NewLaptop

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I'm looking to buy a new laptop on which to download (only) archicad. Can anyone come with recommendations?
I personally prefer a pc to a mac, but if a mac is better can you explain why? My old pc gets stuck very often whilst viewing 3D.

Thanks in advance.

Bethan

[Chazz]

Bethan wrote:
if a mac is better can you explain why?

Are you trying to start a war here?

I have three things to say about this:

• 1) I just bought a new 17" MacBook Pro and love it. It is the best machine I have ever owned and I bought it to replace my last MacBook Pro which was, in turn, the best machine I had ever owned. But if you are more into the windows world then you should probably stick with it. However, the ability to run both OS's (on a Mac) seems to me to be a very compelling choice.
  
  2) PC laptops are cheaper. Or are they?
  
  3) Do you really need a laptop? Desktops with multi cores will run AC12 much faster.

Good luck!

[Anonymous]

In most cases....its what's inside the computer that matters. Operating systems from both sides are improving rapidly.....but lets not forget about the hardware folks. Optimize your parts and get the most out of your machines to experience the best workflow in ArchiCAD. Whether you are a PC or Mac user....spend a little time and see what parts are hot on the market. Both PC and Mac can be customized and optimized.

[Anonymous]

Bethan wrote:
2) PC laptops are cheaper. Or are they?

From what I've seen Macs are either about the same or significantly cheaper than comparable Dells and HPs. I also find them to be generally better build quality, (certainly better than the Dells, I'm not as familiar with the HPs) and MUCH better designed (slim, light, good looking, attention to detail, etc.)

My Mac Pro is seriously fast, very stable and frankly the best Windows machine I have ever used, whether booting native (Boot Camp) or running in a virtual machine. It was also about $1500 less than the comparable Dell (and about $2000 less than HP).

BTW: OEM copies of Windows install just fine so there is no need to pay the full retail price.

[Anonymous]

Thanks for your replies.
To be clearer, my question is pc specific.

Can you give me some recommendations for the following pc laptop components, that I should consider and find in a laptop pc from ANY manufacturer?

O.S. Windows XP or Windows Vista?

Processor types - Intel or AMD and which models?

Graphics Card - Reliable for Archicad 11 and 12

Memory RAM - How much?

Hard Disk - How big and how fast?


I am no computer experrt yet. I am now beginning to understand more in the computer field little by little and realise it si not a pc/mac argument but rather the specific components within that make the difference.

[Anonymous]

Bethan wrote:
Thanks for your replies.
To be clearer, my question is pc specific.

Can you give me some recommendations for the following pc laptop components, that I should consider and find in a laptop pc from ANY manufacturer?

O.S. Windows XP or Windows Vista?

If you want XP you'd better move fast. They are selling out quickly from what I hear.

From what I've seen Vista runs fine if there are no legacy issues. I've been using it with no problems in clean installs with all new hardware and software. XP seems to have a slight edge in performance, but not enough on my machine to be troubled about.

I you have any older stuff that you still depend on XP is probably the safer choice.

I noticed that Dell is offering it's laptops with both Vista and XP included (together that is, not either/or)

Processor types - Intel or AMD and which models?

I LOVE my Intel XEON dual quad-core setup, but that is just for workstation/desktop machines. My old CoreDuo still works well and I gather the newer ones are quite a bit faster. Don't know much about AMD

Graphics Card - Reliable for Archicad 11 and 12

Generally it seems that Nvidia has fewer problems than ATI. It seems there are many happy users of the 8600GT (myself included). The ATI 1600 in my laptop on the other hand still exhibits the "broken glass" problem in Leopard and NavisWorks (in Windows of course) is unusable.

Memory RAM - How much?

2GB is minimum. 4GB is the max if you are going to use XP or Vista in 32bit versions (they can only address 3.5GB). In Mac OSX or Vista64 the more the merrier. I have 10GB in my machine and make heavy use of it running multiple virtual machines and lots of heavy duty programs.

Hard Disk - How big and how fast?

The bigger the better. I don't find that speed makes much difference. I just got a new 320GB 5400RPM drive for my laptop.

I am no computer expert yet. I am now beginning to understand more in the computer field little by little and realise it si not a pc/mac argument but rather the specific components within that make the difference.

I do think it's worth looking at the Mac even if you are only using it to run Windows. IMHO the hardware is simply a better value for the money. The only price advantage to buying HP, Dell, etc. is that they offer low end configurations that are considerably cheaper than the lowest priced Macs, but for ArchiCAD the high end is all that's worth considering.