming and display purposes, not number crunching.

Currently, I am using MSI GP72 6QF Leopard Pro with i7, 1TB HDD, 150GB SSD, 32GB RAM, nVidia Geforce GTX 960M and there are times when I want to throw it out the window, believe you me. I use Creative Cloud, Inventor, SolidWorks, Abaqus and Matlab.

If you just want something that will RUN the engineering programs, just get any laptop with dedicated graphics card either nVidia or ATI.

My recommendation is to save money and buy a workstation (mobile or desktop, doesn't matter). This is what I am trying to do for the last 3 years and I have saved $9.75 (ok I admit it may take a lifetime to save but I can't starve my kids, or can I? :S)

Hope this helps.