Architects and Students opinions of M4400 for CAD

Hello. I'm looking in to the Precision M4400 for architecture school where I will be using 3ds max, autocad, rhino 3d, vectorworks, revit and adobe cs3 creative suite. Any architects and students out there using it for this purpose? what do you think about this system? Is it stable and fit for purpose?

I'd be getting the p8800 (2.66ghz) processor with the FX 770M 512mb with vista64bit and then win7 64bit

 

I'm interested in the responses you get. I am an interior architect and in the market for a new computer for the exact same uses.

 

The m4400 will be good for what you need it for and won't be a bear to carry back and forth from home to school like the 17" m6400. My office issues Lenovo T500's to everyone (which are inferior to the Dell your looking at) and we get along fine. We mostly use CS4, Rhino, AutoCAD, Revit.

I would take a look at the HP 8530w and the Lenovo W500, see who has the best deal going as they're all pretty similar. I'd also recommend the quad core qx9300 cpu if you'll be rendering with the notebook.

 

those are good alternatives. the one thing the dell has that the competition does not is the 2ccfl and RGBLED display options, which are the best screens available.

the plus point for the lenovo is the longer battery life, albeit with slightly weaker graphics.

 

Id get the dell, with the RGBLED, the quadro FX 770 video is definatly the way to go for the software you listed as it is very good at openGL applications. but I also agree a quad core sure makes life nicer rendering

 

I am a master of architecture student and picked up a loaded M4400 to replace my T60p, and I totally regret making the switch to Dell. The RGBLED screen is beautiful, but that's just about it. I don't have any experience with the Elitebook 8530w, but i would go with a W500 unless you plan on doing some gaming. For workstation graphics, the V5700 is nearly as good as the FX770, but slower for games (though being an architecture student you probably wont have much time for that).

My beef with the M4400,

1) Heating dissipation. This thing gets way too hot with the newest bios. You can revert back to an older one, but those just throttle the graphics down.
2) Build Quality. Its decent, but IMO, simply not as good as the W500. I am not a fan of the chassis or the powerbrick, both are slightly larger than the w500.
3) The pointing stick isnt nearly as good as the one on the thinkpad, and I am not a fan of the three button touchpad.

Really the only advantage (not withstanding the heat issues) of going with the M4400 is that it supports the fx1700 and quadcore cpus in a 15inch package. Neither of which you are getting.

 

I bought an E6500 for occasional autocad and revit work at home. I got the P9600(P9500?)(2.53GHz). I might have preferred the M4400 but I was able to get my E6500 for a lot less cost.

I have run autocad for about 20 years on a variety of platforms, I don't think elaborate graphics processors are required unless you perhaps do a lot of 3D work. I believe revit does benefit from a faster gpu.

With autocad, most time is used by the program doing calculations and by the user performing input. The drawing of things on the screen is not a process that needs a fancy gpu because it just does it once. With revit you typically do a lot of moving your viewpoint in and out which has to continually redraw the screen which is why there is a benefit if it can draw the screen faster. Of course with autocad if you are moving your view around a lot then maybe faster graphics would help. We do mostly autocad 2D and cannot detect any benefit from faster graphics cards.

 

it really depends on how crazy your 3d stuff on rhino and 3ds max is going to be. Especially renderings. But I am an architect student at UC Berkeley with my T400 and it can handle my crazy renderings with all the different textures and lights.

 

Thanks to everyone who replied. Sorry it took so long to write back, I've been away. I've considered everyone's advice and assurances and I think I'm gonna go for this laptop. I know a faster procesor would be ideal but financial and heat/noise concerns have infuenced me to stick with the system I initially specified. I can always have a cup of coffee while my computer renders.

Thanks again.

 

hmmmmm.... i seem to have a different experiences with the two brands. I had borrowed my brothers Thinkpad recently for rendering and video creation. My Dell inspiron just wasn't cutting it. I was surprised as to how fast and how much his laptop was heating up, and it even got to a point where it kept constantly shutting off. I've used my Inspiron for long hours and for heavy tasks also and it has never gotten nearly as hot, not even when I had it sitting on my lap all along.

I'm trying to decide between the M4400 and an IBM ... will have to read more reviews