Laptop suitable for CAD within budget

[Woody3]

I'm looking for a laptop that'll cope with using Archi/AutoCAD, but not really sure as to what I need to be looking for.

My current laptop, which copes ok with ArchiCAD, is spec'd up as follows:

Samsung NP350v5c
Intel i5 3210M CPU@2.50GHz
6.00GB Ram
1TB HDD (only used 200GB in all fairness)
15.6" screen
Windows 10 pro.

I've got a budget of ~£600.

Is there anything out there that'll cope and is within budget?

Are there any manufacturers that I should avoid?

Thanks!

[Mr Pointy]

Do you have to replace your current laptop? If you topped up the RAM as far as you can & put a 500Gb SSD in it would run pretty well, although it does depend what sort of AutoCad work you are doing of course. 'Proper' CAD laptops are expensive beasts.

[Dave.]

I'd even try just refreshing windows 10, especially if it's not been done for a while, or was an upgrade from 7.

[Type R Tom]

Depending on what you are drawing but I'd say there is nothing that an SSD and fresh install of windows won't solve. Put the old HDD in a caddy for extra storage.

[devnull]

New? Probably not.

Refurbished, then you want to find something with a Quadro card.

I have an older version of one of these and it still chews through solidworks / Fusion360 with little problem

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https%3A%2...

[Woody3]

To be honest, my current laptop works pretty much spot on, but it is a bit (read very) battered and bruised (cracked casing, broken fixings) and I'm fed up of swapping the power jack (apparently a common fault on these) three times a year. It's 5 years old and has been on a building site most of its life.

I'm only a (newly) self employed Draughtsman working on house extensions/loft conversions etc and currently only do designs in 2D.

Maybe I should look into re-casing it, if possible?

Hmm...

[TonyRPH]

If your current laptop is ok, then I would recommend trawling through the various Ebay listings for a refurb or used one.

There are plenty of good used laptops around at the moment with i5 / i7 CPUs.

One of those with 8gb (or even 16gb) RAM and an SSD and you'll be as happy as...

You just need to be mindful of screen resolution, as a lot of them are HD (1366 x 768) which can be a limiting factor, especially for CAD. Ideally you'd want 1680 x 900 or larger, on a 15" screen - you could also go to a 17" screen if the extra physical size isn't a problem for you.

Re casing your existing laptop is not really an option, unless you can find a spares / repairs one with a good housing, and swap the bits over, but that's probably not worth doing...

[Woody3]

• UPDATE*

So, after deciding to stick with my laptop, I ended up having a debacle with windows not booting, so on the lookout for a new one again...

I thought I had it sussed. I had narrowed it down to a Dell laptop either an:
Inspiron 15 - 7580
or an
Inspiron 17 - 5770
however my mate who's quite knowledgeable about all things computers warned me against them as the chassis/body of the above laptops are weak and the hinges are known to fail (I had to fix my hinges on my old Samsung by securing them to a roofing lath underneath). The problem is, I can't seem to find anything that can match the specs for the price.

I use my laptop for ArchiCAD (90% 2D work), browsing the web, listening to music while working and the odd bit of Photoshop.

I'm regularly looking at hotukdeals/pcworld/JohnLewis etc, but can't seem to find anything. Am I asking the impossible?

p.s. thanks for the heads up on screen size/resolution!

[CypSIdders]

I'm using a 7 year old ispirion 1545, running full ACAD, I bought it of a previous employer at the end of a contract.
Still use it now never, had a problem with it, I will even stretch to 3D.
The only downside is battery life, without it being plugged in it will last 30 mins max, mind you it was like this when it was brand new!

[Woody3]

Yes, my partner has a Dell that's 10+ years old and works fine still. From what I can gather, the quality of their later laptops have gone downhill, from what I've read anyway.

I'm still struggling to find anything mind. Currently looking at Lenovo's and Acers...

[TheBogFlogger]

I have something very similar to:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ASUS-GL503GE-EN034T-15-6-...
for my autocads, but my autocad is used for bathrooms and rendering, works great.

[Woody3]

Thank you! It looks like I'm being a bit too optimistic with my budget. I'll use the specs in your link to compare other models to and see what I can find on offer!

Thanks again.

[Woody3]

Just to concluded this thread - ended up getting an Acer Aspire 7
i5-8300H
GTX 1060 Graphics Card
8GB RAM
256SSD +1TB HDD
17.3" Screen
All for a smidge over my £600 budget, so hoping it's a good investment.

Now the drawing work starts!