Currently looking for a laptop (relatively low priced) to run Solidworks on, suggestions would be appreciated. Would something like this be good enough for FRc applications?
First, and most obvious question: Have you looked at the Solidworks specifications for minimum/recommended system performance?
When you do, you’re coming up at about half the RAM you need. SW suggests at least 16 GB. Everything else looks OK.
I usually figure about $1K for a decent CAD machine. That gives extra cushion on processing power, graphics, and often a better overall machine.
I can’t speak to Solidworks, but I have used Autodesk Inventor (2016) on a computer with worse specs than this and it runs OK. The M1200M graphics card on the model you linked is actually fairly passable (at least compared to what I was using).
That said, would it be my first choice to design an entire robot on? No.
Does it work for bringing up models, making drawings, and CAM toolpaths when I’m away from my far superior desktop computer? Absolutely.
If the system requirements for Solidworks is in the same ballpark as Autodesk Inventor (2016), then it would probably be usable, but again, not ideal.
Are you sure you want a laptop? You will get a lot more for your money out of a desktop.
Desktop would be ok too
8gb ram is good enough but it’ll complain less if you go to 16gb. The XPS 15 has been pretty sweet for CAD laptops.