So, as another chapter to my imminent work-deportation to Australia; I've been asked what kind of laptop I want.

But I've not looked at laptops in ages! And the other annoying thing, I'm forced to shop Dell (because of our business account).


Both Revit & Autodcad are primarily CPU & RAM intensive so that's where I'd have work spend the money - (I won't be doing any rendering on it, and I'm not fussed about a 17" desktop replacement as prolonged usage will see me plugging it into a monitor....) So I guess the question is, where will I find a decent guide on the most current mobile CPU's and GPU's?


Any help / advice would be greatly appreciated.

Any budget?

The XPS range are generally the best (from Dells range) for fast cpu's & lots of RAM, do any of your programmes support cuda?

No budget - but my finance manager doesn't like the £3K my BIM manager has just managed to rack up on a spec.

No CUDA yet (alas).

Did that natty "chat" thing with dell over lunch - they've come up with:
1. Precision M4400, T9800, 512mb FX1700M, 15.4" WXGA, 8GB 800mhz DDR2, XP 64, = £2367.85
2. Precision M6400, T8800, 1GB ATi M7740, 17" WUXGA, 8GB 1066mhz DDR2, XP 64, £2471.35

I'm guessing the 9800 is the better CPU? Shame - because the rest of the other spec. looks much better.....

8GB over 4GB adds £700 to the cost.
The XPS I looked up with a 16" screenm, 3GHz CPU & 4GB RAM costs approx £1400 or so (before company discounts)

I'd go with the 6400 to be honest.

If it is memory intensive, he doesn't have much option... The RAM is going to be expensive either way.

Snowy, you could look at getting it "no RAM" i.e. the minimum and see if you can get a better deal from Crucial...

Alas work won't go for the aftermarket solution - they're tied up in the whole fear of breaking warranty and service agreements... still, this is what "they" specced:



I’m not that up to date on CPU’s, but suspect the 9800 I’ve got quoted is the faster number cruncher (?!) but then they're going for DDR3 - have there been any of the promised gains (over DDR2) since first release? But as Simon says, I’d question what premium was added to get them up to 12gb...

...and my quotes could be (slightly) cheaper if we insisted on dropping that unneeded extra HD space...

What's upsetting (because there are so few web reviews of mobile gpu's) is that the graphics options are the most varied of the bunch, the M7740 ATi in my quote is questionably the better than the 3700m Nvidia from what I have found on the two - fortunately we don't have any fanboys shopping - but I should take a look over at CADalyst to see how Autodesk apps are being supported by both currently...


I can’t help but be a little screwface about the screen size - given we’ve arranged a deal with our Australian equivalent to have a monitor there for me to do desk work – and I do wonder if the 17” is absolutely necessary (yes it will be a nicer screen to look at and better for me and movies on the plane and at home) but as a portable device – when we should be aiming to plug into projectors and monitors - the need for such an unwieldy unit doesn’t make much sense to me....

And then there's the BIG question of whether they are matte or gloss – working on a gloss in England’s sun is pointless enough – can you imagine Australian sun on a gloss screen!?!


Hmmm - some more reading tonight methinks - they want to order tomorrow.... and I'm going to look into a bag as well (any suggestions) as the last thing I want is to be carrying this thing around in one of those retched, awfully utilitarian "mug me I'm a nerd with a laptop" satchels.

I didn't realise England and Australia use different stars to light their part of the planet?

17s aren't that much of a bother, tbh. A friend used to commute in and out of Leicester Square every day with his 17" MBP. Just get a backpack type of bag for it; I trust you've lived in London long enough to know not to get your laptop out on public transport.

I went for a 15.4" Toshiba Tecra (1680x1050), plus a 24" monitor for the desktop - working in dual head mode when I'm in the office.

That is nice to work with. The 1680 on the 15" is an excellent compromise between resolution and size.

I think Dell only offer 1440x900 or 1920x1200 on their 15" models. the former is a little low-res, the other too much...

The T9600 is 2.8Ghz, the T9800 2.93Ghz...Not much of a difference. I'd go for the better graphics card, losing a couple of percent on the processor.

I'd go to a local computer store and see if you can get a hands-on with a 17" and a 15" side-by-side, that might give you a better idea - given the size and finish of the Precision, your best bed in PC World and the like would be to have a look at the Apples, they will be of similar finish and size for a more direct comparison of how the two sizes compare to each other (as opposed to two random 15" and 17" devices from different lines).

Well I'll be pushing for the highest resolution screen I can get tomorrow - both Autocad and Revit, even with their crappy ribbon interfaces, are real screen real estate stealers.
The thing is neither apps really exploit GPU power at present - when first asked what we wanted from the laptop both my CAD/BIM manager and I agreed any of the times we'd be using the graphics-hungry features (ie. rendering) we'd rather leave it a workstation - although (unsurprisingly) all four of the laptops here seriously trump any of our office's current workstations spec wise - and apparently the Oz firm are even further behind in the world of hardware!
Alas there'll be no time - not if they're as keen as they are to buy tomorrow - so I reckon the 17" will be what I'll end up - which I have no real complaints with, it's not a case of me being a meekling - more a vain poser.