Laptop Questions for those who are current - CAD/CAM based

[gregormarwick]

The MacBook is impressive, except they forgot the number pad! Also, Radeon pro vs quadro is not a fair comparison...

Radeon Pro vs Quadro is a direct comparison, both are midrange workstation class, specifically Quadro RTX M4000 and Radeon Pro 5600M.

M4000 is slightly faster being a newer GPU, but not meaningfully so.

LIkely what's going on is he's got a bunch of 'security' crap running in the background that his companies IT group requires that wrecks the computer.

I've got basically the same laptop at home and at work, and at home it works great, fans will only come on when its doing something like calculating toolpaths or whatever. At work its a piece of shit. Everything runs much slower and sometimes the fans will just randomly come on. If I look in the task manager there is a full page of just McAfee crap that is running. Also Outlook will frequently be maxing out a core just all the time.

He doesn't actually, they use ESET and it's pretty light. I also used to use it, but ditched AV altogether and just let Windows Defender do it's thing.

He does have outlook and yes, it's a horrible piece of shit on both ends (our exchange server was constant trouble at my old job).

It's just a terrible thermal design with firmware that tries to push the cpu too far. The Macbook has a much better thermal design and doesn't try to boost the cpu so hard for so long, and as a result is much faster overall because it doesn't throttle.

 

[EmGo]

The Macbook has a much better thermal design and doesn't try to boost the cpu so hard for so long, and as a result is much faster overall because it doesn't throttle.

Macs are all now M1 or M2 or even M3, their own chip that's atom-based ? Whatever it is, ain't gonna run no windows on it, I'm pretty sure. Except in a virtual machine, which would most likely defeat the purpose of a new fast laptop for cadcam

 

[rootsandstones]

Macs are all now M1 or M2 or even M3, their own chip that's atom-based ? Whatever it is, ain't gonna run no windows on it, I'm pretty sure. Except in a virtual machine, which would most likely defeat the purpose of a new fast laptop for cadcam

Yes all the Apple M CPU's are ARM base and so they only run Windows ARM. I hope some CAD developer starts porting something to ARM because the performance per watt is pretty incredible on those new Macbooks.

Edit:
Fusion 360 is available on Apple Silicon but so far it's not native, which means the performance is not perfect.

 

[jaguar36]

Yes all the Apple M CPU's are ARM base and so they only run Windows ARM. I hope some CAD developer starts porting something to ARM because the performance per watt is pretty incredible on those new Macbooks.

Edit:
Fusion 360 is available on Apple Silicon but so far it's not native, which means the performance is not perfect.

I've run fusion on an M1 Macbook Pro and it runs great, no problem on the CAD side dealing with reasonably large (well for Fusion anyway) assemblies. On the CAM side the toolpath generation would obviously be faster if it was native, but its still fine.

Only problem is that its quite buggy and seems to have stability issues every other release...

 

[Zahnrad Kopf]

Briefly checking back on this because I was sidetracked by a busy schedule and choices that went out of stock overnight from my last post. I'm still vacillating between a Lenovo ThinkPad-17 and a Dell Precision** (pricing is within $100 of each other), with occasional whistful glances at that Alienware M18...

Before I pull the trigger, (for those that have experience with this, these days) is there any real reason to *avoid* a Xeon CPU, in favor of an i-series?

Neither Dell nor Lenovo seem to have the specific combo that I would prefer, so it looks as if we will be purchasing the pair and then adding memory and drives, to suit.

** - Was open to considering a pair of the refurbed Dell Precisions, but they never seem to have a pair in the "A" condition.

Hoping opportunity might knock and we can pull the trigger this weekend so that I can concentrate on other things in the shop and life. Onward.

 

[jaguar36]

The only reason to get a xeon is if you need ECC memory.

 

[triumph406]

I have had an HP8740W Elite book for maybe 10 years. It was used (not abused, that was me) from ebay, At the time I wanted 17" screen, full keyboard. The one I bought had the top of the line Quaddro card and maxed out memory. I think it was something like $500

It's getting a bit battered now, so I've been looking for another laptop, it's going to be another 8740W or maybe a slightly newer model.

 

[triumph406]

Another nice feature of the 8740W is it is bulletproof. It's been jammed into a bag, then taken onto flights as carry on luggage on over 100+ flights in the last 10 years. The only concession I made to longevity was to install a Samsung SSD.

I've had a lot Dells over the years, I have a pile in the corner, mainly M70 and M90's, all went bad, typically screens went us. They don't stand up to shop use very well

 

[Zahnrad Kopf]

The only reason to get a xeon is if you need ECC memory.

Probably too much overkill for a little manufacturing CAD/CAM machine. Thank you.

 

[specfab]

Lenovo makes some nice laptops that perform well across the product offerings in general. My company uses Dell stuff generally for both internal workstation usage and for our product offerings (optical interferometric measurement systems, shipped both domestically and internationally). We use Dell mainly because of the warranty and service coverage, which you may want to consider. No idea what Lenovo's scheme is regarding those sorts of issues.

 

[Areo Defense]

The only reason to get a xeon is if you need ECC memory.

I think i9's support ecc, not sure though. If you have the option for ecc memory, I'd opt for it. Ecc used to be exclusive to companies willing/able to buy Xeon workstations; I'm glad it's open up to the masses.

 

[gregormarwick]

I think i9's support ecc, not sure though. If you have the option for ecc memory, I'd opt for it. Ecc used to be exclusive to companies willing/able to buy Xeon workstations; I'm glad it's open up to the masses.

Intel sort of added ECC support to the HEDT segment, but really it was just a token response to AMD doing it first. In reality it requires the motherboard chipset to support it, which means it's still limited to workstation class hardware.

 

[Areo Defense]

Intel sort of added ECC support to the HEDT segment, but really it was just a token response to AMD doing it first. In reality it requires the motherboard chipset to support it, which means it's still limited to workstation class hardware.

Not to mention it's common for big name workstations to not have the best components and if they do offer it all, they charge exorbitant prices.