PC or Mac Laptop for AutoCad?

[aricher]

Hello everyone. My brother-in-law needs to get a laptop for his kitchen design company and was wondering if I could help him pick one out. He needs to run AutoCad and some company-specific PC apps. I only know Mac laptops and told him he could always use Boot Camp, Parallels, etc but he's pretty adamant about getting a PC.

Does anyone here have any suggestions? Here's what my brother-in-law texted me this morn:

I almost bought an Acer Aspire AS5745G-5844 last night. To upgrade from 4g to 8g RAM, it was $400 ****ing dollars.... Or, the next level laptop, with 8g & quad processor is almost 2x the price. *Some guys at work said I should get a Toshiba over an Acer though, I have on idea.

I need to run company-specific PC software + AutoCAD.

 

[Umbongo]

Lenovo T or W series, Dell Lattitude or Precision or HP Elitebooks would be what I'd recommend.

 

[ZZ Bottom]

Although it pains me to say so, have him stick with PC. Trust me that you will become responsible for anything that does not go right, or is not as seemless as his all PC setup.

 

[circularforward]

Lenovo T or W series, Dell Lattitude or Precision or HP Elitebooks would be what I'd recommend.

+1. Those are very good business-class machines with great support. For his situation, he really does seem to need a PC since it's hard to justify getting a mac when it'll be in bootcamp all the time.

 

[durhamj]

small world

Wow, LoL.. My brother-in-law is doing the same thing with me, and he is also has a kitchen design & remodel business.
Even after talking with the maker of his windows based design software (they told him other users are having great results with VMware Fusion) He decided he couldn't justify the added up front cost of a MacBookPro and decided to go with an i5 Toshiba laptop from Office Depot.

 

[js81]

Do NOT let him buy a PC!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!

Just kidding. A PC is a much better fit for him than a Mac would be - that's like these people that buy Suburbans and drive by themselves all the time.

My advice is Lenovo or Dell (Latitude, or Precision if he wants to drop that kind of coin). Do NOT get a consumer model laptop - most are junk. Yes, even in the PC world you get what you pay for.

 

[aricher]

Thanks for all the input, he's doing some research and should be buying something soon, I'll let you know the results when he pulls the trigger.

 

[Giuly]

Depends on how soon he needs it.

In the meantime, AutoCAD is fully supported to run via Parallels.

Also, install the RAM yourself. 8GB DDR3-1333 costs $210 on NewEgg. Sell the old 4GB and upgrade it for a total of ~$100.

Same goes for the hard drive.

 

[milbournosphere]

Yeah, don't think a mac would be the best fit for you. I would go with a Lenovo laptop. Their ThinkPad line is great, and has been for some time now. If I was buying a PC, I'd buy from them. I've owned one before, and I'd gladly buy another.