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21-Topaz II
October 3, 2011
Question

Notebook workstations

  • October 3, 2011
  • 13 replies
  • 3240 views
1 - They are almost as powerful as desktops, but any workstation class
laptop you get should out run your 10 year old box handily. The
performance gap these days is minimal. Make sure you're getting
workstation class graphics, preferable Nvidia Quadro.



2 - Laptops aren't as durable or expandable as desktops. You're not
going to get 10 years out of your laptop, especially if you tote it
around a lot. 5 is a long time for a laptop.



3 - We use Dells and have been very happy with them.



Doug Schaefer

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13 replies

21-Topaz II
October 3, 2011
Processor speed is more important that number of cores with Pro/E. Your
workstation is 30% faster, which would explain some of the difference.
Also, you didn't indicate what type of Nvidia card you have. If it's a
workstation class machine, I would assume it would have a Quadro card,
not the GeForce. The GeForce cards will not perform nearly as well, I'd
stay away from them.



Still, that's quite a difference. Are there corresponding differences
in regen time and other tasks?



Doug Schaefer
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
Yes there are differences but not as large. Video is Quadro m2000.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
You mention that the huge delay comes when you're opening the assembly. Are you wired/wireless on your laptop when you open the assembly? At least in our environment, and our IT department can't tell us why, our wireless network is less than dependable. It may take a couple minutes to open an assembly via wireless, vs. a wired desktop. I'm not sure if there's some additional security slowing down the wireless, just a bad wireless network, etc. but I'd at least verify on your end that the problems occur both wired/wireless.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
I have tried both. But this is opening after it is already in a local workspace.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
In that case, then I'd check the harddrive situation. I'm sure someone much more savvy than me can chime in, but it doesn't sound like your video card/cpu/ram is a problem.

Really, I'd first benchmark the laptop outside of Pro. Get a baseline for your components (hdd, cpu, ram, video card) using third-party tools, compare that to the norm, and see if there's any problems. If there's not, then something goofy is happening in your Pro environment, but if there is then you can begin focusing in on hardware.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
I have been thinking about having them change it out for a solid state drive. Just to try and see if that helps.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
Just be sure you know what you're getting in to with SSD! There's a lot of potential stability issues with SSDs. Before you went that route, at least check your current one out. And before you went directly to SSD, you could try a 10/15k hdd first.
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
Good info on SSDs thanks,
1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
I've been using a Dell 6500 for way over a year and have not had any issues
with my SSD

It also is equally as fast as my desktop workstation opening large
assemblies.



The Levono in question has to have something switched/configed/????
incorrectly - or maybe the Dell is just engineered better.





Anthony R. Benitez

Senior Mechanical Designer

Drafting Supervisor

Applied Research Laboratories

The University of Texas at Austin

1-Visitor
October 3, 2011
The harddisks in laptops that are assembled by default are slow: 5400
rpm for laptops vs 7200 or 10000 rpm in PCs/workstations.
Also the platter size is smaller. Disk cache size also matters.

Solid state disks are very fast but they wear out after a certain
number of writes, so be aware of that.

I'd first try to get a 7200 rpm harddisk in the laptop before going the
SDD route.


My €0.02



Patrick Asselman