Which Laptop Should I Go With For CAD and CNC Work

[copenhagen69]

Looking into a new laptop for CAD work, mainly AutoCAD and Fusion 360 to help create things the run on Mach4 for my CNC machine. My current laptop, ASUS Zen has onboard GPU and only 8GB RAM (which cannot be upgraded) It fumbles around in Fusion 360 and struggles to do the 3D work when building there.

So far, I am thinking between 3 laptops ...

Razer 15 : https://www.razer.com/gaming-laptops/Razer-Blade-15/RZ09-03289E21-R3U1
Thinkpad P15 : https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/thinkpad/thinkpad-p/ThinkPad-P15s/p/22WSP15P5S1
ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14 : https://rog.asus.com/laptops/rog-zephyrus/rog-zephyrus-g14-series/

The Asus and Thinkpad seem to have the best battery life .. The thinkpad is the best price at just over $1000 for almost identical specs to everything else and has a quadro card, which I am not familiar with except I know they were made for this type of work ... Razer seems to have the all around best quality, the apple of PC so they say, but also seems to have terrible customer service compared to the others.

Thoughts on this?

 

[1freedude]

What about a headless tower that has better specs and way cheaper. Then VNC or RD into it.

 

[copenhagen69]

What about a headless tower that has better specs and way cheaper. Then VNC or RD into it.

I tried that awhile back, maybe it was a setting I had setup or something, but there was lag in my CAD program vs what I was doing. It was about a second or so, not huge, but definitely noticeable to where I couldnt go as fast as I wanted. When actually using the headless machine to test to see if it was slow on there, it worked just fine.

 

[DrCR]

I'd skip Razer and Asus for workstation use. Dell, HP, and Lenovo (select product lines) come to mind. There's more than specs to consider as well e.g. thermal throttling.

Do you have a fixed budget, or not particularly and just trying to get work done? You may want to consider if 17" is right for you as well.

Something to scroll through:

Dell Precision Mobile Workstations | Dell USA

Precision mobile workstations are thin, light & high-performance business laptops featuring a 4k touch display. Shop today & get free shipping!

www.dell.com

 

[yotano211]

How about a Sager or Clevo, they are more of a custom made laptop. You usually get much more laptop specs for your money.

 

[ne6togadno]

Help

help.autodesk.com

ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U Barebones Mini PC (Ryzen 4800U + RX Vega 8 IGP) Review - Desktop Performance in a Tiny Package

While the ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U may be rather expensive for a mini-PC, it makes up for it by delivering an insane level of performance. In short, pound for pound, it utterly decimates the competition.

www.techpowerup.com

 

[copenhagen69]

I'd skip Razer and Asus for workstation use. Dell, HP, and Lenovo (select product lines) come to mind. There's more than specs to consider as well e.g. thermal throttling.

Do you have a fixed budget, or not particularly and just trying to get work done? You may want to consider if 17" is right for you as well.

Something to scroll through:

Dell Precision Mobile Workstations | Dell USA

Precision mobile workstations are thin, light & high-performance business laptops featuring a 4k touch display. Shop today & get free shipping!

www.dell.com

Hmmm had not looked at Dell or HP ... have dell work laptops and they are always garbage. Is their workstation line better? I will take a look at HP too


budget would be ~$1500, 17” may be too big and battery life is important too and I have not seen any 17” with great battery life. Talking like 8-9 hours plus.

How about a Sager or Clevo, they are more of a custom made laptop. You usually get much more laptop specs for your money.

looked at sager and nothing jumped out. Not too many customization options and price was about where everything else ive

Help

help.autodesk.com

ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U Barebones Mini PC (Ryzen 4800U + RX Vega 8 IGP) Review - Desktop Performance in a Tiny Package

While the ASRock 4X4 BOX-4800U may be rather expensive for a mini-PC, it makes up for it by delivering an insane level of performance. In short, pound for pound, it utterly decimates the competition.

www.techpowerup.com

Interesting little machine there. I will take a look at that as well.

 

[ne6togadno]

you can check those too

ASRock DeskMini X300 Series

AMD AM4 Socket CPU, - Cezanne, Renoir, Picasso, Raven Ridge, up to 65W, - Support MAX Height ≦ 46mm CPU Cooler<br />Supports Overclocking Option with X300<br />High-Speed DDR4-3200MHz Memory<br />Dual Ultra M.2 (NVMe), - M2_1 M.2 (2280) – PCIe Gen3 x4, - M2_2 M.2 (2280) – PCIe Gen3 x2/x4<br />2...

www.asrock.com

ASRock DeskMini A300 (Ryzen 5 2400G) Review

ASRock looks to impress with the DeskMini A300. Bringing desktop performance to a mini-PC, it offers full support for Ryzen APUs while simultaneously having various add-on upgrades for extra functionality alongside plenty of space for proper storage. It indeed redefines the performance one can...

www.techpowerup.com

x300 paired with 65W 4700g or pro 4750g will give you much better gpu and cpu performance. and it supports 3200mhz ram

 

[DrCR]

Hmmm had not looked at Dell or HP ... have dell work laptops and they are always garbage. Is their workstation line better? I will take a look at HP too
budget would be ~$1500, 17” may be too big and battery life is important too and I have not seen any 17” with great battery life. Talking like 8-9 hours plus.

The 'consumer' product lines are basically always garbage, regardless of the brand.

For Dell, this could be what you're looking for. If you are willing to spend a bit more than $1500 for thin and lite if you move around a good bit, there this. I'd personally likely go for the latter, but that's just me.

The problem with a glorified NUC instead of a laptop (something I've considered often) is if you're not moving around a lot, you can go with a small desktop. But if youre moving around more than once or twice a year, having a screen, keyboard, mouse, and computer is a lot more space/weight than a laptop.

 

[copenhagen69]

The 'consumer' product lines are basically always garbage, regardless of the brand.

For Dell, this could be what you're looking for. If you are willing to spend a bit more than $1500 for thin and lite if you move around a good bit, there this. I'd personally likely go for the latter, but that's just me.

The problem with a glorified NUC instead of a laptop (something I've considered often) is if you're not moving around a lot, you can go with a small desktop. But if youre moving around more than once or twice a year, having a screen, keyboard, mouse, and computer is a lot more space/weight than a laptop.

Oh those are nice! I stumbled on that series the other day ... can you update the ram yourself? I can get RAM way cheaper than they charge for it.

That might be the leader ... that or the lenovo above ...

 

[DrCR]

can you update the ram yourself? I can get RAM way cheaper than they charge for it.

No idea, that's beyond my level of interest. I just wanted to help you suss out what may be good for you. Dell should be able to provided an answer to that question though. Let us know whatever you end up with. Best success to you.

 

[king of swag187]

In terms of build quality of the above, Razer > Lenovo > G14

I would also look into the Dell Precision lineup of laptops as well as HP's ZBook lineup. I would remove the G14 from the equation, it is a gaming laptop with mediocre build quality at best

 

[copenhagen69]

No idea, that's beyond my level of interest. I just wanted to help you suss out what may be good for you. Dell should be able to provided an answer to that question though. Let us know whatever you end up with. Best success to you.

Hah! Thanks! Will do once I get it figured out ...

In terms of build quality of the above, Razer > Lenovo > G14

I would also look into the Dell Precision lineup of laptops as well as HP's ZBook lineup. I would remove the G14 from the equation, it is a gaming laptop with mediocre build quality at best

Gotcha, thanks for the info ... I will check out the HP ZBooks today as well.

 

[yotano211]

Hmmm had not looked at Dell or HP ... have dell work laptops and they are always garbage. Is their workstation line better? I will take a look at HP too


budget would be ~$1500, 17” may be too big and battery life is important too and I have not seen any 17” with great battery life. Talking like 8-9 hours plus.



looked at sager and nothing jumped out. Not too many customization options and price was about where everything else ive



Interesting little machine there. I will take a look at that as well.

I've always had better luck with sager/clevo with prices vs other laptops makers.
Try https://www.eluktronics.com/
I've heard lots of good things about them.
If small size and battery life is important than look at a Gigabyte Aero 15. They come with a 90w+ battery size and come with a pretty powerful graphics card but it will be a max-q design.
I've tried one about for 2 months and loved it, the built quality and lightness, but I prefer 17in laptops.

 

[silentbogo]

Certain things in AutoCAD and Fusion360 work better with dedicated GPU, so all of those deskminis spammed above will struggle.
If you don't want to spend a lot, you should look at HP Pavilion Gaming. Even some overstock unit with 8th-9th gen i5 and GTX1050 will get the job done at half the price of Razer or ASUS.
Note, that Autodesk recommends a GPU with 4GB framebuffer and over 100GB/s bandwidth, which kinda hints that you'll need something along the lines of GTX1050Ti or 1650Ti.
If you initially intended to spend over $1000 on a laptop, then Thinkpad P15 is probably your best choice. Quadro P520 is actually on the list of certified hardware.

 

[Chrispy_]

Qaudro is a con.
Autodesk's engines are generally dated rubbish and yet they have been designed to run on Intel IGPs.

Get yourself something with half-decent OpenGL and DirectX support that has loads of VRAM. Sweet spot is probably a 4GB 1650, and IIRC you can get that with the base-model Zephyrus G14.

 

[purecain]

I use an ROG notebook. I highly recommend the Zephyrus.

Asus have started to build a custom PCB for the GPU, and the rest of the notebook is built around that.

Mine is a GL703V with a I7 7700k and a GTX1080, it runs as well as my desktop. My friend bought the same model and now he no longer uses his desktop.

They are brilliant computers with great build quality. IMO

 

[AOne]

I also use Asus for CAD and CNC (9750H/RTX2070). This is my 4th or 5th Asus. Very happy with it. Outperforms most of its competitors in regard to heat dissipation, which is laptop's main issue. Previous one was with i7700/GTX1050 and was also pretty good handling assemblies with thousands parts in Solidworks while simultaneously working on a drawing with thousands of blocks in Autocad.

 

[copenhagen69]

I use an ROG notebook. I highly recommend the Zephyrus.

Asus have started to build a custom PCB for the GPU, and the rest of the notebook is built around that.

Mine is a GL703V with a I7 7700k and a GTX1080, it runs as well as my desktop. My friend bought the same model and now he no longer uses his desktop.

They are brilliant computers with great build quality. IMO

What kind of temps are you getting on yours? Does the keyboard/palm area get crazy hot?

I also use Asus for CAD and CNC (9750H/RTX2070). This is my 4th or 5th Asus. Very happy with it. Outperforms most of its competitors in regard to heat dissipation, which is laptop's main issue. Previous one was with i7700/GTX1050 and was also pretty good handling assemblies with thousands parts in Solidworks while simultaneously working on a drawing with thousands of blocks in Autocad.

What models have you been using? Really good cooling would be nice as well, dont need a heater under my hands in a texas summer

 

[AOne]

The palm/keyboard is absolutely comfortable and relatively cold. It's not about the comfort, but the workload the CPU could handle. Most laptops are experiencing CPU throttling due to high power usage, causing high temps and thus lowering performance until cooled down. Search this site and you'll find huge amount of such threads. Other common problem is many manufacturers are power limiting their laptops way beyond their capabilities, which also (power) throttles them, forcing them to work far below the specs advertised. So, in general - you should be searching for laptop with proper heatsink, capable of dissipating heat and model, which is not crippled by the manufacturer intentionally. You should definitely test it after purchase, performing a stress test and check for power or thermal throttling. If there ain't such, that's your thing. Otherwise, just return it while you can. Of course, you could try some tweaking, like repasting if warranty is not voided. I had to do this with mine, as Asus (and basically everybody else) are applying crappy TIM (paste), but afterwards all was perfect. Many people are not achieving much with this, with laptops for 2000+ dollars so choose smart
PS: My model is G731GW, but it's already outdated as almost a year has passed.

 

[Deleted member 178884]

I'd look into XMG/Clevo or similar if you haven't already - they're fantastic value and performance on most models IMO.

 

[AOne]

The palm/keyboard is absolutely comfortable and relatively cold. It's not about the comfort, but the workload the CPU could handle. Most laptops are experiencing CPU throttling due to high power usage, causing high temps and thus lowering performance until cooled down. Search this site and you'll find huge amount of such threads. Other common problem is many manufacturers are power limiting their laptops way beyond their capabilities, which also (power) throttles them, forcing them to work far below the specs advertised. So, in general - you should be searching for laptop with proper heatsink, capable of dissipating heat and model, which is not crippled by the manufacturer intentionally. You should definitely test it after purchase, performing a stress test and check for power or thermal throttling. If there ain't such, that's your thing. Otherwise, just return it while you can. Of course, you could try some tweaking, like repasting if warranty is not voided. I had to do this with mine, as Asus (and basically everybody else) are applying crappy TIM (paste), but afterwards all was perfect. Many people are not achieving much with this, with laptops for 2000+ dollars so choose smart
PS: My model is G731GW, but it's already outdated as almost a year has passed.

Just check this one, posted after my answer to your thread

This is easy. Run Cinebench R20, about 5 seconds after the CPU reaches full load, your laptop is either going to start thermal throttling or power limit throttling. Watch the CORE column in Limit Reasons while Cinebench is running. PL2 is going to light up in red and the main screen of ThrottleStop is going to show power consumption right at 45W. I am assuming that during any strenuous test, both power limits are being locked to the same 45W value.

This is done internally and it is done deliberately. There is no easy way around this limitation.

You bought a laptop with a CPU that has a 45W TDP rating so if you complain to Acer, they will likely tell you that your laptop is running as designed. If you just bought this laptop, consider returning it. There are laptops from other manufacturers that are not as limited. Before buying anything, you need to do a lot of internet research. Comparing the CPU model number has become pointless. Depending on how the power limits are set, two laptops with the exact same CPU can perform vastly different.

A BIOS update could make things worse. Starting last December, many BIOS updates are disabling CPU voltage control. These updates are also disabling turbo ratio limit control. I would not update anything unless I could confirm that the new BIOS still allows voltage control. Without voltage control, your temperatures will be higher and you will hit power limit throttling sooner so your CPU will run slower. Try to find an Acer specific forum (Notebook Review) so you can see what sort of problems other users are having with this exact laptop model. Many review sites completely ignore laptop throttling issues so you have to speak with people that own these laptops.

Link to the thread. I think you'll find it useful:

Throttlestop cpu throttling under load i7-9750H

I recently bought a brand new "Acer Predator Triton 500 rtx 2060" laptop and I'm running into throttling issues when the cpu is under load. About 1 second into Cinebench R20 benchmark my PL2 limit triggers, along with RING EDP OTHER, shortly after CORE EDP Other and GPU EDP OTHER. Then about 8...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[copenhagen69]

hmmm thats some shady S*** doing thing like that ...

 

[purecain]

What kind of temps are you getting on yours? Does the keyboard/palm area get crazy hot?



What models have you been using? Really good cooling would be nice as well, dont need a heater under my hands in a texas summer

Ive never used the keyboard for gaming. I use an external keyboard. I'll check the next time ive been having a gaming session.

 

[copenhagen69]

So I have it broken down between these 2 ....

ThinkPad P15 Mobile Workstation -- $1600 + Tax

[*]Processor : 10th Generation Intel® Core™ i5-10400H Processor with vPro™ (2.60 GHz, up to 4.60 GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8 Threads, 8 MB Cache)
[*]Operating System : Windows 10 Home 64
[*]Operating System Language : Windows 10 Home 64 English
[*]Memory : 16 GB DDR4 2933MHz
[*]RAID Config : No
[*]First Solid State Drive : 256 GB PCIe SSD, OPAL
[*]SDD Total Capacity : 256 GB
[*]HDD Config : SSD
[*]Display : 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™ HDR, 500 nits
[*]Graphic Card : NVIDIA® Quadro® T1000 4GB
[*]Camera : 720p HD
[*]Fingerprint Reader : Fingerprint Reader
[*]Pointing Device : Fingerprint
[*]Keyboard : Backlit - US English
[*]Wireless : Intel® Wi-Fi 6 AX201 802.11AX with vPro™ (2 x 2) & Bluetooth® 5.1
[*]TPM Setting : Enabled Discrete TPM2.0
[*]Absolute BIOS Selection : BIOS Absolute Enabled
[*]Battery : 6 Cell Li-Polymer 94Wh
[*]Power Cord : 170W
[*]Display Panel : 15.6" FHD(1920x1080) IPS Anti-Glare 500nits Non-Touch, 720P HD Camera, Mic, WLAN
[*]Language Pack : Publication-English
[*]Warranty : 1 Year Depot or Carry-in

ROG Zephyrus G15 -- $1400 + Tax

[*]NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 6GB GDDR6 with ROG Boost (Base: 982MHz, Boost: 1198MHz, TDP: 65W)
[*]AMD Ryzen 7 4800HS processor (up to 4.2GHz)
[*]15.6” 240Hz 3ms IPS-Type Full HD (1920x1080) PANTONE Validated display
[*]16GB 3200MHz DDR4 RAM
[*]1TB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD
[*]Windows 10 Professional
[*]0.8” thin, 4.85 lbs ultraportable form-factor
[*]Gig+ Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) | USB Type-C Charging Capable