Laptop

[Cory]

Originally Posted by sanddrag

Laptops are generally not the best machines for Inventor or 3DS. At least you are looking for the right stuff though. They are handy for taking to the machine shop so you don't have to print out plans. You definitely want that gig of RAM (good RAM too, not cheap RAM) and an Intel P4 or Centrino processor (I would avoid Celerons and AMDs, Both the P4 and Centrino will perform, but the P4 will suck your battery) and a fast hardrive. Additionally, good graphics are a must. Get the most memory for graphics as you can. Last, this may be obvious but generally speaking the more expensive the machine, the better it will run Inventor.

As for a good deal, I haven't really found an ideal laptop for heavy Inventor use for a good price. You may want to see what dell has, or maybe in their online outlet store. Sometimes they have coupon codes that will bring the price down.

Umm, there's nothing wrong with AMD processors, they're as good if not better than P4's

You want RAM more than anything else when doing Inventor work. You can get by just fine even with an integrated graphics card. My old laptop was P2 800mhz 128 mb RAM, integrated graphics card, and it would take a little while to render in Inventor, but even with such a weak machine, had I had around 512mb-1gb of RAM, I would have been fine.

My current laptop has a 2.0 ghz Dothan, 1024 MB RAM, 60 gig 7200k HD, 128 MB Mobile Radeon Pro. It runs Inventor, and just about anything else beautifully. It costs a bit more than $1500 though