# Recommendations on budget laptop for AutoCAD.



## iKhan (Mar 10, 2012)

My sister's brother-in-law needs a laptop for his new job. He's some kind of engineer. I spoke to my sister's husband and he will be using AutoCAD software. 

Looking for a laptop with:

*An i5 processor 
*4GB - 8GB RAM
*500GB+ HDD
*Dedicated GPU that would be good for AutoCAD


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## Dent1 (Mar 10, 2012)

For his kind of work I would avoid 4GBs of ram completely. Use 8 GB as a minimum and shoot for an ideal range of 16GB - 32GB. With ram being so cheap their is no excuse.

I doubt GPU is going to be a major factor in AutoCAD, it's RAM and CPU heavy.


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## iKhan (Mar 10, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> For his kind of work I would avoid 4GBs of ram completely. Use 8 GB as a minimum and shoot for an ideal range of 16GB - 32GB. With ram being so cheap their is no excuse.
> 
> I doubt GPU is going to be a major factor in AutoCAD, it's RAM and CPU heavy.



So AutoCAD is more about CPU/RAM power, go it. Would a laptop with a quad core Sandy/Ivy Bridge i5 be sufficient?


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## Dent1 (Mar 11, 2012)

iKhan said:


> So AutoCAD is more about CPU/RAM power, go it. Would a laptop with a quad core Sandy/Ivy Bridge i5 be sufficient?



It not being GPU based was a blanket generalisation, I shouldnt of said that, it really depends on the type of AutoCAD being used.

I would avoid getting a laptop because it will be hard to find one with 8GB+ ready. Finding a lappy with 16GBs can be almost impossible and to upgrade it can have a lot of restrictions. From a financial point of view you'll get a much higher spec'd desktop than laptop for cheaper.

Generally speaking Ivy Bridge should be fine, the benchmarks I've seen thus far have been really impressive. In this situation I wouldnt dismiss a Bulldozer FX X6 or X8 *if* the overall rig is considerably cheaper. These types of applications love extra cores.

PS. Bear in mind, you need an X64 system to use greater than 4GB of ram, and the right version of the OS.


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## trickson (Mar 11, 2012)

iKhan said:


> So AutoCAD is more about CPU/RAM power, go it. Would a laptop with a quad core Sandy/Ivy Bridge i5 be sufficient?



I would go with the i7 2500K or better and make sure you have tons of RAM! CAD is RAM hungry!


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## Bo$$ (Mar 11, 2012)

I use a basic CAD package on my Envy 13 it is fine on that. It depends if he wants some mobility


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## trickson (Mar 11, 2012)

Bo$$ said:


> I use a basic CAD package on my Envy 13 it is fine on that. It depends if he wants some mobility



Well from the CAD stuff I seen at my friends office he ran the latest and greatest with tons of RAM. He of-course is an architect and drew blue prints up all the time.


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## iKhan (Mar 11, 2012)

Should have mentioned this before, but a desktop wouldn't be feasible. This laptop will be sent to another country.


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## trickson (Mar 11, 2012)

iKhan said:


> Should have mentioned this before, but a desktop wouldn't be feasible. This laptop will be sent to another country.



Get a good i5 or i7 cpu and lots of RAM. That is what I would go with.


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## whitrzac (Mar 11, 2012)

Dent1 said:


> It not being GPU based was a blanket generalisation, I shouldnt of said that, it really depends on the type of AutoCAD being used.
> 
> I would avoid getting a laptop because it will be hard to find one with 8GB+ ready. Finding a lappy with 16GBs can be almost impossible and to upgrade it can have a lot of restrictions. From a financial point of view you'll get a much higher spec'd desktop than laptop for cheaper.
> 
> ...




IRRC every DDR3 laptop will support 8gb, some early C2D ones may have issues with mobo limits....


I know all SB i5s will support 16gb without issue. 2x8gb kits are $130ish on sale. SB i7s will support 32gb.


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## nt300 (Mar 11, 2012)

If you get a 8GB laptop make sure its upgradable so you can put in more ram if needed. Better yet try and find one with 12GB to 16GB ram for AutoCAD. It sucks back memory a lot.

Here is one with 8GB but can be upgraded to 16GB later on if you choose. They all seem very pricy. For AutoCAD you will want a 17" screen or larger imo.
*Acer Aspire AS7750G-9823 Notebook Intel Core i7..........*
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834215267

16GB of fast DDR3-1600 for $159
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820233265

The DDR3-1066 costs about $139 so the extra $20 is well worth the extra ram speed. I dont recommend 1066.


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