A laptop for cad cam

[avaitsis]

I think to buy a HP COMPAQ 8710w . Is it a good choise for mechanical desktop , inventor and edge cam software ? Thanks for your time.

[bigalexe]

I will start by admitting I am not a fan of CAD/CAM on a laptop in general for personal preference reasons, I just want a real desk when I am using CAD/CAM software.

Looking at the specs I found by using Google (which are useful to post when asking about computers) it looks like we have:

17" Laptop W/standard laptop keyboard (no number pad) & touchpad for mouse.
Intel Core 2 Duo 2.00 Ghz
2GB RAM
Nvidia Quadro FX 1600M (M is for Mobile )

I would say yeah from a hardware capability standpoint you are looking at a machine that will decently run AutoCAD 2010, Inventor 2010 and a CAM Package. The only thing I would worry about is with only 2GB of RAM don't try to run things simultaneously, if possible I would upgrade to 4GB RAM ASAP. Also that Core 2 Duo is a 64-Bit processor and I would definitely go the 64-bit route with the OS and software if you can because it will allow you to utilize more of the RAM.

So overall:
Yes it will run the software.
Yes it can be improved and so has some longevity.
No I would not buy it because it lacks a number pad, a real mouse, and a decently sized display.

[tlharris]

While I agree with bigalexe re: I'd rather have a powerful design desktop than a laptop for design work, the reality is I'm a consultant who does a lot of work at client sites. I do 70% of my Inventor work on a laptop. It's a luxury to get back to the office and be able to use my big desktop & monitors.

I've had very good success with Dell Precision laptops over the years. A 17" display is a clunker to carry around, but makes a serviceable desktop replacement. Whatever machine you go with, max out the RAM, use 64-bit whatever OS (I use Win7 64) and the spend as much as you can on processor and disk speed.

I haven't tried a SSD laptop yet... this year.

In general, you might be able to run CAD on a regular old consumer-grade laptop, but I think you'll regret it if you're running CAD a lot. It also depends what CAD.
Running 2D line drawing program? Probably no big deal.
Doing advanced stress analysis / simulation, or work with a 10K-part assembly in a solid modeling package? It's a big deal.

I would add that both Microsoft and Autodesk are notoriously bad at defining minimum system requirements. In theory, 2GB is enough to run both Win 7 and Inventor 2011. In practice, not so much. I run 4GB in my Dell M90 as my main road-warrior machine, and would call that a practical minimum. Even at that, I wait until I get back to the office to work with large assemblies. 4GB is enough to do part modeling, and basic (<1000 parts) assembly work.

[m98custom1212]

I run Inventor 2011 64 bit and Solidworks 2009 bit on my labtop. No problems what so ever. Runs Smooth. I do have exteneral mouse plugged in touch pad and cad software dont mix.

One thing I hate is not hating a numberpad but i did use to it


My labtop is pretty powerful

The Screen is 17inch 1080p display very easy on the eyes


4gb of ram

Intel T9300. 2.5 ghz.

8800GT M

I want a desktop to do cad work on but i just dont have the money right. I'm saving up for I7.

I running Windows 7 Pro 64 bit

I will upgrade ur ram asap like everyone else said