F360, on a laptop?

[HughF]

I'm doing more F360 these days. I would like to upgrade my machine that I run it on to something with dedicated graphics as my current machine is a bit slow.

Is it feasible to run it on a laptop? Preferably a docked ultrabook... I currently use a Dell 7240 (i7, ssd, intel graphics) as my main machine and would not like to move to a desktop.

I'd like to stick with Dell if possible...

 

[Brad93]

My dads new laptop is running it fine. It’s a fair basic HP running windows 10. 64 bit i3 10th gen. 4gb ram.

I mean it could always be faster or render better but how far do you go.

I think it was £350 in Black Friday sale.

 

[sako243]

Don't see why not.

I've been meaning to get around to installing the oldish (2012?) copy of Inventor I have on my laptop and I anticipate a problem with it. Although I've just noticed it has a dedicated graphics card.

I tend to run much more intensive applications than CAD modelling on it (compiling FPGA bitfiles etc).

 

[awemawson]

Fusion 360 won't run on Win 7 as I understand it, it demands Win10 64 bit

 

[HughF]

Fusion 360 won't run on Win 7 as I understand it, it demands Win10 64 bit

I'm quite OK with 10, use it on all my machines now (apart from the ones running XP still)

 

[gaz1]

upgrading laptops isnt as easy as people think normally its hd drive up to ssd and a memory upgrade the graphics isnt one that tends to be upgraded

but in some models it can be

note a laptops lifetime is 3-5 years depending on usage

run this and state what it has or screen grab the info

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

you dont have to install it as i dont just click install later

 

[sako243]

I know @HughF wants to go Dell (and no idea of budget) but I would recommend ASUS quite highly.

I bought one of their first Ultrabooks (UX31E I think) when I started my last job 8 years ago and power wise it's still very potent but then it was just north of £1k when I bought it. The two things that have let it down have been the power connector and it starts overheating on occasion now. The power pin is a bit of a known issue - it's rather flimsy and breaks internally - not a difficult repair. The overheating I suspect is that the thermal paste has dried up being 8 years old and again probably not a big issue to replace.

But when I started my new job / semi-retirement I decided a replacement was warranted (as I was likely to need even more power, and the battery was really starting to go on the UX31) and stuck with ASUS again. I thought the touch pad screen was a bit of a gimmick but it's actually quite useful. Mind you my default PC is a big custom-built monster so don't use the laptop unless I'm away on work.

In my opinion, unless you're always pushing the latest in games / software then perhaps spending a bit more is worthwhile because it appears to have lasted well for me.

 

[HughF]

I know @HughF wants to go Dell (and no idea of budget) but I would recommend ASUS quite highly.

I bought one of their first Ultrabooks (UX31E I think) when I started my last job 8 years ago and power wise it's still very potent but then it was just north of £1k when I bought it. The two things that have let it down have been the power connector and it starts overheating on occasion now. The power pin is a bit of a known issue - it's rather flimsy and breaks internally - not a difficult repair. The overheating I suspect is that the thermal paste has dried up being 8 years old and again probably not a big issue to replace.

But when I started my new job / semi-retirement I decided a replacement was warranted (as I was likely to need even more power, and the battery was really starting to go on the UX31) and stuck with ASUS again. I thought the touch pad screen was a bit of a gimmick but it's actually quite useful. Mind you my default PC is a big custom-built monster so don't use the laptop unless I'm away on work.

In my opinion, unless you're always pushing the latest in games / software then perhaps spending a bit more is worthwhile because it appears to have lasted well for me.

My e7240 was about £850 5 years ago and it still works fine (on it's 3rd battery now) - I might stick with it and just give it a fresh install of 10 to clean some of the junk out. It could certainly benefit from going to 16gb ram - I might do that soon...

I know asus make good ultrabooks (good laptops in general) but I use this at work more than home and we are all dell here - docking stations/psu's etc - I wouldn't want to change.

 

[HughF]

upgrading laptops isnt as easy as people think normally its hd drive up to ssd and a memory upgrade the graphics isnt one that tends to be upgraded

but in some models it can be

note a laptops lifetime is 3-5 years depending on usage

run this and state what it has or screen grab the info

https://www.techpowerup.com/gpuz/

you dont have to install it as i dont just click install later

I'm looking for a new laptop, not to upgrade my current one...

I don't need a utility to tell me my spec - if you need that for some reason, ask me.

 

[eLuSiVeMiTe]

My e7240 was about £850 5 years ago and it still works fine (on it's 3rd battery now) - I might stick with it and just give it a fresh install of 10 to clean some of the junk out. It could certainly benefit from going to 16gb ram - I might do that soon...

I know asus make good ultrabooks (good laptops in general) but I use this at work more than home and we are all dell here - docking stations/psu's etc - I wouldn't want to change.

Look at gaming laptops. Decent gpu decent ram and SSD /hdd usually
Perfect for cad work

 

[gaz1]

I'm doing more F360 these days. I would like to upgrade my machine that I run it on to something with dedicated graphics as my current machine is a bit slow.

Is it feasible to run it on a laptop? Preferably a docked ultrabook... I currently use a Dell 7240 (i7, ssd, intel graphics) as my main machine and would not like to move to a desktop.

I'd like to stick with Dell if possible...

I'm looking for a new laptop, not to upgrade my current one...

I don't need a utility to tell me my spec - if you need that for some reason, ask me.

not what your original post stated hugh you made it clear that you would like to upgrade your machine

 

[knighty]

how much do you want to spend?

go here.... https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/scc/sc/laptops?~ck=mn

there's options down the left hand side, under video card tick any (or all) of the GeForce ones - means you'll have a dedicated gfx chip instead of running on the cpu - I don't run F360 but a quick google says a 1050 is good enough and a 1070 is more than enough... so all those ones listed are more then powerful enough

I'm assuming you pretty much always run with the charger plugged in? (as you get more powerful batteries struggle to last)

other options just depend how much you want to spend... I'd go minimum 8gig ram and an i5 or an i7 if you're feeling flush, there's no point in an i9 tbh

you want an SSD not a mechanical drive or hybrid

big screen is nice, but that's just personal preferance

if you pick what you like the look of post the spec. or screen shot it and post back we can check over it for you?


but.... not much point going crazy... I try to go for good but not the best... get the most bang for the buck that way, there's quickly diminishing returns for price/performance with the newest/top end stuff.... normally better to spend half as much and upgrade twice as often :-)

EDIT: for what you want, and sticking with a new Dell, I'd go with this one...
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/dell-g7-17/spd/g-series-17-7790-laptop/bng7716

EDIT2: I quite like the Dell outlet... but prices have shot up there recently...
this one will do what you want with ease too, almost half the price
https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online...gVy6EFnCn1Cs4mm+2zqiEkfoRsSmIWfsvj/mNNpGXkftj

 

[ukracer]

Fusion 360 won't run on Win 7 as I understand it, it demands Win10 64 bit

Mine does...

 

[ukracer]

not what your original post stated hugh you made it clear that you would like to upgrade your machine

Without taking the thread to our normal transgression. Hugh did say upgrade TO and the fact he said he would like to stick to Dell means I read it he wanted to upgrade to a new machine.

 

[ukracer]

how much do you want to spend?

go here.... https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/scc/sc/laptops?~ck=mn

there's options down the left hand side, under video card tick any (or all) of the GeForce ones - means you'll have a dedicated gfx chip instead of running on the cpu - I don't run F360 but a quick google says a 1050 is good enough and a 1070 is more than enough... so all those ones listed are more then powerful enough

I'm assuming you pretty much always run with the charger plugged in? (as you get more powerful batteries struggle to last)

other options just depend how much you want to spend... I'd go minimum 8gig ram and an i5 or an i7 if you're feeling flush, there's no point in an i9 tbh

you want an SSD not a mechanical drive or hybrid

big screen is nice, but that's just personal preferance

if you pick what you like the look of post the spec. or screen shot it and post back we can check over it for you?


but.... not much point going crazy... I try to go for good but not the best... get the most bang for the buck that way, there's quickly diminishing returns for price/performance with the newest/top end stuff.... normally better to spend half as much and upgrade twice as often :-)

EDIT: for what you want, and sticking with a new Dell, I'd go with this one...
https://www.dell.com/en-uk/work/shop/laptops/dell-g7-17/spd/g-series-17-7790-laptop/bng7716

EDIT2: I quite like the Dell outlet... but prices have shot up there recently...
this one will do what you want with ease too, almost half the price
https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7UdW43C2gUmF6IFv5rhPFEH7v+GdEef18i7mIUh9ZftpQkjDHcPaVAhec0P6lGlTuSK+u/LyVvFWLy2xnexiyS97d9OZQIjAcSV0q8x5vc2+lJff3M0T7cdu/BxXzWtoNehMbImU2eURDGrOSMBTqSWQ2dYDYOUNqfmOsbzsjZGvsz+D/0SMw94Rs6luulxBqgVy6EFnCn1Cs4mm+2zqiEkfoRsSmIWfsvj/mNNpGXkftj

Yeah that's how I used to run...decent but not cutting edge. I could never tell the difference.

Having tried to learn Fusion over the last few months I have used my laptop all over the place.
Irrespective of speed my main criterion, if and when I upgrade ,would be as big a screen as possible. I rarely run without power it's more a convenience for me to move around from place or even room to room.

 

[Hood]

Mine does...

Yes, W7 here as well.

Graphics seems to be the big one if you want good rendering, see the difference it made to my desktop here.
Notice with the old card when I rotated the visible edges disappeared until I stopped, with the new one they didn't. More of an annoyance than a problem but I have noticed other things updating (graphically) quicker with the new card.

 

[HughF]

not what your original post stated hugh you made it clear that you would like to upgrade your machine

I agree I used the term upgrade in the original post - the semantic variability of the English language Anyway, I'm looking to upgrade by replacing my machine.

 

[armalites]

Fusion 360 won't run on Win 7 as I understand it, it demands Win10 64 bit

I've got Fusion 360 on an old Lenovo Thinkpad running Win7, it's not fast but it runs

 

[Cuthy246]

I'm doing more F360 these days. I would like to upgrade my machine that I run it on to something with dedicated graphics as my current machine is a bit slow.

Is it feasible to run it on a laptop? Preferably a docked ultrabook... I currently use a Dell 7240 (i7, ssd, intel graphics) as my main machine and would not like to move to a desktop.

I'd like to stick with Dell if possible...

Dell XPS 15, The engineers have them for cad. Pretty decent if used with a docking station and 24" screen. Bit spendy though

Edit: asked engineers what they think, very happy with XPS machines, other departments have Lenovo thinkpad P50's and they are also recommended

 

[HughF]

Dell XPS 15, The engineers have them for cad. Pretty decent if used with a docking station and 24" screen. Bit spendy though

Edit: asked engineers what they think, very happy with XPS machines, other departments have Lenovo thinkpad P50's and they are also recommended

I like the sound of that - there's plenty of ex corporate used ones on ebay too with dedicated graphics - I never buy new laptops.