Yes, those simulation software like Solidworks, Multisim (most laptop could run it!) and mechanical modelling software. Must a laptop need to have a very quick processor, or a good onboard gfx inside, or both?
not really, i think a decent laptop should be able to run it without problem (i think...) those computers in my lab are running intel gma running Pro/Engineer just fine. but of cause the higher the spec of your laptop, the faster/smoother it runs analysis.
If you're running MatLab regularly, a good graphics card could be used for extra performance. Plus matlab is a huge whore when it comes to eating up FP cycles when simulating even medium scale systems. Catia and Solidworks sucks huge nuts on a laptop, not only due to speed, but due to the fact that tiny arse monitors are hard to look at. They'll require a little more processing grunt to push them to do decent work. Multisim (gay), PSPICE, CMaker, OrCAD and Altium Designer suite for electronics should run fine as they don't require intensive processing as long as you don't bump up stuff like wire rules, simulate coupling, calc thermal noise and heat dissipation. Most uni students will never go that far. Even for my work the 1.8ghz Core 2s in the lab are fine for that. TL;DR : Get a Desktop with a 24 inch screen. Catia is actually tolerable with 24 and just nice with 30.
I see. Well, my classes started already last Saturday, and I only need to use Abaqus and NX thingy. It's for those mechanical systems simulation anyway. Are they that resource hogging?
FEM (Abaqus) will hog more resources (processing power mainly) and RAM (more qould be helpful i think)
Okay, I might choose the medium range Dell notebooks with at least a 3450 inside. Now I'll be only using Abaqus, NX, some solidworks, and also Matlab (fuzzy logic tools inside).
or get the Turion X2? at least those come with better igp >_>....add the ram to 4gb >_<..that should work eh?
Hmm.. Somehow I feel that the AMD Turion X2 isn't as good as the Core 2 Duo, especially for heavy duty use.
Decided to get the C2D T5800 one. Not sure how it fares but the onboard graphics is just the basic X4500HD one.
I got myself the Compaq 510 model finally. It's a C2D T5000 series - not bad. It could run Abaqus quite good and quick! However, the onboard gfx is an old, casual X3100 Intel. Can't game on it, but that doesn't matter much.
