Question Laptop for AutoCAD and More

CaptainDirk

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Oct 19, 2009
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I need a laptop that can run AutoCAD 2020 and AutoDesk Revit 2020. They have requirements online for AutoCAD and for Revit so you can see what I need. I found two pages on Google one called "6 Best Laptops for Revit: Buyer’s Guide (2019): and then a page called "Best 5 Laptops for Revit Review 2019" (no links as I am not here to promote anyone's blog but if you Google you will find them).

What I see is that only one machine was included by both of these reviewers, the Dell Inspiron i5577, but the page linked to Amazon from one of those blogs said that machine has poor battery life, so that concerns me. 🙁

I am willing to pay up to $1200, but would prefer of course to pay closer to $1000. I want i7, 16 GB RAM, at least 128 GB SSD (better 256), 1 TB HDD and then a graphics card that matches the requirements of Revit. I see that several of the machines listed on those pages match, but to tell the difference between them and catch issues like poor battery life as things a bit beyond my abilities.

Last item is that it needs to have international warranty, specifically in Israel. I can buy in the US but I will take it for most of the year to Israel so I need to have service available there. Dell, for example, I know does have service there.

So any suggestions for what machine are appreciated. :)
 
For international support, stick to the business class systems from Dell, HP, and Lenovo, possibly Toshiba.

You can certainly pick up any old laptop with those requirements for Revit. As usual Autodesk is pretty useless at recommendations. My minimum recommendation would be some sort of discrete GPU. With business models that means tracking down a quadro, even the weakest one.

Take a look at Dell Precision Mobile Workstations. They are usually pretty good.

As for battery life, if you want it to be fast the battery life will be short. If you want it to last many hours, it will have to be a more moderate speed, or find a model that offers extended batteries. (Though that will likely take you well outside your budget.)