Architecture student looking for a notebook

Hello. I am currently new to the notebook scene and was looking for a notebook that I could use in college. I will be heading to Ga Tech as an architect major and was considering on the buying the asus z70v. I was wondering if this notebook with the 64mb hypermemory card would be efficient enough in running various cad and design programs. Thank you

 

http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=21392

That should answer any Q's.

 

so should this: http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=18685&highlight=hypermemory

 

Juno,

I've got a bs in arch degree and close to done with a masters (get out now!)...... know a bit about Asus' systems.... if you need a hand and want to know specific things about certain programs and requirements, drop me a line. Most arch schools know jack about what you really need and probably tell you - 17" widescreen, P4, highest end graphics card loaded with ram........

Z70v is a the best system for what you're looking at. If you want to look bigger, take a look at the W2, but you could always output to a larger screen regardless.... If you have a huge external screen like most arch students should - I really suggest going with the W3 if you want something that you'll really carry with you everywhere and use to take notes and stuff like that. Right now, my main machine for traveling archdesktop/3ds max/photoshop work... is the w3. The only thing that would be an issue would be the screen size and I think it's only an issue if you don't have something else to export to while doing big projects. For me, even a 17" is going to be too small for that and I prefer exporting to a 23" widescreen or bigger.......

I suggest you think about that.

 

ah so u have a bs in arch! nice! i'm going for a b.arch myself right now [and thanx for all your help in the other threads]

i know i'm regurg. but so from what i gather from the info from my thread/the your hype-mem thread/and this one...

the 64mb of dedicated with the addition of the possible 512mb from system ram is more than adequate for programs like 3dsmax/autocad/maya and the like?

that's good to hear... one of the main things that ppl [and friends who are further into the program] have reserves about the w3v when i show them the specs IS the video card... many say oh get the highest u can... 128mb is good... 256mb is best!... but then again many of them have been herded into purchasing 12lb P4 behemoths with horrible batt. life... and now dread bringing their computer's to class (some just leave it at home actually)...

so the w3v can work with the usual programs... and i'm willing to accept the fact that it "might" take a lil longer to perform what we ask it do to (eg 3d stuff)... but with your experience... it's not unbearably slower right? i just want to make this clearer because it'd be hard to stomach the inevitable "i told you so"'s from ppl who hv bought the 128mb dedicated video cards... a lil slow i can handle... i'm just hoping it's not where they've packed up and gone home and i'm still waiting for it to finish (figuratively speaking... i'm pretty sure we probably won't be dealing with projects of that magnitude yet... and if we do they'd prob need new comp's also) go :asus: !

 

Don't know what software you'll be using for architecture, but most people think when you're doing CAD, you need a super graphics card. I think the current Z70V (and Justin's W3) has more than enough power for CAD. Most CAD programs uses very little video RAM and mostly system RAM. I know this because we do molds for companies like PricePfister, Black&Decker, and the Total Trolley. We use Mastercam, surfcam, and solidworks to cut the dies. Our systems have only generic video cards and a whole lot of RAM. So as for juice to run CAD, I can just use my old HP DV1000 with crappy integrated video. I'd just add at least an extra gb of RAM though.
Don't get me wrong, there are some CAD programs that will use the extra power from a good video card for some renderings, but if you're going to do a lot of vector renderings- you won't need it. And before anyone has a cow, I did say that I didn't know what specific software you were planning to use.

 

When people talk about "CAD" 90% of them are talking about AutoCAD...... which is something I can run a 5 year old machine with integrated graphics.... One thing I know from experience, people running design schools know nothing about computers and yet "think" they do. There's nothing worse because they'll want to impose specs they think are needed.

Really, lets not even go that far.......... what a card like the x600 with a ton of ram is going to do for you is allow you to see a more complete rendering as the system is rendering. Most people don't even want to see the rendering that way because regardless of video card, that's going to take a long time. Throughout college I'd do rendering (with a desktop thats probably less powerful than some of our notebooks now) that could still take days. Now, yes you can do them on a notebook, but at a certain point you're going to need power. It depends on what kind of project you're doing, but 90% of it has nothing to do with how powerful the gpu itself is.