Laptop able to run well autocad revit render photoshop for under $700

bremt

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Sep 13, 2011
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Hello I am a student and was looking for a laptop that would be able to run and render well or fairly well autocad, rhino, and revit. And also use photoshop/illustrator without coughs.

My budget is under $700 . . . Yes, I know, I wont get any spectacular laptop, but at least a decent one.

I need it with urgency for school, all input is greatly appreciated it.

Thanks,

Bremt
 

AntiZig

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Hello, I think your best choice would be one of the new llano laptops

-Gateway 17" - it's got the best llano A8 processor on it, so it give you the best of AMD's latest, although one concern I'd have is that it's a 17", so it's pretty large and battery life might suffer due to huge screen.
-Toshiba 14" - alternative smaller option, A6 processor, so slightly slower performance, but it's significantly smaller and should have great battery life.

One of the things to give you an idea of what you can get for $700, if battery life is not an issue, you could get the following:
-Asus 15.6" - this is an entry level gaming laptop, should give you great program performance, but unfortunately it's only about 4hr battery life.

So, I hope this gives you a decent idea on what's out there. If you need more specific help, give me some more feedback on what features you'd like, or what other requirements you got.
 

bremt

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Sep 13, 2011
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hey AntiZig, thanks for the quick reply :)

I will almost always be working next to a power outlet, so battery life is not a big minus lol. Also weight does not concern me either and I do appreciate a larger screen. I am very ignorant in tech specs but, i do want something that will be able to handle multitasking efficiently without sacrificing response time. I'm not sure if a dedicated graphic card is really needed for renderings either; I do not play video games haha.
 

AntiZig

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well, it depends on application, today, many graphics intensive programs like photoshop, 3dsmax and cad programs all have hardware acceleration, which is basically offloading tasks that would normally be performed by CPU to GPU. In that regard, depending on how big your projects will be you might benefit from a dedicated card more than from extended RAM. From my experience on this forum and a few friends, the trend seems to be that for graphics development and such designers/developers welcome entry level gaming models because they are still relatively cheap, so you are not overpaying for game performance that you obviously don't need, but they do provide good performance boost over typical consumer models that would be of the same price due to "other features" that do not add to performance.

In case you think you don't need a dedicated card, (I still think, llano would be a good choice for your application, since it's got a bit more graphics juice than typical intel integrated chipsets), here's a few options with better processors:

-Acer 15.6" - i5 + 6Gb ram + 640 Gb HDD ~$600
-Asus 15.6" - i5 +6Gb ram + 640 Gb HDD ~$630 (if you don't like the first design)

Both will get the same performance, only reason asus is more expensive is that the ram is faster (1333mhz vs 1033mhz on acer), but difference won't be noticeable.

unfortunately newegg doesn't have anything with i5+8gb ram in $500-700 range, but if you go to other websites you might find something. Also, not that newegg is bad or anything but don't limit your search to only one website. Go to company website directly, they might have some sales going on. Check out websites like www.dealstudio.com

and always try to find a few review for a laptop before buying, from some long standing websites like pcmag, notebookcheck or notebookreview
 

bremt

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Sep 13, 2011
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Hey Cloudy2010, I do not care about the brand lol although I do want something that will last at least 2 years haha also a bigger screen would be nice.

I just checked the ASUS K53 Series K53E-B1 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel HD Graphics 3000 that AntiZig recommended and Its Sold Out :(


so from the ones you guys recommended:

Gateway NV75S02u Notebook AMD A-Series A8-3500M(1.5GHz) 17.3" 4GB Memory 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi AMD Radeon HD 6620G

Acer Aspire AS5750-6634 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1066 640GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi Intel HD Graphics 3000

ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XE2 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M


Just that It seems that there is a problem with the geforce gt540m in revit. So Im not sure.

Also the Gateway seems slower compared to the other ones but not sure if Im right or wrong since it has 4 cores while the other ones only 2.

I need to buy the laptop today decisions decisions haha
 

AntiZig

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Hello again,

typically the laptops with nVidia GT model video cards come with Optimus configuration where you can disable the dedicated graphics card based on program and use the built in Intel HD GMA.

alternatively you can go with A8 series if nVidia is having issues with your software. It only looks slower on paper, because A8 is a quad core as you noticed. So, while it's using all 4 cores max speed on all 4 would be around 1.5ghz, but if it's only using 1 or 2 it will ramp the speed to 2.4Ghz, so it should just as good as those dual cores in terms of processing. The only advantage other two machines will have is extra 2Gb of RAM, but don't worry too much about that. If you find that 4Gb is not enough, you can upgrade fairly easily yourself. Ram is cheap today, and manufacturers make special slots on the back of laptops where you can take off a small cover just to access RAM chips, so you don't have to take the whole laptop apart.
 

bremt

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Sep 13, 2011
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Cool so I havent bought the laptop yet but Im not sure which one would be a better value:

Acer Aspire AS5750G-6496 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 4GB Memory DDR3 1066 500GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M

And with this one I cant find a way to costumized the build wth the graphic card + 6Gb ram on the website So the other option would be buying separetely the Corsair 8 GB : 2 x 4 GB Memory - SO DIMM 204-pin - 1333 MHz for about $40. totaling about $720

Or just buy this one

ASUS A53 Series A53SV-XE2 Notebook Intel Core i5 2410M(2.30GHz) 15.6" 6GB Memory DDR3 1333 750GB HDD 5400rpm DVD Super Multi NVIDIA GeForce GT 540M for about $700


Or.. lol.. just follow your advise and buy it with 4Gb ram and wait and see if I need more ram which would save me at the moment $40

So which one do you think is a better value?