Notebook workstations

[sl2741]

Fellow users,
I'm about to take the plunge and update my software Wf2 and hardware (10 yr old pc running windows 2000).
I am looking at moving to a portable workstation, such as the Lenovo W520, HP Elitebook, Dell M6600, or other.

My questions are:
1. Are these current portables able to keep up with desktops?
2. What problems am I going to run into?
3. Feedback or recommendations?

Thanks for your comments
Scott
LDE

[BenLoosli]

Get a workstation class laptop and you should have no problems.
Win7-64 OS
8GB memory
500GB min disk space
Fastest CPU you can afford
Nvidia graphics, not an Intel on-board graphics chip.

Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.

[WayneBeck]

I have been testing a Lenovo laptop with the specs below.
[cid:image003.jpg@01CC81AB.9F258A10]
Also has 2gb Nvidia card in it.

I have not been impressed with the system. With having 8 core and 16 gb of ram I would have thought it would have compared well with our workstations. I tested opening the same assembly on both systems and our workstation opens the file in 40 sec. The laptop took 4min 20sec. Workstation is a 6core 3.33 xeon with 6gb ram.
Just my input.

Wayne Beck
Midmark

[srector]

I agree with Ben.

We deployed Dell Laptops (M6500), with Win 7 64bit, 8 GB RAM and a Core i7 CPU @2.8 GHz. The graphics card is a Nvidia Quadro FX 2800M. We are still running WF3, 32bit. We've tested WF4 64bit on a couple of the machines and it just flies.

These machines also come with a wide screen display. So when you are working away from a docking station, you don't have to sacrafice display space.

I definitely think they are worth considering.

Steve

[cpgbenso]

On the SSD issue, for what its worth, I think it's probably the single
most important upgrade you could do. I have heard lots of people cite
issues, which some early SSD's did indeed have. I have had a SSD in my
home workstation for 2 years and I have beat the proverbial stuffing out
of it and it still boots my machine in half the time a 10,000 RPM WD
Raptor did.



To put it in perspective, the limit on writes with SSD's (circa 2008)
actually calculates out to somewhere around 51 years (unless you are
runnning a 24/7 server, in which case it still would probably outlive
the normal operating life of a CAD workstation).
(

[sl2741]

Thanks for all the feedback - I feel more confident in going the portable route.

Now to another level of detail. If I go dell m4600, they offer a:

AMD® FirePro® M5950 Mobility Pro Graphics with 1GB GDDR5

or
NVIDIA® Quadro® 2000M with 2GB GDDR3

Anyone experienced with the AMD card? I have read that this particular NVIDIA card is slower. those comments were made by gamers. Your ongoing help is appreciated.

[BenLoosli]

Wildifre is not a game 🙂

Nvidia cards seem to be better tuned to the needs of the OpenGL demands placed on them by the MCAD systems.

Go with the Nvidia card.

Thank you,

Ben H. Loosli
USEC, INC.