Laptop recommendation?

I'm looking for a reliable and pretty responsive laptop for use with
SWX Premium. Cost is of course always a limitation.

Can anyone make a recommendation in this respect?

All input welcomed.

Thanks

F

 

HP Compaq NW8440: good balance of power, size, Thickness and weight.

 

I am using a Sony Vaio VGN-FE690 with the nVidia graphics card. andI
have absolutely no problems running solidworks and a handful of other
applications at the same time. The major thing you want to make sure
it has for 3D CAD work is a graphics card with dedicated memory, not
shared RAM. You will want a gig of ram at least and a decent
processor, but as long as you have the video card it will not have to
be the fastest laptop on the market to work really well.

 

Been through this scenario too many times now to remember how many.

If the laptop is occassional use or field work, the equation is totally
different than if most your work is done on the laptop. There is a
basic upfront decision on the nature of SWks use to define first.

Laptop cost, in my personal experience (not opinion), is the lowest of
my costs! Why?

1. SolidWorks Pro+ Cost = better part of $10k with the options
2. Maintenance alone = almost $2k/year
3. Addons = $14k + maintenance
4. Backup amortized yearly = $1k
5. Backup for the Laptop, when it goes down = 2nd machine & quick
turnaround warranty on laptop
6. $___.__/hr = your hourly rate. Cost of slowdowns due to more
limited screen size on most "inexpensive" laptops, & similarly induced
slowdowns from minimal memory, crowded smallish hard drives, and less
than desirable graphics cards.

In other words, if we are realistic about deciding where the real costs
are located, it is NOT the cost of the lowest price laptop that
determines what our yearly cost of ownership is going to be.

If lowest cost transport hardware was the norm, most of us would be on
bicycles or motorcycles.

Bo

 

I love my Dell M90...

 

And the resolution on your M90 makes for incredibly sharp clear work on
a laptop.

Bo

 

I love my HP Pavilion,

Tom

 

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

F

 

Which is the present model of the M90? I can't find this on the Dell
site any more. I am tempted to get a Mac and run Windows.

 

Try this:

http://www.dell.com/content/products/compare.aspx/precn_m?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

I am using the M90 ( 4 gig ram and x64 windows) absolutely no problems yet.

 

Dell's M90 can be found on:

Go to Notebooks:Small Businessrecision Mobile Workstation

http://www.dell.com/content/products/results.aspx/precn_m?c=us&cs=04&dt=SmallGrid&l=en&s=bsd

Apple has done a good job with running WinXP Pro, but there are the
slight glitches, in that Apple has to write drivers and such for Boot
Camp, and though it is very very good, there may be some driver issues
that don't work, because the manufacturer or Apple hasn't provided
them. I don't use Win XP for anything but simple Office, & SolidWorks
stuff, so I consider it OK.

If I was going to use it all day every day and needed the best speed, I
would buy a desktop PC in a heartbeat. If it was heavy work on a
laptop, the M90 will probably still be faster than the MacBook Pro by a
bit.

YMMV: It depends on the use the laptop will be put to by the person
plunking down the dollars.

Bo