BIM Coordinator Program (INT) April 22, 2024

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Best laptop for ArchiCAD 11

Anonymous
Not applicable
I am just in the process of purchasing 11 (my first edition I have been a AutoCAD user). I would be grateful for any feedback on the best Laptop, I know Mac's are great but I do not have the time right now to deal with other software changes. I also need the Laptop in a hurry so I reluctant to build one from Dell (takes at least 10 days).

I will mostly be using in a docking station hooked up to full keyboard and monitor in the office but want the Laptop for working from home, presentations, and overseas work.

Would be grateful for advice on an "out of the box" option up to say US$3,000 including accessories.
20 REPLIES 20
Erich
Contributor
I love my Macbook Pro and with BootCamp (free) it runs windows perfectly. In fact is was one PC magazine's top choices. The only downside for running Windows is that you must buy it separately.
Erich

AC 19 6006 & AC 20
Mac OS 10.11.5
15" Retina MacBook Pro 2.6
27" iMac Retina 5K
Have you seen the Dell M6300 ? Or the Dell M90 ?

ArchiCAD 25 7000 USA - Windows 10 Pro 64x - Dell 7720 64 GB 2400MHz ECC - Xeon E3 1535M v6 4.20GHz - (2) 1TB M.2 PCIe Class 50 SSD's - 17.3" UHD IPS (3840x2160) - Nvidia Quadro P5000 16GB GDDR5 - Maxwell Studio/Render 5.2.1.49- Multilight 2 - Adobe Acrobat Pro - ArchiCAD 6 -25

Link
Graphisoft Partner
Graphisoft Partner
The HP Pavillion series are very good too.

Cheers,
Link.
Anonymous
Not applicable
Ok so i am in charge of buying a new laptop for a girl in my office and have hit a snag. We ordered a Dell Vostro 1500 2.2 Ghz Dual core, they told us it would be three weeks and the Precision M4300 would be better for our use.. Then we were told another month and finally had to cancel the order. We have not been happy with our Dell desktop machines and really would don't want there laptops either.
I have collogues with with Toshiba laptops but don't run ArchiCAD on them. They have been happy with the rendering ability but i really would like some feed back on people that use ArchiCAD 11.
Any one have a Toshiba Qosimo or Satellite with feed back? Any other suggestions?

Thanks
Anonymous
Not applicable
come on guys....i need some help on this! I have to place an order for a new labtop ASAP. some one has to have good or bad things about new labtops they bought. I am comletely bias, i use and love my MacBookPro but our office is still straight windows.
Chazz
Enthusiast
No, I'm not trying to start a war here but......

If you put a MacBook Pro and a laptop from pretty much any other manufacturer (HP, Lenovo, certainly Dell but even Sony) on a table you will quickly come to the conclusion that Apple has a very different idea of what a laptop should be. The MacBook Pro is so clean and so thin and so spare and so gorgeous that it seems a little silly to call it the same thing as the portables made by the rest of the pack. My friend's new plastic-icky Toshiba is actually thicker open than my machine is closed. The things are like little aluminum jewels (and are priced similarly). No, you don't get flip screen touch-pads or a billion ports on the side or port replicators or fingerprint scanners or all those little green lights or the odd function buttons. In fact, after using a MBP for a while you begin to see the foolishness of all that useless gimmickry. You don't even get a number pad (not even on the 17"? yup). What you get is this fast little accessory that you love to touch and to fondle and you find yourself opening it up just to gaze at it's neat little rows of glowing keys. It is a poem wrought in aluminum and silicon.

If you want something that runs ArchiCAD fast and cheap just get a Dell or HP. It hardly matters which. But, if you want to own an icon of design that also happens to be brilliantly functional workstation, there is only one choice.
Nattering nabob of negativism
2023 MBP M2 Max 32GM. MaxOS-Current
Thomas Holm
Booster
Chazz, you're not honoring your signature!
AC4.1-AC26SWE; MacOS13.5.1; MP5,1+MBP16,1
Anonymous
Not applicable
If you really must have a PC and want something right away from a reliable vendor, I recommend:

www.tigerdirect.com

I have used them for years always with good results. Sometimes they have some really startlingly good deals. As PC laptops go, I like the HPs best of what I've seen.

Otherwise, go to the Apple store (online or physical) and get a MacBook Pro and buy a copy of XP or Vista. It is the best laptop ever made. They also have refurbs here:

AppleStore Refurbs
Anonymous
Not applicable
b.trenga wrote:
I am comletely bias, i use and love my MacBookPro but our office is still straight windows.
So use Bootcamp. And, despite how backwards and dirty it may make you feel, install Windows on it. And show it off to your office and they will all want one.

As far as PC laptops go - Toshiba satellites seem to perform pretty well, but they are gigantic. Sonys are expensive for no apparent reason. Dells break often.

I agree with Link and Matthew - HPs are pretty solid and reliable. Sorry, I'm not sure which model numbers are good/bad though.
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