First purchase for AutoCAD, Revit, sketch-up

Maria425,

AutoCad is well-written so as to run quite well on modest systems but Revit is very demanding in every way. Have a look at the certified hardware for Revit:

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/syscert?siteID=123112&id=18844534&results=1&stype=graphic&product_group=2&release=2016&os=8192&manuf=all&opt=2

>a and notice that all the certified or recommended graphics cards are Firepros and Quadros.

If you are working from home and need the mobility, I'd suggest a Dell Precision M with an i7 processor and Quadro. You might buy a smaller screen size 15.6" version with a standard panel and use the savings towards a pair of 22" or larger monitors, full size keyboard, and mouse to use while working at home. Have a good external drive. One monitor could be 27" for the image and the second be a 21" for menus /plug-ins.

Personally, with these applications, especially Revit, and rendering, I would use a fairly substantial desktop workstation and with two monitors and room for at least 3 drives: an SSD and two storage drives. Revit rendering is entirely CPU-based and so can benefit from multiple cores. Laptops have a maximum of 4-cores and 8-threads while a workstation can easily have 16 cores / 32 threads. For rendering and calculation-intensive programs, I upgraded a Dell Precision T5500 that now has 12cores .24 threads @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 48GB of RAM and 4GB Quadro. The RAM capacity is larger, more space for drives, and so on. As the components are used, this is relatively inexpensive and allows modeling, working on one system, and renderings or problems /simulations, analysis to work on the other. Workstations are built like servers and the several used Precisions I've had have been extremely reliable.

If you need to have the laptop to work while traveling or for site or consultants meetings that makes a laptop inevitable, and I would advocate a Precision M and add the full size monitors, keyboard and mouse.

Cheers,

BambiBoom

1. Modeling /Drafting System

HP z420 (2015) > Xeon E5-1660 v2 six-core @ 3.7 / 4.0GHz > 32GB DDR3 ECC 1866 RAM > Quadro K4200 (4GB) > Intel 730 480GB (9SSDSC2BP480G4R5) > Western Digital Black WD1003FZEX 1TB> M-Audio 192 sound card > 600W PSU> Logitech z2300 > Linksys AE3000 USB WiFi > 2X Dell Ultrasharp U2715H (2560 X 1440) > Windows 7 Professional 64 >
[ Passmark Rating = 5064 > CPU= 13989 / 2D= 819 / 3D= 4596 / Mem= 2772 / Disk= 4555] [Cinebench R15 > CPU = 1014 OpenGL= 126.59 FPS] 7.8.15

2. Rendering /calculation system:

This was purchased for $171:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011) (Original): Xeon E5620 quad core @ 2.4 / 2.6 GHz > 6GB DDR3 ECC Reg 1333 > Quadro FX 580 (512MB) > Dell PERC 6/i SAS /SATA controller > Seagate Cheetah 15K 146GB > Windows 7 Professional 64-bit
[ Passmark system rating = 1479 / CPU = 4067 / 2D= 520 / 3D= 311 / Mem= 1473 / Disk= 1208]

> and upgraded for a total cost of about $1,300:

Dell Precision T5500 (2011)(Revised) > 2X Xeon X5680 six -core @ 3.33 / 3.6GHz, 48GB DDR3 ECC 1333 > Quadro K2200 (4GB ) > Samsung 840 250GB / WD RE4 Enterprise 1TB > M-Audio 192 sound card > Linksys WMP600N PCI WiFi > 875W PSU > Windows 7 Professional 64> HP 2711x (1920 X 1080)
[ Passmark system rating = 3671 / CPU = 14361 / 2D= 653 / 3D= 3561 / Mem= 1741 / Disk= 2249]