Mobile Workstation Reccomendations

[ARBergman]

Hi Chiefs,

 

I am going to get a mobile workstation soon so I can work while I am traveling. There are a lot of ways to go while shopping for a drafting laptop so I wanted to reach out to see what people recommend. I basically just need to be able to use X8, AutoCAD 2010, Photoshop, and Acrobat on this machine. I Probably wont need to ray trace or use camera view too much, but I would like to be able to. My budget is around $1500 but I obviously would like to get the most out of it. 

 

My computer guy recommends an Apple product but I worry about compatibility issues, my main desktop computer runs windows, and most of my Associates and Clients use Windows. He was saying something about using multiple operating formats on the Mac, does anyone know about that??

 

Any and all advice you could give would help me a lot informing this important decision, please let me know what you have to say,

Thank you!

AB

[SCI_Design]

My two cents would be to get the fastest gaming laptop you can afford... maybe Alienware, Acer, or similar.  Even if you don't raytrace much, it will run the programs efficiently. 

[MarkMc]

I've been happy using Clevo/Sager laptops running Windows Pro. My first one is going in for a monitor cable but otherwise fine even with a few drops.

Lot more bang for the buck on Windows machines than Apples IMO, just not as sexy. I prefer the OS others don't. Which one you like may be a deciding factor.

 

Sager is a US re-brander of Clevo (world's largest laptop maker)- there are a few others. Highly configurable (done by the re-brander), all the ports you could want, don't look like spaceships. FWIW the original Alienware laptops (before Dell bought Alienware) were all Clevos. I bought the first one from Sager, second one from XoticPC. Either is fine, think I slightly prefer the latter.

 

In most of the gaming brands (Asus, MSI, Gigabyte..) it is now possible to get a desktop processor which (in my case anyway) eliminates having to fiddle with Optimus and Intel video cards. Downside is battery life. Other than that get an SSD (m2 is a good idea), check ports.