College student in need of laptop recommendations

Hello everyone,

I am in need of some help finding a laptop for college. My major is welding engineering and I will be using Autodesk Inventor and performing other college duties. I am not computer savvy, so please explain like I'm five.

My budget is $1,000-1,300.

Here is what my school recommends for specs:

- 32-bit or 64 bit Windows 7(SP1), 8, 8.1

Intel Premium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 3 GHz or faster, or Intel or AMD dual core 2 GHz or faster at a minimum. Intel Core i7 or equivalent, 3.0 GHz or faster recommended

- 8 GB RAM minimum, 12 recommended

- Microsoft Direct3D 10 capable graphics card or higher

- DVD drive

- 1,280 x 1,024 or higher screen resolution

- Adobe Flash 10

Weight is not an issue to me.

Thank you for the help!

I would NOT buy nor recommend a 32-bit computer. Get a 64-bit computer.

Take a look at the Xi PowerGo 15/7 (Intel i7). You can bump the memory to 16GB, add a 256GB SSD with a 500GB platter drive (for data) and it comes with a dedicated graphics card and probably get it for less than $2500. Or look at the Dell XPS series.

http://www.xicomputer.com/products/welcome.asp?Content=notebooks&homepage=click

How important is it for the laptop to have a dedicated graphics card?

Hello everyone,

 

I am in need of some help finding a laptop for college. My major is welding engineering and I will be using Autodesk Inventor and performing other college duties. I am not computer savvy, so please explain like I'm five.

 

My budget is $1,000-1,300.

 

Here is what my school recommends for specs:

- 32-bit or 64 bit Windows 7(SP1), 8, 8.1

Intel Premium 4 or AMD Athlon 64 3 GHz or faster, or Intel or AMD dual core 2 GHz or faster at a minimum. Intel Core i7 or equivalent, 3.0 GHz or faster recommended

- 8 GB RAM minimum, 12 recommended

- Microsoft Direct3D 10 capable graphics card or higher

- DVD drive

- 1,280 x 1,024 or higher screen resolution

- Adobe Flash 10

 

Weight is not an issue to me.

 

Thank you for the help!

Tiger Direct has some great deals on laptops. I have ordered computer parts from them for 15+ years and they stand by their products. I found one with everything you need for under 1K:

Lenovo Z710 Notebook

The Lenovo Z710 Notebook is a perfect choice for home users and students. This notebook PC is powered by the Quad Core Intel Core i7-4710MQ 2.5GHz Processor which ensures reliable and superior computing. It features a 16GB DDR3L RAM that assures this system runs smoothly and efficiently. It comes pre-loaded with the Windows 8.1 64-bit for a more intuitive platform. Its 1TB HDD + 8GB SSHD provides ample storage space for all your multimedia files and other data. It boasts of a 17.3 in. Full HD Display which offers impressive visuals. The DVDRW optical drive enables you to read and write CDs and DVDs with ease.

As far as the OS I would go with Windows 10 ust as soon as it comes out as it runs Inventor and AutoCAD faster than Win 7 or 8.1 (I found it runs 15% faster overall than Windows 8.1)

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9168624&CatId=4935

How important is it for the laptop to have a dedicated graphics card?

I think if you are going to be doing 3D work a dedicated graphics card would be the better option.

Systems that do not have a dedicated graphics card will rob resources (read that as physical memory, i.e. RAM) when the graphics load gets to be too much.

Is this too good to be true? Would this run Inventor fine?

Remember, the smaller the screen, the more time you will spend zooming in or out to get a reasonable view of a CAD drawing. In my opinion 17" is the lower limit. They're heavier but they only range between 6 and 8 lbs. If you have to walk around with it in a shoulder bag it can be annoying, but so are eye strain headaches.

That is why I am leaning towards the Lenovo brand.

What do you think of the Z710 (like suggested above) or the Y70?

That is why I am leaning towards the Lenovo brand.

 

What do you think of the Z710 (like suggested above) or the Y70?

how does this one look, it is almost identical to the Lenovo L710, but it does have 4g less RAM. a 17" with an NVIDIA® GeForce® 845M 2GB GDDR5 already in it. Notice the computer is an I7 3Ghz processor, and has 12 gig RAM, and a hybrid 1tb hard drive with an 8g SSD flash auxiliary drive. It should do the job.

That one's at the top of your budget, but they have basically the same computer on President's Day sale without the discrete graphics card for $699.00 to $999.00 depending on what's in it. You can buy the card separately or at a later date, once you get up to the kind of drawing density that will need one, and install it yourself. The hardest part is getting the case open.

Any Inspiron 7000 series will accept the card. Nvidia only released the card this month, so right now it is kind of hard to find a price for the card alone on the interwebs, and it's a possibility that the card will only be sold in OEM machines. It happens. If there is an empty PCIe slot in there, somebody makes a video processor for it.

Another thing about AutoCad and laptops. The touchpad sucks big time while trying to draw, especially the new "Gesture sensitive" ones like the one on that Dell. You will really need a scroll/zoom wheel. Zooming with the touch pad is something I like to do a little less than cleaning up the back yard after my Pit Bull. Of course, the computer I posted is a touch screen, so the wheel is not completely a show stopper, but I have a 27" touch screen at home and my finger zoomies are about as delicate and accurate as an army truck.

Buy a bluetooth mouse, and disable the touchpad while you are mousing. I have a cheezy 2 button one I bought from Dell with it's own USB bluetooth receiver that I use on a non bluetooth laptop, and it's been running for two plus years. At under 30 bucks, a new mouse every year or two is not a bad thing, and it will probably happen anyway, no matter what the price of the mouse.

Tiger Direct has some great deals on laptops. I have ordered computer parts from them for 15+ years and they stand by their products. I found one with everything you need for under 1K:

 

Lenovo Z710 Notebook

The Lenovo Z710 Notebook is a perfect choice for home users and students. This notebook PC is powered by the Quad Core Intel Core i7-4710MQ 2.5GHz Processor which ensures reliable and superior computing. It features a 16GB DDR3L RAM that assures this system runs smoothly and efficiently. It comes pre-loaded with the Windows 8.1 64-bit for a more intuitive platform. Its 1TB HDD + 8GB SSHD provides ample storage space for all your multimedia files and other data. It boasts of a 17.3 in. Full HD Display which offers impressive visuals. The DVDRW optical drive enables you to read and write CDs and DVDs with ease.

 

As far as the OS I would go with Windows 10 ust as soon as it comes out as it runs Inventor and AutoCAD faster than Win 7 or 8.1 (I found it runs 15% faster overall than Windows 8.1)

 

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9168624&CatId=4935

Is this too good to be true? Would this run Inventor fine?

Yes It would run Inventor just fine. Besides the GPU, it has double the computing power I am currently running and I run Inventor 2015 with no problems. As long you aren't going to be using it for intensive rendering you should be fine. What I like about todays laptops, with todays low prices on monitors, is you can bring them home, dock them to a wireless mouse, keyboard and monitor and have a great little CAD station that would out perform the majority of stations a decade ago. As far as the price goes...I look for quality components in the computer, which this one has and it is sold by a reputable company with a good warranty and return policy.

I like tiger direct, they have a store about 15 miles from me that is as big as a super home depot. I don't even have to wait for shipping, or even pay shipping. if I buy something from them over the internet. I just have it shipped to the store.

God I hate you...LOL

Nah, those i7 based laptops (Lenovo and Dell) will render just fine in Inventor 2015. Inventor 2015 is still using the current version of Mental Ray which is a CPU based rendering engine iirc.

I probably don't need a TigerDirect near me. Much like an addict living near a drug dealer

Nah, those i7 based laptops (Lenovo and Dell) will render just fine in Inventor 2015. Inventor 2015 is still using the current version of Mental Ray which is a CPU based rendering engine iirc.

 

I probably don't need a TigerDirect near me. Much like an addict living near a drug dealer

Yes It would run Inventor just fine. Besides the GPU, it has double the computing power I am currently running and I run Inventor 2015 with no problems. As long you aren't going to be using it for intensive rendering you should be fine. What I like about todays laptops, with todays low prices on monitors, is you can bring them home, dock them to a wireless mouse, keyboard and monitor and have a great little CAD station that would out perform the majority of stations a decade ago. As far as the price goes...I look for quality components in the computer, which this one has and it is sold by a reputable company with a good warranty and return policy.

 

 

 

God I hate you...LOL

Hah, sometimes I wish it were not there. What's even worse there is a Woodcraft store more or less on the way there, and I have woodworking tools still in the box from last year.

Dana, 1st step is to admit that you do indeed have a problem. Then you can take steps to solve the problem..... Yeah, I would spend some there as well.

That is why I am leaning towards the Lenovo brand.

 

I realize mine was probably an isolated incident, but I had a terrible experience with Lenovo.

They shipped me a laptop where the WIFI was broken. Okay, no problem, they did the standard RMA, but then they said they could not ship me a replacement for something like 4 weeks. So I cancelled the order.

But I didn't get a refund for several weeks, despite the fact that they received the defective laptop back in 2 days.

Dana, 1st step is to admit that you do indeed have a problem. Then you can take steps to solve the problem..... Yeah, I would spend some there as well.

Actually I made up the quantities above, but it does feel like that sometimes, in reality I do have way too much of each, and then some other stuff.

Funny how retailers can take your money in a blink of an eye yet drag their feet when it comes to giving it back. And the way our banking laws are structured we can't do anything about it all thanks to our elected officials.

I realize mine was probably an isolated incident, but I had a terrible experience with Lenovo.

They shipped me a laptop where the WIFI was broken. Okay, no problem, they did the standard RMA, but then they said they could not ship me a replacement for something like 4 weeks. So I cancelled the order.

But I didn't get a refund for several weeks, despite the fact that they received the defective laptop back in 2 days.

Funny how retailers can take your money in a blink of an eye yet drag their feet when it comes to giving it back. And the way our banking laws are structured we can't do anything about it all thanks to our elected officials.

Sir, this is nothing new.