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New Laptop

biff

New member
Hi all,


I have been using Pro/E wildfire I & II on my Acer 1700 series for some 3 1/2 years now and finally my hard drive has started to show signs of self destruction.


Due to Acer's ridiculous spare parts cost i'm looking for a new laptop.


can anyone recommend one that will run wildfire III too please?
 
My recommendation is a Dell M90. It is a very good machine and will be sufficient for several years. I would also check out the HP Mobile Workstations.
 
I'm also looking at a laptop, and am particuarly keen on a large screen. There are some views that you may be interested in here.

All the best,

Sam


Edited by: SW
 
I'm new to the forum, but I believe I can contribute to this topic. I've used various versions of Autocad, ProE, and Solidworks through out the last few years. I've used certified ProEand non-certified ProE cards in both desktops and laptops.I cannot recommend strongly enough that you only choose an Nvdia Quadro FX or ATI Fire GL series of card in whateverlaptop you choose. These twographics cards have workstation specific functionality, such as hardware overlay planes, hardware-accelerated antialiased points and lines, advanced memory management. Don't go for a "gamer" card. You will be disappointed. I'vehave an M90 for about 8 months now and I love it. Graphics speed and robustness are great. Yea the 17" screen was a step down in size from my large dual CRT's, but with a dock and stand and a 20" Dell flat panel beside it, I don't miss them. If you want more that's whenyou go for the dual20" or 24" LCD's.
smiley4.gif
 
I was thinking that a larger screen on Dell M2010 would be worth the loss in graphics performance. As I mention on the other thread, having a second larger screen gives me problems as I work from more than one office.

My current system, a P4 3.2 with 1GB RAM and , and an ATI Radeon X600 SE 128MB graphics card, runs Pro/E OK and I don't work with particuarly huge models so I was thinking I don't need a top-end machine on the perfomance front.

I do however appreciate your point about the robustness and there is some discussion in this graphics card thread suggestion problems in non-certified cards. There is also the future-proofing issue in the favor of a certified card.

It could be time to flip a coin...

Sam
 
Not sure if you've ever hauled the weight a mega-screen laptop, tried to find a briefcase or shoulder bag that will fit it, or squinted at the tiny text and icons of a super-high-res laptop screen, but there tradeoffs to be considered. Laptop screens can be a real squint sometimes. Bigger screens and higher res is often less readable IMHO.


I suggest you try out a laptop of the screen size you're considering, ideally while running Pro/E. As well, figure out what resolution you'd prefer to run and be sure your laptop screen of choice can run something similar.


Dave
 
I don't mean to play devi's advocate here, but the simpler and cheaper solution would be to replace the hard drive of the acer. It is not necessary to use an acer hard drive, or order it from them. If you are a little web savvy, you could try newegg.com for a laptop drive, if not, best buy carries them. I replaced my 60GB on my toshiba for something like $80 at best buy (buy I needed to be up and running RFN).

Fegenbush
 
Will the Dell M-Series laptops run dual monitors,CRT or flat panel? I have heard that you have to use one CRT and one flat panel at the same time or either one with the laptop open for the second screen.


Curtis
 
According to the Dell website, all the Dell M-Series laptops haveone VGA andone Single-link DVI output. I run my laptop on a DOCK side by side with a 20"Dell LCD using DVI cable. However, the monitor has a VGA or DVI in port. So I could run dual 20" LCD'swith one configured with VGA and one configured with DVI. It really depends on what you actually "need". 90% of the time I run my CAD programs in front of me on the Laptopscreenbecause I like the widescreen and most everything else I usually open on the 20" screen to my right.


David
 
Dell Laptops are famous in the world. They are popular everyone who uses laptops. Dell laptops have won respect among many people. You are looking for laptop, what you need the work
 
Hi Bart,
Dell M6600! Have been looking at these recently.

I wrote my opinions on this for my boss in terms of the next budget round and have copied and pasted my thinking below. (People may not agree)

Regards, Brent



Mobile Solutions;

There is no question that 64bit systems are a widespread
standard and this should present no new problems unless there is something Win7
64 is incompatible with (some very old equipment for example; maybe the HP650
plotter?). We had all WinXP 64 last time
and though there were a few issues this has worked well.



I am still thinking PTC certified/supported Dell workstations
and recent discussions with Xxxxx Xxxxx only confirm that Dell is the best
choice for Tait for this type of work..



The big strategic question is whether we should stay with
getting the majority of our workstations as mobile units. I think yes but it is good to ask the question. There are compromises with this approach but
given that the XXXXX development was done on the previous generation of these
machines (M6300) I think it is still a valid choice.



Compared to Dell
T3500 Desktop with no new monitor:[/b]



Pros;

Inbuilt
non interruptible power supply.Inbuilt
second monitor when used in a desktop environment.Portability
for working off site at home or at a supplier and more recently away from
Xxxx if earthquake activity makes this desirable. Was useful for both Xxx and Xxxxx when
they were at home.Supports
faster 1600MHz RAM compared to 1333Mhz for the T3500.New
units have inbuilt camera and microphone for video calls (SKYPE)[/list]



Cons;

Cannot
have the very fastest CPUs (though still very comparable).Does
not support ECC RAM. This is
annoying as it seems just a manufacturer choice rather than a true
hardware limitation. ECC is more
reliable than non ECC however this has not shown up as a factor in our
use.Easiest
use means getting a Docking Station for normal office use so that is a
couple of hundred extra. Expect to
reuse Keyboard and Mouse.[/list]



Suggested M6600[/b] (17.3
 

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