PC Specifications

[swfurst]

About to purchase new laptop PC, applications will include Vectorworks, Spotlight and Renderworks. I have the "minimum" system requirements. I don't want a minimum system. I want a system that will do justice to these applications, but I don't want to throw money away on useless features. Sales won't comment, citing "liability issues." I invite suggestions for "optimal" specifications, that is what does it take to make the program work. Processor and RAM, for sure, but disc speed, graphics card and display, too. Thank you in advance.

[Hugo]

I have a Mac, so I have not too much experience in the PC side, but in my office we use both Macs and PCs for VW, and definitely in both cases, computers with more than 512 Mb of RAM perform noticeable better. In computers with lower RAM, VW tends to crash very frequently.

[grant_PD]

I used to use a laptop. Here's what I know:

Graphics card only really helps for openGL. If you use that, get a good graphics card.

Disk speed on laptops is generally slower than on desktops because manufacturers are trying to preserve battery life. I would investigate to see if indeed a higher rpm laptop disc drive existed. If it does, go for that.

Max out your ram, going below a gig is just not worth it.

I've used AMD and Pentium processors. Both are different but good. Don't get a lesser model like the celeron. The centrino line is really only made to deal with heat issues as far as I know, and doesn't really have much to do with performance. Again, max this out as much as you can. Right now I'm running dual AMD's and loving it, so my opinion is that AMD's are more bang for the buck.

Go for the biggest monitor size you can. Working on laptops with a lot of palletes is a pain, and VW doesn't allow you to toggle the palletes like Photoshop does (but I wish they did!)

My last laptop was a Toshiba, and I actually reccomend their line. I was quite pleased with it.

[David Ormsby]

I've recently picked up a new Dell - It has the pentium mobile running at 2ghz, and it's nearly as snappy as my 3ghz desktop.

I'll second Grant's suggestion on maxing out your ram and hard drive. Get a 128M video card.

Big screen size is great, but also make sure it's high resolution. Mine is running at 1920x1600 - all my toolbars are open and plenty of room left to draft.

I will say my favorite add on, in addition to a good mouse, is a usb numeric keypad. I do a fair amount of 3D and it's real nice to have dedicated keys for the views....

[swfurst]

Thank you all very much. You have been most helpful.