Choice of two laptops, help please?!

Hi,

Basically I have a choice of two very similar laptops:

1) Samsung NP350V5C
Intel i5 3210M 2.5Ghz (3.1 with turboboost)
6GB RAM
750GB HDD
Intel HD4000 graphics
Optical disc drive
15.6'' screen

2) Samsung NP530U3C Ultrabook
Intel i5 3317UM 1.7Ghz (2.4 with turboboost)
6GB RAM
500GB HDD
Intel HD4000 graphics
13.3'' screen

I'm going to be using CAD software (solidworks) along with general use (browsing, word etc) and I'm guessing option 1 will be a better choice but option 2 is smaller, lighter and thinner.

Any advice please?

#1 looks good, might be better for your eyes too with the larger screen.

If both are within your fiscal reach, number one is better, but 2 is an economical solution

I used to use Acad r10c7, on Dos on an old IBM PC-XT 8088, had to buy a match coprocessor.

XweAponX said:

#1 looks good, might be better for your eyes too with the larger screen.

If both are within your fiscal reach, number one is better, but 2 is an economical solution

I used to use Acad r10c7, on Dos on an old IBM PC-XT 8088, had to buy a match coprocessor.

Click to expand...

I can get them both for £500, which makes #1 the winner, but i'm attracted to #2 purely because of the design..

Same price? #1 wins then to blazes with design.

Unless there is an absolute advantage for #2, for instance, it fits perfectly in your work area, or into a Laptop Case.

I think the larger screen will be better for your eyes, unless you plug either one of these into a 30" or larger HDMI display. I used to have a 17" Gateway, it was perfect. One of these days I'll fix it.

XweAponX said:

Same price? #1 wins then to blazes with design.

Unless there is an absolute advantage for #2, for instance, it fits perfectly in your work area, or into a Laptop Case.

I think the larger screen will be better for your eyes, unless you plug either one of these into a 30" or larger HDMI display. I used to have a 17" Gateway, it was perfect. One of these days I'll fix it.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your input, and good luck with the fix !

I'm thinking that with a CAD program, you want to have the absolute most detail available on your screen. On that basis, I'd think a 15.6" screen would be better than 13.3. But that's not all there is to it.

I believe you will need the most speed you can get from your processor because I'm pretty sure CAD uses up much more resources than other programs. I'd equate it to an intensive graphics program since it can be used for so many things. Again, #1 would be my choice because of the processor in addition to the 15.6" screen.

Unless you've transposed figures between NP350V5C and NP530U3C (note 350 vs 530), it could be that the ultrabook is the more up-to-date system. But, would that make a real difference?

Another option might be to see if there's a more powerful processor-wise version of the ultrabook with a 15.6" screen which might set you back a few more dollars (or euros) but in the end be worth it.

In the end, because of the nature of CAD, detail and speed are what you'll be looking for.

you won't get great cad performance unless you have a really good graphics card on the supported list of the cad vendor. and definitely go for as large a screen as possible.

Solidworks should run well on that Chipset, but maybe they have a list of Video cards on their site.