What the consensus on using the Covet for 3D?

I'm going to be getting a new laptop soon. I will be using Solidworks 64-bit mostly and also using some other engineering software that has 3D modeling involved.

Searching through threads it seems like a lot of people are reporting problems. Should I look at another laptop? Or has Dell worked out all the bugs with this machine?

 

You could just look at what drivers have or have not been updated, and if so, when. As far as graphics, the NVidia drivers are dated last October, just like most other drivers. Some BIOS updates are just coming out now. Generally speaking, I would say, no, whatever bugs were in either the firmware or Dell-provided software last fall are still present.

You know, personally I am more than a little bit disappointed by the poor driver support for a premium machine like that (including the way you have to search really hard to try and hunt down the drivers you need for a clean install, which is a necessity because of the poor quality of Dell's factory-installed image). After all, at least for me, this machine is a workstation, supposedly a professional tool for professional work, that Dell charges a premium for. Given that, I would expect some additional value for the money we paid, including premium driver support. Unfortunately, I just don't see this; as a matter of fact it looks like Dell provides better drivers for silly gaming machines than for their workstations...

 

That's pretty crappy news. I need a new laptop, but I may just wait a little bit and see if Dell can get their act together. Either that, or go a different route.

One thing I seem to have read on the Solidworks forums is that 1GB of video memory is more than enough and that it really doesn't increase speed to any meaningful degree over a 512MB workstation card. Not sure what users here have experienced in that regard.

If that's the case, I wonder if I'd be better off saving some money and getting something like the Alienware M17x with the Quadro 3600 512MB card?

 

Well, if you're going down that route, then I recommend you take a look at Dell's M6300 which is still available. I am still using my M90 (which is almost identical to the newer M6300, with the only difference the newer motherboard in the M6300), and it's been an incredible workhorse, rock-solid and reliable. You can get the M6300 with the Quadro 3600 and up to 8gigs of memory, probably at a better price than either the M6400 or the Alienware machine.

 

What about the HP 8730? Is that a good machine? It looks like it can be similarly configured as the Covet. The only thing it seems to lack is the illuminated keyboard, which would be nice, but not a deal breaker for me.