[Cory]

I'm not too familiar with how much faster the new Dual Core Centrino processors are over their single core predecessors, but I have a 2.0 ghz Dothan processor, 1 gig of ram, and a mobile 128 mb Radeon 9700 Pro graphics card, and I can run Solidworks, Inventor, MasterCAM, etc with no speed issues.

Based on that, I'd imagine anything from 1.8 ghz up would work just fine, with 2 gigs of ram being optimal. With CAD work, RAM is much more important than processor speed.

If CAD is going to be the primary function of this laptop (ie: not games), check out the Dell Precision M4300. For $1500 you get a base laptop of a 1.8 ghz core 2 duo, 2 gigs of RAM, 80 gig HD, and a Nvidia mobile workstation graphics card.

For about $200 more you can upgrade that to a 2.2 ghz core 2 duo and 120 gig 7200 rpm hd.