Frankly speaking, any of your three models will run AutoCAD 2011 64 bit smoothly. Chances are the Vostro will run it a little slower because it's an i5 compared to the i7 of the other two models, but it's not going to be something you will notice unless you have a huge drawing with lots and lots of XREFs and point elements... and with Sandy Bridge processors, you're not even going to notice that unless you are a post-human cybernetic intelligence with half the Internet forming your brain.

The main deciding factor will be what kind of AutoCAD work you want to do. If you're going for 3D rendering work, obviously the one with the stronger video card will be better. Otherwise, pick the one that can support the most RAM: if one of the models can allow you to expand up to 16GB RAM, get that and expand it to the maximum possible.

My pick of the three would be the Alienware one, but that's only because I don't know what video card the XPS15 comes with and whether any of the three have more than two RAM slots.

This post has been edited by ThisIsBoletaria: May 1 2011, 06:06 PM

XPS15 because of fullHD screen

i lol'ed at this

15" screen are you sure your eye suitable for Full HD, how you can draw ? Full HD for 21" up Screen that a suitable. are you sure you known autocad ?

I test on I7-2720 computer, all autocad product slow, for harddisk loadding, better SSD, 7200 also slow.

also for the screen, apple computer is better. apple user 0.25 perpixel, other is 0.28

But you thinking 15", use FHD for design, you are start learning design ?
is you has a money buy a apple hi-end model, you known what a quality for design!

hmm. ok. so anyway i've talked to a few friends and they recommend Toshiba as well.

Toshiba Qosmio x500-D831

# Intel Core i7-740QM processor (1.73GHz with Turbo Boost up to 2.93GHz)
# 8GBB (4GBx2) DDR3 1066MHz
# 500GB HDD (7200rpm)
# 18.4' HD+ (200NIT) Clear SuperView TFT display (16:9), resolution 1680 x 945
# NVIDIA GeForce GTS 360M (ext 1GB VRAM)

Toshiba Satellite A665

Intel Core i7-740QM processor ( 1.73GHz with Turbo Boost Technology up to 2.93GHz )
6GB DDR3 1066MHz
640GB (SATA) HDD with shock absorbers
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
15.6” WXGA HD Clear SuperView LED Backlight 3D Vision display (16:9) 1366 x 768
Nvidia GeForce GTS350M 1GB VRAM


apparently Toshiba Qosmio in Malaysia is different from the one i saw in the website in US. no such x500-D831 model.

This post has been edited by marcuslpm: May 1 2011, 10:33 PM

chill bro, everyone's juz chipping in their own opinion for TS to consider...

unless TS dun mind lugging a 17" around, by all means go ahead, else it's 1 step back to 15.6"...

and have u seen how Full HD looks like on a 15.6"/17"? sure it makes the font look small and stuff, but u ve a much larger working area as well, that's a compromise u need to make if u want to use AutoCAD from a laptop...

as for monitor, if u do read around, the best is probably RGBLED panel from Dell, which is only available on Studio XPS (already EOL), followed by MacBook's monitor... but if TS insist on Windows, then next best would be the B+GLED (is that the name? ) on current XPS...

yeah. i prefer windows because i tried using autocad on mac. dont really like it. still more used to using it on windows =)

no doubt mbpro is a good laptop. just not for me i guess.

i won't really recommend these as they are all using old hardware... Nehalem and GeForce 300M...

but i think MSI GX780 suits u pretty nicely... if u dun mind the blink blink keyboard
http://www.msi.com/product/nb/GX780.html#?div=Specification

Core i7 2630QM
GeFOrce GT 555M 1GB GDDR5
17.3" Full HD (need clarification)
4 DDR3 SO-DIMM slots
dual HDD bays

This post has been edited by astria: May 1 2011, 10:50 PM

I have to admit doing AutoCAD or any other works will be better by using a large monitor, such as 21" that you mentioned,
but we are talking about doing works from mobile perspective, so of course, the size of the screen would be a little bit smaller.

I have been using full hd resolution on 15.6 inch for a while, and yes, it looks small, but you'll get used to it and more importantly, you'll get more work space,
easier to play around with the model, and the menu as well. I haven't use AutoCAD before, but I have used Solidworks, and Ansys modelling software
and I believe they are quite similar.

Just my humble opinion.

how much is this?

not out yet, but as a gaming laptop, take note of the GPU, it's 96SP, 128-bit GDDR5 instead of 144SP, 192-bit GDDR3 on AW m14x...

MSI GX780, cool. haha. too bad its not out yet =(

My friend used macbook book run windows 7(bootcamp) 100% compatible. quality very ok. now people buy mac used for run windows. sometime learning mac os too. very good. but on pc run mac os, want do many thing and not 100% compatible. f has a more money , apple is a first choice.

you see the US movies most used apple product now.

hidz7 brings up a good point about real estate that I totally forgot. If you're not a power user and haven't memorised a lot of the keyboard shortcuts for commands in AutoCAD, chances are you'll have 273,102 toolbars lying around your screen. A higher res screen will give you more real estate, but I don't think that's a good idea with notebook screens, even at 15.6"; just be prepared to squint.

I find that I can get away with using a 14.0" screen at 1024xsomething-or-other resolution at work; I scroll in and out a lot using the mouse wheel, so screen size isn't really an issue for me. But then, I do engineering work, so I don't need to look at full renders or the entire drawing on screen a lot.

As for the Toshibas, until they put out Sandy Bridge models, don't bother. For the same price, you can get better performance from other makers, even if build quality and reliability is not as good.

getting a Mac and use Windows as the main OS... that's juz plain stupid isn't it? u get Mac becuz u want to use Mac OS X, not becuz u want to use Windows...

y not juz get a laptop, which has better hardware, for the same price? especially when it's some heavy duty work that we re talking abt... or, laptop with the same hardware, for a cheaper price, and slot in a SSD or get a monitor (eg Dell's IPS monitors)?

many ppl get MacBook juz becuz it's Apple, or that it's cool, not that they really want to use Mac OS X...

+1.
And they are not going to get the same battery life in windows as they would get by using Mac OS.
If in case TS bought Mac, then I'm sure he's going to use Windows more due to his work.

This post has been edited by hidz7: May 2 2011, 05:58 PM

Used apple can choice windows and mac os. mac os boot os just need 9sec. If not need more software, use apple os enougn.

On hk, most apple user, install windows 7. also Apple HK ads, apple can run windows. now world is change, apple used windows why not ? same a windows user used vmware run linux`mac, is a stupid ? multi os very popular. new intel cpu, has vxd function for vmware and multi os.(I7-26301m not, but 2720 has)

Apple quality world no.1, that a true. higher price also true. same a branch bag , 1 RM10000, some Rm80-100. that all is money problems. is a rich, why not using good quality product ?

Apple quality no1? well how do u explain the excessive heat coming from the butt of my MacBook Air?

many MacBook user put Windows in their rig is juz becuz they want to be cool, but without leaving the comfort zone of Windows... that's juz plain stupid in my eyes, cuz by using Windows on a Mac, u re literally removing the biggest advantage of MacBook - UNIX like OS, even more UNIX like than Linux...

but no, many ppl juz want to look cool on the outside...

Just a one case for macbook air, compare other many problems. that not a cool, first a quality. why other branch not 'cool' ? why apple cool ?

apple is "cool" because of the stupid apple logo of which many girls (fags literally) consider "ohhhh so stylish and unique!".
bah- to me, apple is more likely a junk. their ipad2 is just an enlarged ipod touch. please, their slimmer, better propaganda is pissing me off.

and u say apple quality is good? fool you are. steve jobs simply wants to earn 200% by putting 10% effort in his products. EG: i said ipad2 is just an enlarged ipod touch right? well ipad2 has a SLIGHTLY faster processor, 3g + wifi. ipad 1 is SLIGHTLY slower and has no 3g. so take a good look at the price difference?
people are just crazy about apple because it USED to be good, and now stevie is using that as an advantage to profit and spend less.

apple is just bullshit