Need Help Selecting a Laptop

[Anonymous]

Hello all,

I am going to be taking on the responsibility of learning ArchiCAD and BIM in the coming weeks and will need to upgrade my laptop to something capable of handling the software. However, I am on an EXTREME budget. I know the optimal laptops to support this run above $1,000 but I just don't have that kind of money right now, or the luxury of time to save for it.
If someone more knowledgable than me than could look at a few of these and tell me if they look capable of handing ArchiCAD I would really appreciate it. I'm not the greatest at recognizing different processors or graphics cards, which is what I really need help with. For example, I see that an Intel Pentium 4 (or greater) and a DirectX 9 w/ 256 MB+ of video memory graphics card is required. My problem is that I don't know if an Intel i3 or i7 or whichever is better than a Pentium 4.

Now that I've told my life story, could someone tell me what they think of the following laptops... and if none of these even come close to being satisfactory could you please point me in the direction of the most affordable option. Thanks!

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Sony+-+VAIO+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i3+Processor+/+1...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Studio+XPS+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B2+Duo+Pr...

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Dell+-+Studio+XPS+Laptop+with+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B2+Duo+Pr... (similar to the previous Dell)

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Toshiba+-+Satellite+Laptop+/+AMD+Turion%26%23153%3B+II+Processor+/+15.6%...

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to help me out. Sorry if these are all terrible and I'm wasting yours.

-Andy

[Laszlo Nagy]

For some reason all link give me an error message when I try to browse them.
Maybe the BestBuy site displays this only if you are browsing from the US? I don' know.

But there were some recent threads about new computers. Try and get some clues from these:

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=34138

http://archicad-talk.graphisoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=33845

Obviously you will have to decide what fits your budget and what doesn't.

[vistasp]

laszlonagy wrote:
For some reason all link give me an error message when I try to browse them.
Maybe the BestBuy site displays this only if you are browsing from the US? I don' know.

Working fine here, Laszlo. Maybe BestBuy's servers were overloaded by so many AC-Talkers all descending on it together... 😉

[Greg Kmethy]

Andy,

With cheap laptops you should worry about the video card most. I would avoid the Intel video card, and would prefer the Nvidia 9400M over the Ati mobility 4250. That leaves the two Dells as an option. Their screen resolution is also better for you: You will need all the 800 vertical pixels to show some of the more complex settings dialogs in ArchiCAD.