Laptop for REVIT?
 

Hi everyone, hope you all got what you wanted from Santa:woot2:

I'll make this short: I'm looking for a laptop that will run REVIT smoothly. At the moment I don't have a specific budget, but the easier on my wallet the better.
(It does not need to be top of the line as this will be used for school. I have no idea how large or complex our assignments and projects will be, all I know is this will be our first introduction to REVIT.)

With that being said I've done a little bit of reading, and it seems that most people would suggest a newer gen i7 with RAMonRAMonRAMonRAM.

Hopefully some of you in the architectural design/construction/engineering industry can shed some light here.

Would I be better off hand picking parts myself, or are there some decent, somewhat affordable models out there that I can just pick up at say, NCIX?
I can't stand BCIT's somewhat complete and working sauna-like computer labs anymore..


Thanks in advance!

I've been supporting people that do REVIT and ACAD for awhile now.
What i found out is the most import things are i7, as much memory as you can have (revit eats up a ton of memory), ssd or hybrid drive, and a workstation graphics card, Nvidia Quadro, make sure its nvidia and not AMD.

If your looking for a laptop you will be choosing from the workstation class of laptop
something like this
ThinkPad W530 Portable Workstation | Lenovo (CA)

The thinkpad above is a great deal but get an ssd and slap it in.

I was able to run Revit on my thinkpad relatively well.

At the time I had a loaded T410s with a 2nd gen i5, with 4gb of ram, and an SSD.

My recommendations if you are looking for a laptop, just buy the best you can afford.

I am personally running a new T440s now (I actually just got it). All said and done, it was just under $1500. Specs:

-4th Gen i7
-8Gb of Ram
-256gb SSD.

Its a beast of a machine, and will do just about anything I can throw at it. I stand behind IBM/Lenovo, especially their thinkpad line. They are great laptops, with good support and good customer service.


Some key things to remember, especially in your chosen field:

-Autocad, Revit, 3DStudioMaxx, PS, etc. Should all need to have quick access to memory for read/write, which means you HAVE to have an SSD.
-Buy the best processor you can afford
-Dedicated graphics in laptops is no longer necessary, in desktops its obviously a requirement
-RAM is like money, you can never have too much

Watch out, the thinpad above, is an older model, it is a 3rd generation intel. I would not go for that as of now, unless you were on a serious budget. The 4th generation of processors are a HUGE leap for battery life and power.

Thanks for all the info so far guys!
Is there a huge difference between a 4th gen i5 and a 4th gen i7?

Yes. i5 only has 2 cores while the i7 has 4. There's also more cache.

good thread Yaminashi, ill probably be in the same boat soon enough.

STFU TOS'd.

Hope to see you at school in January. :woot2:

Another question for everyone here:

I've pretty much narrowed it down to the thinkpad above and the y510p.
The thinkpad is geared more towards what I need it to do, whereas the y510p is a gaming laptop.

From what I've been reading over the past few days is that the graphics card isn't super important as revit and acad really only utilize the CPU and never really need the GPU unless you're rendering heavy shadowed and textured scenes.

As far as i7 CPUs go, is there that much of a point in going with a 4th gen i7 on a laptop meant for gaming vs. a laptop that has a 3rd gen but is a workstation replacement?

What I'm trying to ask is should I be going with a laptop configured to game just for the newer processor? Will the performance difference between the two processors be drastic?

I know i sound super noob, but I'm just trying to make a smart purchase :p
I really appreciate all of your input
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the difference in the 4th gen vs 3rd gen is the extra power and lower power consumption. the extra performance in the 4th gen is not that significant from what i found.

For me, i rather go with a laptop that is built for the job you need it to do.

you can also customize the CPU in the thinkpad for a more powerful one if needed.

You are correct in not needing a dedicated GPU, the days of discreet graphics cards in laptops are numbered. The newer generation Intel processors (starting with ivy bridge) do an amazing job as stand alone units.

For ACAD and REVIT you need thinking power, not rendering power. Which all comes from the CPU not a GPU.

The exception to this is 3DS but as long as you do not go to crazy into 3DS which in your program they do not you should be fine.

As far as the 4th gen vs 3rd gen debate. It all comes down to battery life as that was the single largest change between the two gens. If you do not spend to much time away from a plug, then no big deal you can save yourself some change (lenovo has great deals on year old models).

If you want the latest and greatest unfortunately its going to cost you a bit more $$.

Just an FYI, unless youre rendering, you dont need much ram to run REVIT.

And also, the revit assignments arent that big of a deal that the instructors make it out to be. Most people just use the school computers anyways as theyre spending time there.

Source: 3rd year arch student and I've been thru that shit before and its a joke of a class... most kids slept thru the lectures LOL, but the instructors is really nice though!

Are the assignments doable with the given lab time? My biggest peeve about that building is the lack of labs for the amount of students
It gets worse when wwe're trying to work on assignments and we get kicked out due to the part time classes.
That's really what I wanted the laptop for. So I can work on my assignments without having to get up and re locate. Plus the HVAC systems are always down so the labs feel like the devils ass
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Yea, you do get kicked out and it sucks... But most kids last year spent time on weekends in the lab and most were able to get the assignments done during lab and the main project during weekends.

Thanks for your input! You may have saved me a huge chunk of money :)