ReMark Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 You can pick our brains. You can even pick our noses. But you won't be pickin' our pockets! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ryder76 Posted July 21, 2009 Share Posted July 21, 2009 :lol::lol::lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskachick Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 I'm also in the new laptop boat. I am an Arch & Eng Tech student and I got a grant that will buy me a new computer. (yes, I am excited) I have been reading everything on this forum that pertains and am looking at an @xi computer recommended on a different thread. I bumped up the memory, added a trackball mouse and am toying with the ergonomic keyboard. XP is $89 extra so I stuck with Vista Business. I chose 64bit b/c I am moving forward from this point and don't really have any programs right now that I need to carry on. I am trying to build a computer that can handle whatever school & (hopefully) a new drafting job will throw at it in the future. Here are the specs of the computer. My questions is...Good Package? Did I go overboard? Is there an area I should augment more? Is this a good price? Don't ya love the shipping to Alaska? $124 is the cheapest option. Oh, I would like to spend no more than $1600. Xi® PowerGo™ LT (Base Configuration) Intel® Core®2 Duo P8600 2.40GHz 1066FSB 3MB Advanced Smart L2 Cache Dual-Core VT EMT64 4096MB DDR2 667MHz PC2-5300 - 2 x 2GB SO-DIMM nVidia® GeForce® G105M 512MB DDR2 Graphic Engine 17" 1440x900 WXGA LCD, Super-Wide Viewing Angles Glass View 500GB 5400 RPM SATAII-300MB/s 8X DVD±R/RW Burner with 4X Double Layer Write Capability Built-In FAX/MODEM 56K/V90 & Express 43/54 Card expansion Built-in 802.11g Wireless & 10/100 Ethernet Microsoft® Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 Black Logitech® TrackMan® Marble® Ambidexter Corded Optical TrackBall 4 Buttons Genuine Microsoft® Windows® Vista™ Business Edition 64Bit on DVD w/Windows® 7 Upg. Coupon Genuine Microsoft® Office 2007 Basic Edition. System installed + License (No Media) Total incl shipping: $1416. I hope it is ok to tag onto this thread. I am new here, but you all sure do seem to know what you are talking about when it comes to AutoCAD. Thanks Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tankman Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Welcome Alaskachick to the friendly cadtutor forums! Quite a laptop spec! Should be fine now and in the future. Of course, don't drop it! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Welcome to the CADTutor forum Alaskachick. I would recommend that if there is an option to upgrade to a 7200 rpm hard drive that you take advantage of it. In my opinion a 5400 rpm drive is entry level. What is most important is to compare "seek times" for both. This is a measure of disk access speed. The lower the seek time number (in milliseconds) the better. You might have to take a capacity hit and drop from 500GB to 320GB but in the long run I think you'll benefit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alaskachick Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Actually, the upgrade to a 320 GB, 7200 RPM is cheaper than the upgrade I selected. What about AMD vs. Intel? Intel is the name I know...is it better? DDR3 vs DDR2? Of course, I kept shopping after I posted the specs above and found that the xi PowerGo 154 is within my price range as well. The main difference seems to be the presence of DDR3 and a 15" screen. well, there's that fingerprint reader as well... The Toshiba Qosmio x302-Q715 is very similar to the xi-154 except bumps back up to 17" screen and a girl's gotta love the red flames! So many choices. arg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 While I have a home desktop system, I built myself, based upon an AMD coprocessor I much rather prefer Intel CPUs for CAD. That is all I spec in my work environment. Up until most recently Intel had taken a commanding lead over AMD in chipset development. My vote: Intel. DDR3 vs. DDR2 SDRAM? Of course I'd try to go with the DDR3 but it depends largely on price at the moment. Do you know which is the better buy? I admit I do not and would have to do some research. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Well the Toshiba Qosmio looks pretty good and it comes with 4GB of DDR3 RAM (too bad they don't mention the speed in the only specs I been able to find so far). And red flames! OMG! You'll melt any icepacks that happen to be within the vicinity. Talk about global warming. LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ReMark Posted July 25, 2009 Share Posted July 25, 2009 Found it. DDR3 SDRAM 1066MHz. That's pretty good for a laptop. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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