Laptop for CAD - Budget $2k - $3k

LFlyingMango on 18/02/2024 - 12:29
Last edited 18/02/2024 - 12:42 by 1 other user

Laptop blew up today so looking at getting something tomorrow. Looked around on OzBargain and it seems it would've been better if it blew up a few weeks ago instead since there were so many deals :(

I don't really game or anything but do use CAD which is quite memory/GPU hungry.

Prefer:

15"
32GB Ram
1TB m2 nvme
RTX4060

I'm not really fussed with tablet mode or flipping it around etc.

The closest thing I found was this:Lenovo 15.6" LOQ FHD Core i7 16GB/1TB Gaming Laptop RTX 4060 $2197

It's missing the m2 drive and missing 16gb of ram, but it seems quite reasonably priced.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers

Computing Computer Laptop

Comments

  • Hellfire on 18/02/2024 - 12:40
    +3

    It should be an m2 drive. Product descriptions on retailer websites are often poor. Here is the spec sheet
    https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/LOQ/LOQ_15IRH8/LOQ_…

    You can also buy from Lenovo and possibly get it with 32gb ram or you can also DIY the upgrade.

    • FlyingMango on 18/02/2024 - 18:24

      Thankyou for that link

  • [Deactivated] on 18/02/2024 - 12:47
    +5

    I don't think those specs are needed for cad, even my old dell could run solidworks and ansys with 100 tabs open in the background.

    I currently have this and have never had a performance issue
    https://www.officeworks.com.au/shop/officeworks/p/asus-15-6-…

    Asus has the best build quality of any laptop I've ever owned and I'll never go back to dell or hp (and definitely not lenovo).

    • AngoraFish on 18/02/2024 - 14:12
      +6

      Agreed. I work with complex CAD files every day, including large, detailed site survey plans for large areas, xrefs from multiple subconsultants and complex 3D models.

      The file size, complexity and software I use hasn't changed in any notable way in over a decade. Any decent 10 year old spec with 16GB of memory and a dedicated graphics card should be more than sufficient unless you're trying to render high resolution ray traced fly throughs.

      Notwithstanding the above, work provides me with a stupidly over-specced $5k+ laptop and it inevitably still grinds like an old desktop when I load up a file where the hatches have got themselves converted to individual vectors, there are hundreds of unused dimension styles and thousands of unused blocks haven't been purged from the file.

      People vastly overstate PC requirements, particularly for CAD applications. Not even a beast of a computer can protect you from poor file optimisation.

    • FlyingMango on 18/02/2024 - 18:28

      Thankyou for that suggestion, I'll look into it.

      I probably should have mentioned that I will also use it for 3D scanning and modifying said scans in CAD. I previously had to use my desktop to 3D scan stuff which has a RX6600XT, R5 3600 3.6, 32gb etc and that struggled quite a bit with modifying 3D mesh files let alone on my laptop which had worse specs.

  • AndyC1 on 18/02/2024 - 14:29
    +1

    Why is a RTX4060 required for CAD work?
    I can understand the 1TB SSD.
    Watch the CPU as it is a hybrid CPU with P and E cores that you need to look at to see if the CAD software is okay to use on both types of cores as they are different.

    • FlyingMango on 18/02/2024 - 18:21

      Thankyou for notifying me of the CPU, I didn't notice this!

      When scanning mesh files the ram and GPU go crazy, so I figured it would ideal. If there isn't a big difference with a 4050 then I'd be happy to get that, I just wonder why the price difference is so big between them.

  • Gdsamp on 18/02/2024 - 17:25
    +2

    lenovo thinkpad P series

    • FlyingMango on 18/02/2024 - 18:29
      +1

      Thanks for that, will look into them

  • [Deactivated] on 18/02/2024 - 17:56
    +2

    Prefer:

    15"
    32GB Ram
    1TB m2 nvme
    RTX4060

    What is you requirement for screen quality?

    Can you work with a poverty spec 15" display @ 250nits and washed out 62% sRGB because you will hook up an external monitor?

    Or do you need an IPS+ display with 300+nits and 100% sRGB+ colour accuracy?

  • erasimos on 18/02/2024 - 21:03
    +1

    Check out Dell Outlet for their workstation notebook if your software if your software benefits from Quadro drivers.

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