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Need recomendation for drawing program

post #1 of 9
8/13/08 at 8:11pm
Thread Starter 
Hello,

As the resident geek in my family/circle of friends I get asked what to buy when people upgrade their computers. The latest is a slightly different twist on the norm. I have friends that heavily use a drawing program (similar to CAD but not quite) to make blueprints. They need a laptop capable of running the program and running it well.

Here are the min system requirements to the program as well as their own needs:

Quote:
I would like to have one with a 15" to 17" monitor.
the drawing program requires:
Intel Pentium 3.0GHz or equivalent
Windows XP Pro, Vista Business, or Ultimate
2GB Ram
6-10 GB Free Space
DVD Drive
128MB Video Card
1280 x 1024 resolution
Available USB port
Now I don't just want to meet this reqs I want to get a bit ahead of them so 3gb of ram is a must with 4 preferred. This is going to be a work computer so build quality has to be high (all metal body) and since the drawing program has lots of tiny little lines the screen has to be top notch. 1280x1024 or its widescreen equivalent is the absolute minimum but larger would be fantastic. I'm looking for all this to cost less then $2,000. My first thought was a t series thinkpad but pricing those out went right up to 2k. Anyone know another option?
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post #2 of 9
8/13/08 at 10:09pm
Dell Latitudes are very decent for business-level design work. I know some people that exclusively use them for CAD work....really really really big CAD maps.
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post #3 of 9
8/13/08 at 10:13pm
Thread Starter 
Over the years I've never been impressed with Dell's Laptop build quality. Have they gotten significantly better in the past year? Are they using metal bodies yet?
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post #4 of 9
8/13/08 at 10:19pm
I've honestly never seen a metal body computer in my life. I saw a Sony once in Circuit City that had metal-topped face on it but it flexed in my hands the exact same way as plastic computers did....so I'm assuming all-metal is just a gimic.

And I wouldn't really want to pay extra for metal when plastic is lighter and just as durable anyways so long as you aren't planning on playing basketball with it.

Unless you're talking about a desktop?
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post #5 of 9
8/14/08 at 12:08am
Thread Starter 
No there are metal bodied laptops (not desktops). When IBM brought out the T series they called it that cause they used to use Titanium cases, or at least parts of the case was titanium. The whole of the case was metal though and the darn things were damn tough. I don't know if they still do that with their T series though. I heard that asus used to do that with some of their higher end laptops. No idea if they still do or not.
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post #6 of 9
8/14/08 at 12:25am
from experience, some older asus models had part metal case. apple macbook pro line has retained an aluminum case design and upcoming macbook line will also bear aluminum cases. lenovo T series uses a composite material I believe that may be just as effective and possibly more practical.
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post #7 of 9
8/14/08 at 2:42am
Hmm I didn't know all that. It sounds like only the "high end" >$2000 ones would have it then?

Can I ask, why would the person asking about this computer need a metal one? Is he/she doing field work? Is he/she as gentle as an elephant when typing?

I could also say that the Mac is out if this laptop is for business....good luck networking a mac with a corporate server.
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post #8 of 9
8/14/08 at 8:55am
Thread Starter 
Ya no Macs. The people using this know their drawing program but are otherwise not very computer literate. I don't want to have to teach them a whole new OS. As for why a metal case. The reason is that they tend to have the highest build quality and the absolute least amount of flex. Thus it tends to survive longer.
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post #9 of 9
8/14/08 at 5:09pm
I found this in google: http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/...m/371005726631
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