PCFormat Forum Archive

Hi,

So my mom got a quote on laptops for her business. They use them for normal day to day office tasks you would carry out on most pc's and for Autocad for their technical engineering drawings etc (I assume a good gfx card would help). The quote (as below) is for an i3 laptop...but its the bottom of the range i3 laptop, and I personally don't think there is enough memory (I know XP only utilises 3GB) or enough HDD space (320GB will run out soon). So I need to check with you guys, in terms of future proofing and having a laptop that will last at least 3 years and still be ok to handle the above, is the below mentioned laptop sufficient? Im thinking not...but I need the opinions of guys that are a bit more knowledgeable than I am please?

* HP ProBook 4520s Notebook
* Intel® Core™ i3-330M Processor (2.13 GHz, 3 MB L3 cache)
* Win XP Pro
* 3GB DDR3
* 320GB 7200rpm HDD
* DVD Writer
* Intel® HD Graphics - ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 4330 with 512 MB dedicated video memory
* 15.6" LCD screen

What's the price on those?

Guy quoted R7500 each

Personally, I wouldn't use notebooks for CAD work. but maybe look over here?

Are they willing to spend more? Or why not just build a desktop for that price?

Yeah, they need notebooks unfot. They are willing to spend more...I think top of the range i5 mobile processor is a better move?

I would think so too. Check that link, you can build up the teh lappie to your own requirements. There's also a stronger on starting at base ~ R6000. Unfortunately it's only the Mecer's that can be built up like that. The other brands are pre-built. Still, you may get something worthwhile

Ok great, thanks for the details

Unfortunately it's only the Mecer's that can be built up like that.

Why "unfortunately"? I was thinking about one of those when the need develops.

Contact Lenovo. They have supermegauberultra laptops for serious users. The Yellow Pages or their intertubes site will get you a phone number.

What price range are you looking at? As I can always give some suppliers I deal with a call and see what they have. What version of CAD are they going to use?

KALSTER wrote:

Unfortunately it's only the Mecer's that can be built up like that.

Why "unfortunately"? I was thinking about one of those when the need develops.

Unfortunately because no other company sells their products like that (at least not over here that I'm aware of)

Remember Core i5 is to replace the core 2 duo range so core i3 is very low down.

CAD is very intensive and honestly I dont see why you dont get one or two desktops as some users will never take their laptop with them.
Core i5 with 6gigs of RAM and win 7 64bit would rock for them!!!

If you really need the number crunching grunt then why not look at the Mecer W770CU which comes with a Core i7 and 4GB DDR3. Price starts at about R10 000