Skip to main content
T
TomD.inPDX17-Peridot
17-Peridot
September 22, 2016
Solved

Which laptop for Creo: $2.5K and Certified!

  • September 22, 2016
  • 4 replies
  • 10174 views

All I see with any guts is a custom built Dell Precision M6800.

I need a replacement/backup ASAP.  Where do I go from here?

    Best answer by TomD.inPDX

    Tips and Tricks on Selecting Desktop and Mobile Workstations

    This would have helped had I found it earlier.  Fortunately it didn't change my mind.

    4 replies

    I
    Inoram14-Alexandrite
    14-Alexandrite
    September 23, 2016

    I assume without going and looking at the certified list that you are greatly limiting your list of available hardware to buy.

    A
    AmitDeshpande18-Opal
    18-Opal
    September 23, 2016

    Hi Antonius,

    Your best best is to take a look at the Platform Support page and select the release you are using in the By Product drop down, e.g. PTC Creo 2.0.  This will take you to the platform support page for Creo 2.0, where you can find your machine configuration and verify that you are using a certified and/or supported graphics card & driver version.

    Thanks,

    Amit

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    September 24, 2016

    That was the way I was going.  My matrix is even tighter since I use both Creo 2 and 3 and SolidWorks 2016.

    I am on a Dell Precision M6600 right now and it too fell off the list for Creo 3 where it is still valid for Creo 2.  Both appear to run fine.

    The Dell options that PTC has listed use Intel fourth generation chips where Lenovo is pushing gen 6 chips including Xeon.

    This makes the M6800 a dinosaur at the cost of today's technology.

    Anyone getting the feeling PTC is falling behind on qualifying laptops?  Or have they simply changed focus away from Dell.

    And I don't buy HP either.  I killed one of theirs within 3 hours once by attempting to load a dual boot load on a new machine.

    Toshiba is off my list, albeit nice machines, they make some very stupid mistakes in their implementations that sends their systems to early end-of-life.

    Samsung, maybe.  Don't know enough about them.

    Micro$oft...  yea right.

    So yes, this should be pretty easy if the process of elimination was to zero in on one, but I still have a little wiggle room.

    These lists are invaluable, yes.  The little app on the SolidWorks site is also pretty simple to use.  Even has some hierarchy to feature selection priority.

    Right now I am heavily leaning to the Lenovo ThinkPad P70 with the Xeon, 16mb and M3000M Quadro booted on a 256mb SSD.  I have a terabyte SSD for data.

    The P70 comes out at the same price as the Dell M6800 similarly outfitted, and seriously outdated.  The Lenovo should walk circles around the Dell on 2 years of technology gain.

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    September 25, 2016

    I kicked it up a notch when I learned about the new PCIe drives.  Awesome!

    Also thought some ECC memory might be a smart move.

    Ordered - Lead-time may be a little longer than I'd like but hey.

    Monday I get a graphics card from a laptop pull to see if my comp is salvageable.

    I did get a confirmation on what disabling the NVidia driver does on the Dell Precision;

    Creo runs with a minimal of OpenGL 1.1 as does SolidWorks 2016,  Daz 3D requires OpenGL 1.3, and 3D System's Cube s/w require OpenGL 3!

    The ladder is the app that sent the final blow against my poor little 3000M.

    My satisfaction rating according to M$ is now 1!

    I
    Inoram14-Alexandrite
    14-Alexandrite
    September 25, 2016

    Xeon and ECC usually go together for like servers, where stuff sits in memory non-stop. ECC is slower memory, though.

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    September 25, 2016

    I did opt for the 1505 Xeon chip.  When I need performance, I'll get a desktop or something.

    So far, the i7-2760QM at 2.40GHz (2012) is plenty fast once I did the SSD upgrade.

    Even a marginal boost will, for the most part, go unnoticed.

    Data reliability is critical to me.

    Going full SSD is simply another security measure since I am mobile 50% of the time.

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    September 26, 2016

    Good news!

    I am looking forward to the new computer, but the good news is that the replacement (eBay) 3000M Quadro fixed my short term issue.

    This means I will have a backup computer when I deploy the Lenovo.

    Less than 1 week from blue screen to now.  Not bad.

    Anyone still on an old Dell and prefer Dell drivers over NVidia... version 327.62 is out.

    NVidia drivers have never played nice with Creo on my Dell M6600.  This one seems to not leave "mouse-crumbs".

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    July 3, 2017

    This post requires an update.

     

    Finally put the P70 into service when my network card died in the Dell M6600.

    The computer works fine, it still reports the right MAC address, but the computer has no Internet capabilities any more.  Shame... but the timing was pretty good as I just finished a 1-1/2 year long project just days before.

     

    Good news is, Creo 2.0 M040 loaded and is working fine.  Of course, by this I mean the graphics card is behaving as expected.  Working Solidworks is painful... this machine performs well on computation, but interaction is clunky.  Not so much with Creo.  But the M3000M NVidia graphics is certainly lacking performance.

     

    As to Lenovo in general... DON'T GO HERE!  This is a lousiest mobile device I have ever had the displeasure of owning.  Lenovo just doesn't know how to talk to Windows... specially Windows 7.  I purchased this with the downgrade as an advantage... but it really is becoming a liability.

    Good luck with connectivity.  It just doesn't do well with this.

    Lenovo's power plan too is seriously lacking.  If you go on battery, the charger will not keep up.  It tells you that you have the wrong adapter.  It doesn't keep up or even start the charging sequence.  Messages are conflicting between Windows and Lenovo S/W.  In general, just plain messy and unreliable.

    And try using your warranty to find out what is happening.  Somehow they ended up locking up my account just trying to get to support.  Life's too short for a Lenovo workstation!

     

    And this does seem to be a Lenovo fit-and-finish problem.  I have a YogaBook Windows edition that is just as finicky.  If you don't follow a very strict charging and sleep mode regimen, your YogaBook will completely discharge, which is very bad for Li-Ion batteries.

     

    Takeaway: Creo is behaving with the P70.  Next computer in 2-1/2 years will again be another Dell.

     

    T
    TomD.inPDX17-PeridotAuthor
    17-Peridot
    July 3, 2017

    PS: All Lenovo customer reviews are heavily censored.

    Both my reviews were summarily dumped due to too much truth.

     

    Terms & ConditionsAccessibility statement