PC or Laptop?

[bill]

Hi All

Never having used a laptop computer before, would I be able to do the same as I can on a PC.
I house-sit for a few months of the year and find the set-up of the PC kit getting a little monotonous.
Would I need a large screen? I work on a 17" presently with Autocad2004?

Thank you kindly

Bill

[Cadastrophic]

I have a 15" HP laptop which I regularly use for CAD. You may want to add a mouse, as the built in pad and buttons are a PITA for CAD.

[hyposmurf]

Id personally go for a PC everytime over a laptop,but if I just wanted to use it for short periods on a train or bus a laptop would be great.Remember that a laptops are usually designed for short periods of use not hours and hours which you can do on a PC.They will overheat and start to slow down.They are also more difficult/expensive to upgrade and difficult to replace parts as the parts are alot smaller.I have not used any of the top spec laptops though that are now out for a long period of time,so I maybe wrong they may have improved somewhat.
Oh yes the built in pad buttons ,theyre hopeless for CAD,You hit them hit them and then maybe itll scroll the right way.

[sab423]

I have been using a laptop for the past 4 yrs through work. Every 2 yrs they provide us with a new one. My experience with the laptops has been fine. I do use a docking station so that I can use a full size keyboard and a 21" monitor at work and a 19" at home. The performance has been very good, I have not seen any real difference between desktop and the laptop. Now I use a trackball so I find that when travelling the trackball is easier to use than the built in pad and buttons. Also the trackball is more convient than a regular mouse when travelling (Just my opion though).

Scott

[bill]

Thanks for your opinions and advice on the pros and cons on laptops and pc's, fellow cad users. very much appreciated.

bill

[f700es]

Yeah, you can buy one helluva smokin' desktop for the price of a mid to high end laptop.

[HiPowerGP35]

Hi
just joined today and thought I'd contribute to this very helpful community.

Ive been using for 4 years a Dell PII 450 128MB ram laptop. It ran ACAD 200i, Bryce 5, Coreldraw 10 and a host of other number hungry packages with no real problems (as long as I remebered the lack of resources and didn't try running everything at once. Oh yeah, it was running Win98SE with no crashes for three years !! Honest, I had to check that just to make sure !! ) It gave no problems. A bit slow compared to newer bits of kit but not a hinderance. And I can't recommend enough a trackball. I removed the touch pad years ago and have also removed it from my new laptop too.

CAD on a budget is possible. With the cost of the software it has to be !!

[hyposmurf]

Oh yeah, it was running Win98SE with no crashes for three years !!

Now that is very unusual,cant even say you were lucky,more like a miracle.

[congee]

if you get a laptop, make sure you get the better display. something that can run at least 1400x1050.

if you do alot of 3d's, you want 1GB of RAM too.