Small notebook/hybrid for light working and CAD/Solidworks projects

[Portuguesetechie]

Hello guys so I received a great deal of help some 7 months ago as i was setting up my gaming pc and my original "gameplan" was to use it as a work computer for big projects my Vaio laptop (which is about 3 years old) couldnt handle because it's currently very slow and a bit too weak, in light of recent events I would like to ask your help again because I will not be able to take my gaming desktop with me and my Vaio might be too week to get me through my projects, this year i will have some moderate 3D modelling with Solidworks/Solidedge and thus my computer might not be enought
So the tl r version: I need an affordable, efeccient and preferably fast (I dont demand an SSD i would just like it to take less than 5-10 minutes to turn on) notebook or hybrid (like the Surface pro from microsoft) at first i was thinking of getting the surface pro but after the gaming desktop i do not have the ability to spend 800+ euros on a computer.........also if it was small (like 10-14'') it would be perfect, i will be spending a lot of time on it so it needs to be big but not big enought that it becomes cumbersome and hard to carry arround.
Price would preferably be arround 200-400 (can do 500 or maybe 600 if its a really impressive piece of tech but would rather not )
Thanks a lot guys (and girls) for the help, i really dont know what i should pick at all
Sites if you want to check portuguese price
www.pcdiga.com
www.fnac.pt (If you need more websites please tell me)

Edit: I also have some concerns on the lifetime of the computer, wether it will become slower over time, my vaio was fast when i first got it, and again ty for everything and it would be perfect if it was arround 300-400 euros

 

[drapacioli]

What are the specs of your current Vaio laptop? 400 EUR is very cheap and you wouldn't be getting much for that price, especially for 3D modeling with solidworks. I can have problems running detailed models on it even with my laptop, which has a midrange graphics card.

Here's what I found, I know from experience that Solidworks is an OpenGL program and AMD is better with OpenGL rendering, so I have automatically excluded any nvidia graphics and gone strictly with AMD (also the nvidia card in this price range isn't as powerful as the relative AMD ones):


http://www.fnac.pt/Toshiba-Satellite-L50-B-1JQ-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a803002

It's got an i5 dual core and about as good OpenGL performance as you can get for that price (I couldn't find anything decent under 400EUR, sorry. Everything in that range is integrated only, and very low power, so they would pretty much lock up when trying to use Solidworks). The downside is not a lot of RAM or HD space, but they should be upgradeable to 16GB if Toshiba's Portuguese website translated correctly. I have no way of knowing how many RAM slots are in it though as I couldn't find that info, so the RAM upgrade may be expensive if it's single slot.

If you absolutely must go cheaper, a dedicated nvidia is better than integrated radeon in most cases, so this might be worth a look too if you just can't afford 600: http://www.fnac.pt/HP-15-r003np-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a797865

We're talking lower end processor and less performance on the graphics though, it's not a small hit either.

 

[Portuguesetechie]

What are the specs of your current Vaio laptop? 400 EUR is very cheap and you wouldn't be getting much for that price, especially for 3D modeling with solidworks. I can have problems running detailed models on it even with my laptop, which has a midrange graphics card.

Here's what I found, I know from experience that Solidworks is an OpenGL program and AMD is better with OpenGL rendering, so I have automatically excluded any nvidia graphics and gone strictly with AMD (also the nvidia card in this price range isn't as powerful as the relative AMD ones):


http://www.fnac.pt/Toshiba-Satellite-L50-B-1JQ-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a803002

It's got an i5 dual core and about as good OpenGL performance as you can get for that price (I couldn't find anything decent under 400EUR, sorry. Everything in that range is integrated only, and very low power, so they would pretty much lock up when trying to use Solidworks). The downside is not a lot of RAM or HD space, but they should be upgradeable to 16GB if Toshiba's Portuguese website translated correctly. I have no way of knowing how many RAM slots are in it though as I couldn't find that info, so the RAM upgrade may be expensive if it's single slot.

If you absolutely must go cheaper, a dedicated nvidia is better than integrated radeon in most cases, so this might be worth a look too if you just can't afford 600: http://www.fnac.pt/HP-15-r003np-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a797865

We're talking lower end processor and less performance on the graphics though, it's not a small hit either.

Thank you very much for your reply, my current vaio is this one http://www.fnac.pt/Sony-Vaio-VPC-EA4S1E-G-Verde-Computador-Portatil-Computador-Portatil/a346269
as for Solidworks, i will do light-medium work with it, Mostly mecanical pieces like Windmill towers (With low detail) or bikes (with high detail) arround 20 diferent pieces, my vaio isnt very powerfull and thats why i considered trading, my cousin told me the biggest requirement is 4gb of ram (which it has) but the GPU on it isn't that good so i was kind of scared about having a computer that constantly laggs, it is also very slow on startup.......
Thanks for your help so far i am looking into those 2 laptops
Would u say my Vaio is strong enought to run solidworks decently? I will be spending a lot of my 1st semester this year doing light C programming and some solidworks thats why i am asking mostly, would you in my position upgrade or just keep this laptop? Thanks, and yes 600euros might be a stretch but if its worth it ill make due , fnac has some nice credit lines

 

[drapacioli]

Your cousin was right about the RAM, Solidworks officially cites 2GB as the minimum, but recommends 8GB for the best performance. You won't find a decent 8GB RAM system in your budget, so 4GB is about what you'll be able to get. Other than that they don't give generic graphic requirements so I can't be sure how your vaio will handle solidworks. The vaio has a very low-powered, entry level card though, so you can't expect it to perform smoothly, especially when working with assemblies. Even modern integrated graphics will run circles around it. You need to go for the best graphics you can in this case, and that would be the Toshiba Satellite I linked for your max budget. If you give me a few more websites you can order from, I can see if there's anything better, but that was the best I was able to find from the two you gave me.

 

[Portuguesetechie]

Yes she said that 4gb would be fine and I wouldn't really NEED 8gb per se but that that would be better......
Yes my biggest fear about the computer is the graphics, i know today's integrated graphics are even better than that one.
I can link you more websites, i can also order from Amazon.co.uk (I would rather not tho, pounds to euro convertion can wreck someone)
http://www.worten.pt/store/
http://www.assismatica.pt/categoria/portateis_853.aspx
http://chip7.aeiou.pt/produtos/informatica/portateis.html
I can find more IF i have to, also on the original website i gave you (fnac.pt) i can get about 5-10% regular client discount
i would guess GPU is pretty important for solidworks right? My vaio's GPU is kind of very bad :/
I am not sure if that makes a diferent but maybe, and this is a very big maybe , i would be able to push my budget to 700euros if that makes a lot of diference
Thanks for all your help so for mate

 

[drapacioli]

Yes, GPU and in particular OpenGL performance is very important in solidworks. Make sure you don't get nvidia gpus because they have worse openGL performance than amd. nvidia shines with DirectX, which is good for games, but hardly used by solidworks and other rendering applications.

The extra 100 euros might make a small difference, but probably not a big enough one to justify pushing that far outside your price range. Most of what you will gain in this range by spending an extra 100 is in the CPU, which is not as important for your application. Looking at worten.pt, there is this Acer: http://www.worten.pt/store/inicio/informatica/computadores/portateis/portatil-15-6-acer-e1-572g-54204g1td-intel-i5.html

It has a GPU with a slightly higher clock speed than the first, but it's very marginal. I'm not partial to Acer but do check out that model if you want the most power you can get for the 600. The other two sites didn't have anything decent with AMD graphics. I would choose between the toshiba I linked earlier and this acer. Both will be a good upgrade from your Vaio.

 

[Portuguesetechie]

Thanks very much mate
When u mean u are ot partial do acer you mean u had some bad experiences with acers?

 

[drapacioli]

Thanks very much mate
When u mean u are ot partial do acer you mean u had some bad experiences with acers?

You're welcome.

I have not owned an Acer, but I have worked with a lot of them. They seem to be a good value, but they don't always last as long as other brands, and their displays in particular are cheaply made. In your price range, it's still worth a look, but given the choice between Toshiba and Acer, I would go with Toshiba.