{"id":454,"date":"2016-02-10T10:31:30","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T10:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/?p=454"},"modified":"2018-05-27T12:10:51","modified_gmt":"2018-05-27T18:10:51","slug":"best-laptop-for-solidworks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/picknotebook.com\/blog\/best-laptop-for-solidworks\/","title":{"rendered":"The best laptop for Solidworks (2017 Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n Solidworks can be very demanding even for a dedicated PC. That makes it problematic if you want to keep your budget low. Also, Solidworks is designed to take advantage of professional CAD graphics cards which introduce even more variables when looking for a proper laptop. Despite this, I’ve decided to take up the challenge to find the best laptop for Solidworks even if you have to keep your spending tight! So without further ado, let’s jump right in.<\/i>.\n<\/p>\n
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\n In this post, I’ll attempt to reverse engineer the best laptops for Solidworks from various use cases and general Solidworks experience. Down the road, you’ll also get to know what is and what isn’t essential for a great Solidworks laptop. I’ll also identify the corners you can cut if your budget is limited but you still want a solid workstation.\n<\/p>\n
A \n What should be your top priority for any Solidworks laptop<\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n The Essentials for Solidworks are the same. However, the priority of these bread-and-butter requirements depends on your particular type of work. You can also evaluate this list depending on what you have to deal most often or even what part of your work frustrates you.\n<\/p>\n \n Quad-core Processor @3GHz+<\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n Modeling, a single-threaded task, relies heavily on a sheer clock rate your processor can provide. That’s why You should consider only processors that can offer at least 3Ghz frequency. At the same time, drawings and simulations will benefit tremendously from any additional cores\/threads you can throw at them.\n<\/p>\n \n It gets better – processors with 4 cores and Hyper-Threading have become a standard even in budget laptops. The real question is whether you can afford ones with a higher clock rate and more internal cache.\n<\/p>\n \n Good reference points for a processor:\n<\/p>\n \n I would not recommend going below 4th-gen processors. Right now you can get great options with Broadwell\/Haswell Intel CPUs like i7-6700HQ, i7-6820HQ or i7-5950HQ.\n<\/p>\n \n There’re plenty of resources to compare processors, like PassMark benchmarks<\/a> and NotebookCheck CPU benchmarks<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n Solidworks has ramped up its memory consumption in the past years and I’d be surprised if in the next 2 years it won’t start recommending 12 GB as a starting point. That’s why it’s the starting point for us apart from a few budget options.\n<\/p>\n \n To note, you could technically get away with getting an 8GB MacBook Pro model. But if you like to multi-task or you like having a lot of tabs open in your browser – you’ll regret not getting, at least, 12GB. Recently, I have upgraded my laptop from 8 to 12 GB and it was definitely worth it.\n<\/p>\n \n If you’ll need to do that often – consider investing in a separate small mini-ATX PC? Yes, laptops these days are a lot better than they used to but desktops are still far superior when it comes to CPU\/GPU performance<\/a>.\n<\/p>\n \n There are two main options you’ll need to choose from:\n<\/p>\n \n The choice becomes even less clear when considering that you can enable RealView in Solidworks via RealHack (basic Windows registry editing) even if you don’t have a certified card. At the same time, you might not even need RealView anyways (or at least not as often as you’d expect).\n<\/p>\n \n The choice comes down to budget and purpose<\/strong>.\n<\/p>\n \n If you can’t go over 1800$ – just go for consumer grade card<\/em>. End of discussion. This includes most students, part-time freelancers, and hobbyists.\n<\/p>\n \n If you’ll be working full-time or your part-time gig justifies getting 2000$ – 3000$+ laptop – a certified Quadro\/FirePro chip might be exactly what you need, though, not always.\n<\/p>\n \n By now you might be wondering what’s so magical about these cards. Quite bluntly, there’s no fairy dust behind them. They’re based on the same architectures and chips that gaming cards have.\n<\/p>\n \n The main 2 differences are:<\/p>\n *and other professional software<\/small><\/p>\n \n What’s the bottom line?\n<\/p>\n \n Under $2000, consumer-grade GeForce\/Radeon card will be mostly fine. There are some easy ways to enable RealView or a non-certified graphics card<\/a> (a.k.a RealHack). Quadro\/FirePro cards cost so much more that on a limited budget you end up having a low-end card or every other component in your laptop being sub-par.\n<\/p>\n \n 10th-gen Nvidia GeForce cards are a lot faster than previous-gen cards<\/strong>. And since Quadro cards are released later than GeForce – we have a lot more options choosing between consumer-grade products than trying to find the right laptop with Quadro\/FirePro card.\n<\/p>\n \n I recommend these GeForce\/Radeon cards:<\/p>\n \n For a laptop over $2000, a certified video card is a viable choice – though still not always necessary. These are the cards I recommend:\n<\/p>\n \n SSDs have become a must for almost any type of professional. The real question is whether you can use SSDs as your only storage. That would be ideal – having multiple SSDs and preferably the main one running via M.2\/PCIe for unmatched performance.\n<\/p>\n \n To quickly make a judgment on a laptop’s storage refer to its size and its type\/port:<\/p>\n \n And here are my recommended storage requirements according to your budget: \n Under 2000$<\/strong><\/p>\n \n Under 3000$<\/strong><\/p>\n \n 3000$+<\/strong><\/p>\n \n For simplicity’s sake, when mentioning M.2, I also refer to PCIe drives and I assume NVMe support on both ends.<\/em>\n<\/p>\n \n If you’ll looking for a large 3000$+ laptop, you could consider getting some sort of a RAID setup. RAID can be used to either increase performance (i.e. RAID0) or stability (i.e. RAID1).\n<\/p>\n \n I would advise against performance setups in this particular case. SSDs, especially those going straight through PCIe, will offer more than enough performance as it is. At the same time, you can’t expect to have 4-5 hard drives on one laptop (though that’s certainly possible). And even if you had them, they would cut down battery running time dramatically. That leaves RAID1 as the only viable option unless you’re absolutely certain you need a different setup.\n<\/p>\n \n Essential requirements were all about maximizing the potential of the laptop. And now I’ll describe what you should be looking at to maximize usability and general experience of using Solidworks and other professional software.\n<\/p>\n \n No surprise here. Most of you’ll be staring at your screen for 6-10 hours a day (and sometimes more if you’re anything like me).\n<\/p>\n \n Quality of a screen can be broken down to:<\/p>\n \n Follow these 5 metrics and you’ll be able to judge quite accurately ~90% of screens on the market.\n<\/p>\n \n Now, what I should be looking for and where do I find it?<\/strong><\/p>\n \n If a laptop has an IPS panel<\/strong> – it will be a part of the description. Some laptops will have a “wide-angle” or some other gizmo, which means they made something similar to an IPS panel and didn’t buy a license from LG for the use of IPS.\n<\/p>\n \n Sadly, even Solidworks 2017 has problems with high-resolution screens (above FHD). Solidworks uses a lot of fonts and custom padding\/margins which bug out even when using Windows scaling. That means getting a 2K\/4K might not be worthwhile after all<\/strong>. From my position, Full HD is enough for Solidworks. Though that might change in 2017\/18 as the number of 4K\/Ultra HD displays is shooting up.\n<\/p>\n \n Luminosity<\/strong> and \n My recommendations for a screen: \n Under 2000$<\/strong><\/p>\n \n 2000$+<\/strong><\/p>\n \n The sky is the limit when it comes to additional monitors. Or 6… 6 is also a good limit.\n<\/p>\n \n Additional monitors are not a part of the laptop itself but knowing ahead of time how many you might need will help to refine our requirements.\n<\/p>\n \n If you’re OK with 0-2 external monitors, any laptop with a basic HDMI port will be good enough.\n<\/p>\n \n Meanwhile, wide-angle enthusiasts should look out for:<\/p>\n \n This one comes down to your workflow.\n<\/p>\n \n For example, I almost always work in a place where a power socket is nearby. In my particular scenario, I can dodge this problem without a worry. Though, it would be nice if my laptop wouldn’t die after watching one episode of Game of Thrones…\n<\/p>\n \n If you’re working on-the-go – your laptop will need a lot more juice than I do.\n<\/p>\n \n There’s quite a few metrics that are used to judge a battery but luckily for all of us – only 2 matter at the end of the day.\n<\/p>\n \n First and foremost, you need a long battery runtime.\n<\/p>\n \n Secondly, a good battery should have a long lifetime. There’s no full-proof way to measure it but the number of cells is a good indication of battery lifetime. The main takeaway – prefer batteries with more cells – 6 or more.\n<\/p>\n \n And if you want to be ready for the worst case scenario – know what will happen when a battery fails. Can it be easily removed and replaced? If it can, how much will it cost? If it can’t – what are manufacturer’s guarantees and policies?\n<\/p>\n \n If you need a solid battery and you’re not tight on your budget – you need either 8+ cell battery or an ability to easily replace it. Best case scenario – 8+ cell battery which can be replaced and is still in production.\n<\/p>\n \n Now that the research is done and we have requirements in front, it’s time to find some specific models! \n There’s nothing special about the process:<\/p>\n \n Since we got our theoretical part done, it’s time to show what exact models are the best laptops for SolidWorks.\n<\/p>\n \n Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK is the cheapest yet still pretty good model you can get for Solidworks.\n <\/p>\n \n It comes with Quad-core Intel i5 processor capable of reaching 3.2GHz, which should match a lot of more expensive notebooks when it comes to modeling performance. Solid GTX 960M graphics card, and a small SSD.\n <\/p>\n \n You could even upgrade the modest 8 GB of RAM it comes with up to 16GB of RAM for just under 35$<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n \n This particular model has been selling like hotcakes as it nails down most of the recent trends in the laptop market. Close to all notebooks in this range, cheap out on 1-2 specs to keep their price tag low. Somehow, Dell managed to get performance and usability just right.\n <\/p>\n \n Of course, don’t expect business class build quality or a long battery life, but even in those areas, Dell does not stay behind other similarly priced models.\n <\/p>\n<\/div> \n This laptop has a great processor and a certified mid-range graphics card. It also doesn’t lack memory and it has a decently fast SSD with built-in data encryption to enhance security and privacy. Lenovo also did not cheap out on connections – it has plenty of USBs, Thunderbolt, HDMI and mini DisplayPort, which should be sufficient to connect up to 2-5 monitors depending on their resolution\/refresh rate.\n <\/p>\n \n It gets even better – it packs a solid 90Wh battery. If you’re not going to buy this model from Amazon, check if you’re getting 90Wh and not a 66Wh battery.\n <\/p>\n \n Though it has some caveats that may concern you:<\/p>\n \n <\/a> | [\/c]\n [\/r]\n \n This Dell Precision definitely takes the crown when it comes to looks. I know, it took some time for manufacturers to understand that just because a laptop is a workstation, it must be bulky and heavy.\n <\/p>\n \n Want to know the best part?<\/p>\n The screen looks even better. 5510 comes with an IPS Full HD screen by default and if you want, there’s a 4K option which manages to cover the whole sRGB range for outstanding colors.<\/p>\n \n This laptop covers all the bases with maybe one exception – limiting graphics card. Don’t get me wrong, it’s certified and will support RealView and high model size and complexity but you’ll have to limit visualization and simulation settings. If that’s OK with you – you won’t find a better option.\n <\/p>\n<\/div>
\n At the second part of the post, I’ll list a few top-notch suggestions according to your specific budget. Finally, if you’re in doubt – drop a comment. It was my pleasure to personally answer roughly 50 of you in the AutoCAD post<\/a>.\n<\/p>\nRequirments<\/h2>\n
Processor and Memory<\/span><\/h3>\n
Modeling, Drawing and Simulations<\/h4>\n
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A lot of memory for Assemblies<\/h4>\n
Final Rendering<\/h4>\n
Graphics Card<\/span><\/h3>\n
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SSD<\/span><\/h3>\n
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\n Under 1000$<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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RAID configuration<\/h4>\n
Additional requirements<\/h2>\n
Quality screen<\/span><\/h3>\n
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\n Under 1000$<\/strong><\/p>\n\n
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External monitors<\/span><\/h3>\n
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High Capacity Battery<\/span><\/h3>\n
Selection Process for finding the best Solidworks laptop<\/h2>\n
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Suggestions for Solidworks<\/h2>\n
Under $1000<\/h2>\n
Dell Inspiron i7559-763BLK<\/a><\/h4>
MSI GL62<\/a><\/h4>
Under $2000<\/h2>\n
Asus GL502VM-DB71<\/a><\/h4>
Lenovo ThinkPad P50<\/a><\/h4>
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Under $3000<\/h2>\n
Dell Precision 5510 (custom build)<\/a><\/h4>
Links<\/h6>\n
\n NotebookCheck Review<\/a>\n <\/p>\nHP Omen 17<\/a><\/h4>
Over 3000$<\/h2>\n
Dell Precision 7710<\/a><\/h4>