Advice for setting up your new laptop
Advice for setting up your new laptop
I'm considering a new, quicker laptop for home use with CAD/CAM software, AutoCAD and Fusion 360. My CAD/CAM tools are an older version of Enroute before they improved their graphics for faster processing. I'm running AutoCAD LT Ver. 14, which is also fairly outdated. Fusion 360 is putting a lot of strain on my current machine; even with a 45-second load time (100 Mbps connection), my drawings are simple enough that the program doesn’t require much performance. I’m retired and this is purely for personal use.
I currently own an Asus laptop with an I7 8550U at 1.8 GHz, which is more than sufficient for everything except complex 3D projects. It’s a bit lacking in 3D capabilities though. Since I don’t earn from these tasks, justifying a $2000 upgrade seems tough. Yet, anything under $1500 doesn’t seem to offer a major leap in processor power.
I should note that my AutoCAD LT 14 won’t work with Windows 11. All online reports agree on this. If I upgrade, it would need Windows 10 instead.
Looking at the PasMark ratings, my I7 8550U @ 1.8 has a score of 5930. The most common I7 processor under $1500 in Windows 10 laptops is the 1165G7, but its rating jumps to 10393—still not double my current one. So would upgrading to the 1165G7 give a noticeable 4 to 5 times boost for 3D work, or is it just not worth it? I’m also considering whether graphics cards matter here, but I’d say the main CPU is where to focus.
Thanks,
BH
Without knowing where you're buying from it's pretty much impossible to help you out here. In the US nobody would be considering 11th gen Intel period because there are significantly better options from both AMD and Intel available under $1500.
Here's an example of a $1500 laptop:
https://www.newegg.com/quiet-blue-asus-v...6834236453
Fusion 360 scales with CPU and AutoCAD mostly depends on the type of modeling you're doing (2D CPU and 3D CPU/GPU).
Finding a new laptop not coming with windows 11 is going to be extremely rare right now, but there's no reason you couldn't just install windows 10.
Thank you for your reply.
I understand the limitations of searching for Windows 10 due to the processor choice.
Your question about transitioning to Windows 11 and reformatting an SSD is valid, though I’m unsure if drivers will be compatible with newer motherboards.
You mentioned relying on Newegg and Amazon for your research, which is typical.
Best regards,
BH
Seeing 11th gen totally makes sense if you were limiting to Windows 10 due to how OEMs tend to switch everything when the release a new generation product. I would be surprised if there were any conflicts with just installing Windows 10 since it and 11 are the same base operating system. You would have to reinstall some drivers of course, but there shouldn't be any sort of compatibility problems. While consumer laptops will rarely be seen with the option of Windows 10 business most certainly isn't in the same boat. It's just one of those things where I cannot say for 100% certain you wouldn't have an issue there's absolutely no reason to expect you would.
Generally speaking CPU wise you'll want to look for something 12th/13th generation Intel with at least 6 performance cores, or 6xxx/7x35/7x4x AMD with 6 or more cores.