well..that's kind of the point i'm trying to get across....bump the performance to advertised specs and you'll have horrible life that might not last for the duration of the class.

On the other hand, leave the laptop running at reduced performance mode to extend battery life.

In other words, be prepared to make sacrifices when using a laptop for CAD work....and laptop performance specs is only half the story.

true, you also have to be careful when setting it to powersave mode, the default powersave on mine dims the screen and drops the processors to 50% when on battery, but it also ran it at 50% processor power when plugged in. Which is just dumb unless you're trying to speed up the recharge time as you use it.

OP, don't make any decisions if you can't find a definitive answer for this, as this is the main purpose for your machine. The system requirements on autodesk's site are almost pointless just like sys requirements in games. the sys.req.labs plugin is a great way to test games, but not autocad.

I'm still leaning on the fact that it's heavily cpu/ram dependent. buy the fastest laptop you can afford and install (yourself) as much ram as you can afford. use a 64-bit OS since it can utilize the extra ram and will run 64-bit dedicated applications faster (namely, AUTOCAD). everything else shouldn't be important to you as you're on a budget.

my friend's in arch. sci. @ BCIT. He's on his second Macbook Pro, as is half of his class. The other half are mostly rocking Asus's I heard. He uses autocad, revit, illustrator, and photoshop all the time.

sidenote, old generation Satellite's are known to overheat all the time, i'm not sure about the newer ones. google reviews.

how 'bout you email autodesk or ask your instructor/coworkers?

I actually have another question:

Lets say for example there are 2 laptops. Both have 4GB of ram. However one has integrated video memory of say 512mb, while the other has 128mb.

Under heavy load, wouldnt the laptop with 128mb be better since it only has 128mb that can be taken away from the computer's ram of 4GB, as opposed to a possible 512mb?

I'm just trying to understand how all of this works.

EDIT: Also just browsing BB and FS, under the specifications some of the laptops say no to both integrated AND dedicated video memory, but it will say "x amount of mb" next to video memory.

WTF does that mean? Neither integrated or dedicated so where is it getting the memory from?

u should not go by what the FS/BB websites say, the only thing that is accurate is the model number. google the model number or verify in store.

the scenario you described is correct, but many bios's let you configure exactly how much ram you want to allocate to your graphics card

Ok well the reason I ask is because I went back to BB today, and told them I wanted something with a dedicated graphics card

The guy pointed me to this one and assured me it had dedicated graphics
However on the bestbuy website it doesnt list it as having a dedicated graphics card
http://www.bestbuy.ca/catalog/prodde...33&catid=20354

Googling the model doesnt help me much. Next to video ram it says "Up to 1918mb total graphics memory". So am I safe to assume that its integrated?
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/ca/en...1-4041685.html

So the rep says it does have dedicated graphics, the BB site says its integrated, god damnit I dont know what to believe

so from here it already tells you the radeon 4200 has 128mb, and on hp's site that you found it says up to 1918mb. This is exactly what I was talking about. The memory is not dedicated, meaning it's shared from you system ram and you are free to allocate up to 1918mb from the 4gbs of system ram or whatever it comes in.

don't get too hung up on integrated or not. most ppl when they say integrated they mean the intel crap. GMA4500HD or watever. they're all integrated. my definition would be if it has dedicated ram.

Even then, you should google up some mobile vga charts and see where that 4200 stands.

have you tried pricing out an inspiron on dell's website? they start at way lower prices than the hp you quoted, and might be cheaper after you add on everything i.e. ati 4330. how much better is the 4330 compared to a 4200? not by much

NCIX also has one that is the same price as the hp one you quoted:
Gateway P-7803H-CA Intel C2D P7350 4GB 500GB 17IN WXGA+ GTS 9800 1GB Vista Premium 64BIT Notebook
only 5 though, so you can try your luck at their one day sale.

Also, you should know that some of the newer laptops have 2 graphics cards in an attempt to conserve power usage...dedicated graphics generally suck power like crazy, so they offset that by using a non-dedicated for 2D and only switch to the dedicated when hardware acceleration is needed.

I'm too lazy to look up the 2 laptops you found, but that may be the reason for the confusion
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The HD 4200 is integrated, although it sometimes has dedicated memory (known as Sideport memory). It's still slow ...

The HD 4330 is definitely better, but still an entry-level discreet card ...

http://www.staples.ca/ENG/Catalog/ca...affixedcode=WW

Much better card for a much lower price. HP > Gateway as far as reliability goes, though (not a huge difference, but still).

some of them have a mix though, it has X amount of dedicated video RAM, but it can take system RAM up to XX on top of the dedicated if needed.

I still stick by what I said before though, if you're able to do all your work at home on your current machine then wait until you have a class that requires a laptop. I also found when I bought my laptop, that the best deals weren't during the regular back to school week sale, but the sale immediately afterwards. I was able to get a higher end 6000 series than my friend, for $100 less.

Ok I'm starting to get really confused :(
So the HP I linked, does that mean it has 128mb of dedicated video ram, then I an allocate up to 1918mb from system ram if need be?

Any thoughts on the LG R580 on futureshop's website?
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