Question Laptop recommedations for CAD/CAM work ?

gunnwolf

Reputable
Oct 5, 2018
9
0
4,510
1. What is your budget?

Up to $1,500 USD obo.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?

15.6" or 17"

3. What screen resolution do you want?

1920x1080 @ 100% scale, maybe 4K, 60 Hz or 144 Hz

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?

Both (plugged and unplugged) (Note: isn't a laptop considered portable? Is a desktop not portable? Clarify the question)

5. How much battery life do you need?

should be around 8 HR or higher unplugged, plugged don't matter.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?

Don't play any games, but I liked playing Star Wars Old Republic long ago.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)

Photo/video editing, 3D programs like Autodesk/AutoCAD variables (such as Fusion360), Solidworks, Blender, SketchUp, FreeCAD, Revit, Rhino 7, Art of Illusion, Cura, Meshmixer, Meshlab, etc. (Yes, it's a long list and I'm choosing which is best for projects in 3D Printing, Laser, and CNC Router.)

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?

Up to 1 TB Storage with options for SSD Boot Up

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.

amazon.com, maybe newegg.com

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?

For as long as it goes, up to 5 yrs or so. I like to fix things, if I can.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?

None. Will be using portable drive.

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.

Don't like Dell much after having those a long time. Would like to look into Acer, ASUS, MSI, HP, and Lenovo.

13. What country do you live in? USA

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. I think AMD was more suited in the programs stated in question #7 than Intel, because those program are more focused into integrated CPU. But if any of you have any inputs related to this, please feel free to reply. I thought of those laptops, assuming you have already used those and had thoughts of them:
-Acer Nitro 5 AN515-55-35E5, i5 10300H, RTX 3050
-Acer Nitro 5 AN517-41-R0RZ, Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3060
-Acer Predator Helios 300 PH315-54-760S
-MSI Katana GF66, i7 11800H
-Lenovo Legion 5 15, Ryzen 7 5800H, RTX 3050ti
-Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3, Ryzen 5 5600H, GeForce GTX 1650
-Lenovo Flex 5 (14"), Ryzen 5 5500U, Radeon Graphics
-ASUS TUF A15 FA506IH-A5S3, Ryzen 5 4600H, GTX 1650
-ASUS TUF A15, Ryzen 5 5600H, RTX 3050ti
-HP Pavilion 15 15DK0042NR, i5 9300H, GTX 1650

Hope the info helps on the selections!
 
I have this laptop LINK Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 4800HS 16GB GTX 1660Ti. Paid around $1200 for it back in Feb 2021

I run Fusion 360, seimens NX 12, Autocad LT 2022, and Solidworks 2021 I also have Cura on it but a potato can run cura. Anything i do for home use it does just fine for my projects, if i load something like this from work it take a min to load and gives me a fit about low memory so upgrade the ram on whatever you get
M4yjyM8.jpg

This is one of our smaller assmebly machines at work.


Our work computers run i7 8700, 32Gb ram, Quadro P2200, and NVMe drives. For software CAD uses NX12, Solidworks 2021, Autocad Delcam Powershape. For CAM they use NX12, Autocad Delcam Powershape/Powermill. One guys runs a very old Autocad autodesk 2000
 

gunnwolf

Reputable
Oct 5, 2018
9
0
4,510
You might want to rethink the strategy of getting a gaming laptop, since a workstation pedigree laptop would help with the app's you've listed above(plus that etc) but I got the gist of it.
The workstation pedigree link I checked out is very expensive, up to $6,000 USD, even with the Dell Alienware Area 51m. They all seem to use Intel i-series, not AMD. Is there a link that has a benchmark between Intel and AMD on those programs? I couldn't find that narrows down in this forum. There has been articles on laptops that includes gaming laptops for CAD work. That is why I listed the gaming laptop models. I would like to hear more about rethinking my strategy on this subject.
 

gunnwolf

Reputable
Oct 5, 2018
9
0
4,510
I have this laptop LINK Asus ROG Zephyrus G15 4800HS 16GB GTX 1660Ti. Paid around $1200 for it back in Feb 2021

I run Fusion 360, seimens NX 12, Autocad LT 2022, and Solidworks 2021 I also have Cura on it but a potato can run cura. Anything i do for home use it does just fine for my projects, if i load something like this from work it take a min to load and gives me a fit about low memory so upgrade the ram on whatever you get
M4yjyM8.jpg

This is one of our smaller assmebly machines at work.


Our work computers run i7 8700, 32Gb ram, Quadro P2200, and NVMe drives. For software CAD uses NX12, Solidworks 2021, Autocad Delcam Powershape. For CAM they use NX12, Autocad Delcam Powershape/Powermill. One guys runs a very old Autocad autodesk 2000
I have no problems on upgrading the RAM, since it will need to be upgraded to 32 GB. I haven't heard about that program NX12, because I checked out the reviews of the latest programs at all3dp.com. Maybe i missed it.
 
NX 12 is kinda expensive, we have 5 seats that cost us around $110,000 with a yearly maintenance of $40k, and thats not even the full software. They have some many plugins and different levels of the software it just gets stupid expensive. They do offer free post process to CNC that a generic ones or you can pay them to tailor the post to your exact machine.

We have 4 normal CAD/CAM seats, the nice thing is you can split a license and give a half the license to a CAD guy while giving the other half to a CAM guy both using the same license.
We have 1 5 axis seat, this is a full 3 and 5 axis license but the 5 axis side sits on the server and only gets pulled to a persons computer if they do something that needs 5 axis work.
 

gunnwolf

Reputable
Oct 5, 2018
9
0
4,510
Do both Intel and AMD CPUs have to be overclocked for 3d programs? I know the fact the those companies that have developed 3d programs focuses on integrated CPUs, not GPU. My concern is the overheating of the CPU when using the programs. I googled "water cooled laptops" and found that ASUS made a water cooled laptop with docking station in 2016 called ROG GX700, and recently a German company called Der8auer by a guy named Roman made a hybrid water cooled laptop from a Acer Predator Helios 300, by the looks of it and posted youtube videos of it. Is that feasible for extensive 3d programs? I have never heard of those being used as CAD/CAM work along with 3d designing.
 

gunnwolf

Reputable
Oct 5, 2018
9
0
4,510
Update: I have been researching more and more on the differences between Intel i-series and AMD Ryzen on CAD work, so correct me if I am wrong:

For AutoCAD, this needs plenty of RAM, a fast SSD, good GPU, and blazing fast CPU. Both Intel and AMD can perform well in AutoCAD as well as other tasks. However, Intel is more of a single-core performance that matters more when creating models/designs, while everything else, AMD is more powerful and better value as it is a multi-core performance. An Intel i3/Ryzen 3 is good for basic AutoCAD work, with 2D and 3D reliying on a single-core performance.
The more powerful the CPU, the better it does. It seems that Intel "K" CPUs and AMD Ryzen "X" CPUs are meant for overclocking (ex. i9 11900k/Ryzen 5950x), while "H" CPUs are high performance. AMD has 7nm node compared to Intel's 14 nm node and AMD runs cooler than Intel and achieves better overclocks and faster RAM frequency, however the frequency drops when more cores (threads) are enabled on, and Intel, while it has less cores(threads) stays the same. IPC (Instructions Per Clock) is very important than GHz that matters.
AutoCAD is a single-threaded application that also uses additional support of ECC Memory support and stronger frequencies.

From what I know, Intel is best for modeling/designing and AMD is best for Rendering, which has Ray Trace, and multi-core tasking outside of software.

Am I correct?
 
Last edited: