Looking for mobile workstation recomendation

[jeffw]

I am looking to purchase a laptop that I can use for work. It would need to
handle photoshop, Keyshot and SolidEdge. I am impressed with the Boxx
mobile workstations and while pricey but they seem capable. Anyone have
any good experience running graphic apps and CAD on a laptop?

Thanks,

Jeff

[elliasp]

Hi Jeff,

I tried many ways to work on a laptop, and the best choice is an APPLE MACBOOK PRO 17' with maximum ram and memory (see mac website)

Before that, I had a workstation from dell M6500 (I paid this computer 5000 euros, almost a year ago) and it was less good than the Macbook Pro.

Moreover, now there is ALIAS from Autodesk wich is compatible for mac (as Keyshot).

Hope it helps 

+++
F

[guest84672]

We all have 15" MB Pro's and the are the best thing out there. Even if you only run Windows, they are the best PCs on the market. This is at least what our customers are telling us.

[jeffw]

My CAD software will only run on window so I am wondering how this would work on a macbook pro. Will it run a genuine windows 7 install or does it work with some kind of emulation which would seem to add another layer of potential problems.

Jeff

[jeffw]

Also, Thomas it has probably been posted somewhere but how does licensing work if I want to put keyshot onto my laptop?

Jeff

[guest84672]

No - you can boot into Windows natively. Mac OS X provides a utility called bootcamp that turns your Mac into a PC (partially at least).

You can simply deactivate on one machine, and then activate on another.

[m2tts]

There are some CAD packages that require CAD grade graphics cards to run properly, which Mac laptops don't come with. For instance SW can have stability issues and may run slower without a certified card. I know some people where I work have tried it, and though the software seems to run it does not run as fast. Certain features will not run in SW (mainly RealView which is not a dealbreaker for some).

[quigley]

I use SolidWorks 2012 and 2011 on a 2 year old Macbook Pro 17". I have Windows 7 64 bit installed and launch it using Bootcamp. It runs every bit as fast as any other machine we have (HP workstation). It is very stable (more so that the HP!). The only thing the Mac cannot run is RealView but that does not affect the operating performance at all (I rarely use RealView on the HP anyway).

The only drawback with Macs running Windows (and we have a iMac i5, 27" as well running Windows 7 as well) is that the hardware is not optmised for Windows. What this means is that running a heavy duty app like Keyshot or Modo and rendering in Windows means the CPU runs VERY hot. It runs hot in Mac OSX as well, but even hotter in Windows 7 (on the iMac for example, you cannot touch the top of the casing when rendering and CPU temperatures and GPU temps are frequently in the 70 deg C range).

Contrast this to the HP workstation - this runs renders all day, silently, at lower temps.

Bottom line. Next time I buy a desktop it will be a Mac Pro or another HP rather than an iMac. For laptops though, MacBook pro every time.

[RocketNut]

I'm using an Acer Aspire 5552G-7632 laptop ( AMD Phenom dual core/3GHZ, Windows 64bit,8G memory). It seems to be able handle all my work. I'm using Alibre an KeyShot for CAD with out any trouble.