Help with a CAD Laptop

[ilovebarny]

Ok so I have to buy a laptop for this guy at work. The only thing that will be put on this laptop will be SolidWorks 09 and maybe Microsoft office. And I have to have this computer delivered by no later than the 25 of November. Money is of no object (although I don't like to just throw money away on stuff were not going to use) but we need something that looks good. We want to make a good impression on our customers when we take this laptop to show them a SolidWorks presentation. Right now im looking at the Dell Precision M6400. http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetails.aspx/workstation-precision-m6400-cov?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd

Are there any good laptops that I should look at specifically?
Performance is a big issue but I don't know when im spending too much for more performance than I need.
Any suggestions are welcome.
Thanks in advance!

 

[cjl]

That Dell Precision looks like an excellent choice, and get it with as much RAM and as fast of a processor as fits within the budget.

Of course, keep in mind that although it would be great at solidworks, and would have plenty of power, it would have a rather miserable battery life. As long as that is not an issue, I would say you are definitely on the right track.

 

[ilovebarny]

No battery is no issue. Which of these builds is better? There both the same model. Just the more expensive one has got some frills.
4,586

PROCESSOR Intel® Core™ 2 Quad QX9300 (2.53GHz, 12M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business Downgrade, XP Pro SP3 Installed, English edit
LCD 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED LCD Display edit
WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M, 1.0GB Discrete edit
MEMORY 4.0GB, DDR3-1066MHz SDRAM, 4 DIMMS edit
RAID CONFIGURATION All Hard Drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™ edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 9 Cell Battery edit
EXTENDED BATTERY SERVICE 2 Years Extended Battery Service for Years 2 and 3 of System Life edit
WIRELESS CARD Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card edit
INTERNAL KEYBOARD Internal English Backlit Keyboard edit
FINGERPRINT READER OPTION No Fingerprint Reader edit
WEBCAM / MICROPHONE Integrated 2.0 MP webcam with dual digital array microphone edit
SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers edit
MODEM No Modem

or this.
4,905

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo X9100 (3.06GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1067MHZ) Dual Core edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business Downgrade, XP Pro SP3 Installed, English edit
LCD 17" UltraSharp™ WideScreen WUXGA RGB LED Edge2Edge Covet Display edit
WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA Quadro FX 3700M, 1.0GB Discrete edit
MEMORY 4.0GB, DDR3-1066 SDRAM, 4 DIMMS edit
RAID CONFIGURATION All Hard Drives, Non-RAID, 1 or 2 drive total configuration edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD+/-RW Slot Load w/Roxio and Cyberlink PowerDVD™ edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 9 Cell Battery edit
EXTENDED BATTERY SERVICE 2 Years Extended Battery Service for Years 2 and 3 of System Life edit
WIRELESS CARD Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card edit
BLUETOOTH WIRELESS Dell Wireless® 370 Bluetooth Module edit
INTERNAL KEYBOARD Internal English Backlit Keyboard edit
FINGERPRINT READER OPTION No Fingerprint Reader edit
WEBCAM / MICROPHONE Integrated 2.0 MP webcam with dual digital array microphone edit
SYSTEM DOCUMENTATION Resource DVD - Contains Diagnostics and Drivers edit
MODEM No Modem

they both have the same or vary similar screens. This one I think: 17" UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WUXGA (1920x1200) RGB LED LCD Display

sorry about the mess I just copy and pasted

(I duno if this is true or not) I thought I had heard that SolidWorks was not written for multi-core processors. So wouldnt that mean its better to get a fast dual core instead of a medium speed quad core?

 

[ilovebarny]

hhhmmm this is cheaper. Wonder if it would do the job? would it do it well?

Intel® Core™ 2 Duo X9100 (3.06GHz, 6M L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB) edit
OPERATING SYSTEM Genuine Windows Vista® Business Bonus-Windows XP Professional downgrade edit
LCD 15.4" UltraSharp™ Widescreen WUXGA RGB-LED (1920x1200) Display edit
WARRANTY & SERVICE 3 Year ProSupport for End Users and 3 Year NBD On-site Service edit
VIDEO CARD NVIDIA Quadro FX 1700M, 512MB edit
MEMORY 4.0GB, DDR2-800 SDRAM, 2 DIMMS edit
HARD DRIVE 160GB Hard Drive, 7200RPM with Free Fall Sensor edit
OPTICAL DRIVE 8X DVD with Cyberlink Power DVD™ edit
BATTERY OPTIONS 6 Cell Battery edit
WIRELESS CARD Intel® WiFi Link 5300 802.11a/g/n Draft Mini Card edit
INTERNAL KEYBOARD Internal English Keyboard edit
FINGERPRINT READER OPTION No Fingerprint Reader edit
WEBCAM / MICROPHONE No webcam with microphone
$3,121
this is a dell workstation m4400 precision.

 

[cjl]

The cheaper one would do the job, though not as well. The one I would go for is the quad core one, as it would probably have the best all around performance, but any of them would work just fine.

 

[dwellman]

Well, you know. . . I think a T500 or W500 would have done the job for a little less cash. . . No Quad Core, but I've never found SolidWorks to be much of the multi-core prowess.