16 replies to this topic

[Danial Anderson]

Looking for opinions on what might be considered a good laptop to purchase

alittle about what i do

I am a builder and work fron either my office or a rural jobsite. I use a separate SP key for laptop and desktop

I subscribe to and utilize the cloud storage of softplan +

I like using 3D

my preferred choice of a retailer is Microsoft and I subscribe to there premium support Assure. I have other products and have always received good service

Best Buy if a 2nd choice be made

large screen to help my old eyes see. 

not worried about weight of the laptop

use my mobile phone as a hotspot

I like to connect to 1 or 2 larger monitors when I have  access to them in a secondary office or my jobsite trailer.

this laptop will be almost exclusively used for SP use.

I have ben seriously looking at the Microsoft Surface Book2 16 gb ram and 1 TB memory 15" screen connected to a hub to connect to larger monitors. I like the idea of using the book screen to do sketches and use only the book when attached to larger monitors

2nd laptop of interest is the zenbook duo pro same size ram and memory or larger ram if available

Another person said I should consider a gaming laptop but I don't know what brands are to be trusted and reputable

Thought and opinions are appreciated.

Thank you

Dan A.

[Gary McKeon]

I recently bought an MSI laptop and am incredibly happy with it. Got it through NewEgg and the price was great. Easily handles everything I throw at it. I had a Surface Book Pro and got rid of it in favor of the laptop. So glad I did.

[Danial Anderson]

Gary. Thank you
The Best Buy guy mentioned MSI asa good product and mostly used by gamers. I understand that reasoning
Can you tell me what name or model
# you chose and any thoughts on MSI and handling issues or offering support?

[Allen McDonnell]

Been having good luck with renewed products from Amazon.  This is an incredible deal.

 

https://www.amazon.c...WAN77QV1R&psc=1

[Gary McKeon]

I got the GE63 Raider. Intel i7 8th gen. 8750H  with Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 16G video card. 256G NVMe SSd with a 1TB hard drive backup. This is a "gaming" laptop and has been stable as can be. Paid $1439 for it and it gets used regularly. I haven't had any issues with it at all so can't speak to the support end of it although my son (who is a techie) says these are the best laptop's out there for the money. When I received the box the packaging was excellent and everything was well protected.

 

Hope this helps!

[Danial Anderson]

Does the so called gaming keyboards have a similar to same layout and positions as normal lap top? 

[Gary McKeon]

Yes. The one I bought also has "RGB" which is basically a multi-colored light show on the keyboard. It was cool to look at for about 5 seconds and then it became irritating so they make it real easy to either control what you see and how or, in my case, how to turn it off. A "gaming" laptop is basically just a different set of hardware components that work better with gaming software, which is similar to softplan in structure, instead of an engineering computation type which is "cad" or workstation style. An example would be that for a "cad or workstation" on-board graphics is just fine and nothing more needed. With "gaming" the opposite is true and a good video card is a necessity. Help? 

[Allen McDonnell]

Yes. The one I bought also has "RGB" which is basically a multi-colored light show on the keyboard. It was cool to look at for about 5 seconds and then it became irritating so they make it real easy to either control what you see and how or, in my case, how to turn it off. A "gaming" laptop is basically just a different set of hardware components that work better with gaming software, which is similar to softplan in structure, instead of an engineering computation type which is "cad" or workstation style. An example would be that for a "cad or workstation" on-board graphics is just fine and nothing more needed. With "gaming" the opposite is true and a good video card is a necessity. Help? 

I like the RBG so i can set it to my company color....and OBVIOUSLY static.

[Mark Beard]

I’ve been using a Lenovo Legion Y540 15” since the summer. Got it on sale for around $1,200. Has been great for a mobile laptop, as I move with it everyday between home/work office locations. As much as I’d love to invest in a monster desktop for graphics and rendering, the portability is higher priority for me right now.

Intel Core i7-9750H (2.60GHz, up to 4.50GHz with Turbo Boost, 6 cores, 12MB Cache)
● Memory: 16GB (8GB + 8GB) DDR4 2666MHz
● Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti 6GB

So far so good!! Good luck with whatever you purchase!

[Jon Davis]

I got the GE63 Raider. Intel i7 8th gen. 8750H  with Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 16G video card. 256G NVMe SSd with a 1TB hard drive backup. This is a "gaming" laptop and has been stable as can be. Paid $1439 for it and it gets used regularly. I haven't had any issues with it at all so can't speak to the support end of it although my son (who is a techie) says these are the best laptop's out there for the money. When I received the box the packaging was excellent and everything was well protected.

 

Hope this helps!

 

 

Did you have any problems with softplan looking weird when you first fired it up? Ive got the same card in this new ASUS and all my lines/walls/symbols/etc... appear light grey on the screen. nothing I do helps. Running windows 10...

[Gary McKeon]

Sorry Jon but No- nothing weird and also with Windows 10. Mine fired right up and has been solid since.

[Steven Wohlgemuth]

Did you have any problems with softplan looking weird when you first fired it up? Ive got the same card in this new ASUS and all my lines/walls/symbols/etc... appear light grey on the screen. nothing I do helps. Running windows 10...

 

Have you tried the font installer? http://www.softplan....ntInstaller.exe

[Danial Anderson]

i m looking at the Lenovo P53, i know its rather large. but this is my portable business for designs and building. Has anyone else used Lenovo for laptop and minimal negative experience?

Processor 9th Gen Intel® Core™ i9-9880H with vPro™ (2.30GHz, up to 4.80GHz with Turbo Boost, 8 Cores, 16MB Cache) Operating System Windows 10 Pro 64 Display Type 15.6" UHD (3840 x 2160) IPS, anti-glare with Dolby Vision™ HDR 400, 500 nits Memory 32GB DDR4 2666MHz (2 x 16GB) Hard Drive 1TB SSD PCIe Warranty 1 Year Depot or Carry-in Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro® RTX 4000 8GB

[Steve Haarmann]

I would be wary of the Quadro video cards.

Softplan works best with 'gaming' cards like the Nvidia 20 series.

If anyone can vouch for the Quadro and Softplan then this may have changed.

[Danial Anderson]

Steve, do you see any problem with the 1660 card. 

I see that earlier Mark Beard has a 1660 card on his laptop, Mark seemed to be satisfied in his comments

I have noticed that I now see the ealier responds are using nividia 16 and 20 series.

thank you

[Gary McKeon]

The "quadro" cards are for "cad" applications among other things. They process differently from the "gaming" cards which is geared towards 3D such as Softplan. Since you are buying new I would suggest getting the newest series like a GeForce 2060 or 2070. The other cards mentioned are good but they are slowly on their way out. 

[Danial Anderson]

https://softplan.com...oftplan-require