Pre order spec advice

[PDS]

Good afternoon all,

Just after a bit of advice regarding spec.

I am in the process of looking for new laptops for two CAD designers that work for our company and I’ve been trawling the internet for days. They spend the majority of the time using AutoCAD doing technical design, usually with large files i.e. OS tiles and images while cross ref information on Google earth (on separate monitor) while also multitasking with other programs like outlook, picture manager, internet Explorer, Pdf creator etc. They both use 22inch second monitors to extend the desktop and all data is backed up on a D-Link 2TB Networked hard drive. (The reason they need to be laptops is they occasionally work at various locations)

Regarding the spec below can you please advise on the following;

1. Would the spec listed be suitable for tasks listed above? Handling memory hungry appliaction like AutoCad on multipul monitors?
2. The laptops will be running continuously for anything up to 14hrs a day in a room that has an ambient temp of between 24 and 26 degrees C, will there be an issue with overheating or the machines running at high temperatures?
3. I still haven't finalised a budget so if I had to reduce the costs what would be the best way to go without compromising performance to much?
4. Anything else that stands out that I should be aware of or useful advice?



Chassis & Display
Vortex II: 17.3" Matte Full HD LED Widescreen (1920x1080) (£89)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Quad Core Mobile Processor i7-2820QM (2.30GHz) 8MB Cache
Memory (RAM)
8GB KINGSTON HYPER-X GENESIS 1600MHz SODIMM DDR3 (2 x 4GB)
Graphics Card
2.0GB nVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 580M - DirectX® 11 (17.3" Vortex II)
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB INTEL® 510 SERIES SSD, SATA 6 Gb/s (upto 500MB/sR | 315MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
SONY BD-5730S 6x BLURAY WRITER & CYBERLINK SOFTWARE (£89)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
ARCTIC COOLING MX-3 HIGH THERMAL CONDUCTIVITY COMPOUND (£9)
Sound Card
Intel 5.1 Channel High Definition Audio + SPDIF/MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & KILLER™ 1102 WIRELESS 802.11N - IDEAL FOR ONLINE GAMING

Thanks for time guys.

PDS

 

[mantadog]

That laptop should be perfect for your intended uses as it stands.

As it stands i would change the ram from 8Gb 1600Mhz to 16Gb 1333Mhz, you won't get any real benefits from the 1600Mhz ram unless you overclock. You stand to gain more by having a larger capacity of ram not faster. Also you could drop the bigfoot card to the standard wireless one.

If you wanted to cut costs i would be inclined to suggest drop the ssd and get the 500Gb drive with 32Mb cache. If you wanted to keep the SSD, you could drop the CPU down a level and save £150ish.

If you cant decide, come up with a final budget and im sure we can help you come down to somewhere around your budget.

 

[PDS]

Thanks for the reply Mantadog.

In terms of quality, performance and reliability is there much difference between the two hard drives? I need to look at this as an investment not just a cost so overall value is important.

Also is the running temperature an issue when running all this level of hardware in a laptop?

cheers

 

[mantadog]

Well in general a mechanical drive should last longer than a SSD, especially if you are passing alot of data through it. SSD's have a limited number of 'reads' and 'writes' where as mechanical drives are pretty much tough as old boots these days.

The value for money lies with the mechanical drive for sure. SSD's are super quick and responsive, will boot your OS in 30 seconds, open 20 programmes in the blink of an eye and run very quietly while they do it. Your mechanical hard drive will load windows in a minute or two, and launch 1 application in a couple of seconds. When was the last time you needed to launch every application on your desktop at once?

In reality Mechanical drives make sense, it's roughly £400 to upgrade from the 500Gb drive i suggested to the 250Gb SSD. It's only my opinion of course, but i would stich with a traditional drive if you are looking for better value.

Running temperature is going to be a bit of an issue with most laptops, packing in a i7 and a GTX 580m isn't going to help the situation. That said the Vortex is a fairly big laptop so it will have plenty of area for cooling vents. Apart from being a little noisy when its being worked hard it shouln't have too much porblem.

 

[PDS]

Extemely helpful Thanks.

For future ref is there any benefit to having two hard drives one SSD with all software program files on and a second drive mechanical drive for all other files?

Just forward thinking for when/if i upgrade my machine.

Cheers

 

[DanteWilhelm]

yes there definitely is.


think of it this way, when you run programs Windows is 'looking' for the files.


imagine finding a needle in a haystack (750gb of data) and finding a needle in a clear space (windows files only)


this is why I only have core Windows installed into my main hard drive so it doesn't have hassle looking for those files


and then I install programs onto another hard drive, I'm sure it would be worth having a 3rd hard drive for files but I'm not sure about that.



think of it as having two filing cabinets instead of one! Not just for organization but if you were the computer it would be easier for you to find things!

 

[mantadog]

.

For future ref is there any benefit to having two hard drives one SSD with all software program files on and a second drive mechanical drive for all other files?

Just forward thinking for when/if i upgrade my machine.

Cheers

In short yes. However in an ideal world you would have everything on your SSD as it is so much faster than a mechanical drive. Dante's example works for 2 mechanical drives. However with a mechanical hard drive versus an SSD You only really have a conventional HDD because it can be used to store alot of data for much less £/GB. The SSD will be happy to sit with loads of data on it and not slow down.

They both have advantages and disadvantages really.