wow... i thought someone for sure would have given me some sort of indication by now... i'll wait a little longer...
Hi guys,
First of all i'd like to say hello.
Hi guys,
First of all i'd like to say hello. This is my first time posting at this forum... i've lurked for a bit, but i think some of you are quite knowledgeable in the mobile computing realm...
so, i'm a desktop kind of guy and i will always maintain a desktop, but what i find happening more and more is that i am going out to a client and feel that i am not able to convey an idea without a PC at the ready... I'm a mechanical engineer and i own my own product design and development company... i basically take peoples ideas and turn them into a product...
i use some heavy duty software like, autocad, solidworks, alias sketch pad, and pro-e to develop my designs and send them out to mold makers and prototype houses... anyway, i've been looking at going mobile with the ability to sync to my desktop and i've narrowed it down to a couple of machines...
as you can see i've narrowed it down to the Acer C302XMI-g and one of the sager 8xxx series of notebooks... i was looking at a sager with at least a p4 3.2ghz... the costs are roughly the same, but my concern and the reason i'm writing this is to see if any of you think that the Acer C302XMI-g with a pentium-m 1.6ghz can handle heavy duty engineering/design software like i mentioned above... also, the 64 meg of memory for video may be a bit of a problem, but i'm not sure yet...
i know the sager can handle the software and the video is a radeon with either 128meg or 256meg... i can't remember which, but the weight and battery power suffer tremendously under such a heavy load... even though i will most likely be using it plugged into a wall, it would alleviate alot of my worries about my purchase if i knew with some certainty that the Acer C302XMI-g can handle such applications... the tablet feature is quite attractive...
can anyone offer any advice or even a nudge in a certain direction... please do not be afraid to be honest with me about this... i'm a big boy and i can take the gods honest truth regarding something like this... thanks for any advice you guys can provide...
wow... i thought someone for sure would have given me some sort of indication by now... i'll wait a little longer...
You pose a tough question that few have the experience to answer. I also fall in that category, but I do have experience with Acers using heavy duty programs and work in an engineering environment so I can offer some... read a little...insight.
One problem here is that neither machine will do exactly what you want...they each have limitations. One can compute like crazy and the other is a perfect collaboration/demo tool.
First, hardware. We use the C110 and 111 with 1 GB ram. I know, the processor is slower than the 300, but the VIDEO chip is the same and with the software you mentioned, particularly Solidworks, the video chip might be problematic. We have run ArcGIS and AutoCAD and the processor keeps up. We run any 3D and it had better not be large. The ATI Radeon 9600 with 128MB on board (vs max 64MB of processor on Acer) is far superior and more likely to be able to run solid modeling better. I was impressed by the C110's performance and it did the job but we do mostly flat stuff. I think the chipset on the Sager is what they put in low end Dell WORKSTATIONS. No doubt it runs hot. In both senses of the word. The Acer runs a Centrino chipset which runs cooler. The rating is deceptive, though because they actually process faster than the Ghz designation.
Taking your machine to people's ideas. Being able to lay the screen out like a scratchpad and sketch or draw your ideas while your client can see it. Performing a change while the screen is facing your clients so they can see it. Running a walkthrough on the swivel tablet. Hey...guess what? The hot Sager can't do this. Being able to ink on the screen is a powerful collaboration tool and the tablet is the only game in town for this.
So, you see what I mean by limitations. Here is my bottom line. If you run just the AutoCAD and SketchPad without a lot of 3D or rendering in the field, then the Acer with 2GB RAM might just be the people tool/ computer you are looking for. My bet is, if you want to run the Solidworks and ProE then the Sager is the only one that could handle it. You are the best judge...you know how your desktop runs with the different programs and if that grinds in those two programs, you have a choice to make.
Hope this provides some assistance. Examine closely what you really want to do in the field and if you know that, your choice will probably be self evident.
FWIW.
if you are really heavy into 3d rendering...the sager would have more power I suppose. but as alluded to above...you cant say a centrino 1.7 is only half the speed of a Pent 4 3.? since the centrino processes differently and would be roughly (remember I said roughtly) the same as a pent IV at 2.6 or so..
I am not an enthusiast of Acer so I would make sure you buy from a place with a reasonable return policy or find someone who is running a graphics heavy program.
I use a centrino 1.3 and run photoshop, illustrator, canvas, paintshop pro and other graphic programs..and have no problem but do not use 3d rendering.
thank you very much for a reply... these are almost the same sentiments i have myself... what i have done in my mind is treat the table function as a luxury more than a necessity... if the acer 302 had another 64meg of memory then it would have been worth it, but for now i'm gonna go with the sager and maybe get the 302 or the next generation later and just deal with 2 laptops/tablet at once if i have to... no big deal here... thanks for the perspective...
quote:Originally posted by ArJay
You pose a tough question that few have the experience to answer. I also fall in that category, but I do have experience with Acers using heavy duty programs and work in an engineering environment so I can offer some... read a little...insight.
One problem here is that neither machine will do exactly what you want...they each have limitations. One can compute like crazy and the other is a perfect collaboration/demo tool.
First, hardware. We use the C110 and 111 with 1 GB ram. I know, the processor is slower than the 300, but the VIDEO chip is the same and with the software you mentioned, particularly Solidworks, the video chip might be problematic. We have run ArcGIS and AutoCAD and the processor keeps up. We run any 3D and it had better not be large. The ATI Radeon 9600 with 128MB on board (vs max 64MB of processor on Acer) is far superior and more likely to be able to run solid modeling better. I was impressed by the C110's performance and it did the job but we do mostly flat stuff. I think the chipset on the Sager is what they put in low end Dell WORKSTATIONS. No doubt it runs hot. In both senses of the word. The Acer runs a Centrino chipset which runs cooler. The rating is deceptive, though because they actually process faster than the Ghz designation.
Taking your machine to people's ideas. Being able to lay the screen out like a scratchpad and sketch or draw your ideas while your client can see it. Performing a change while the screen is facing your clients so they can see it. Running a walkthrough on the swivel tablet. Hey...guess what? The hot Sager can't do this. Being able to ink on the screen is a powerful collaboration tool and the tablet is the only game in town for this.
So, you see what I mean by limitations. Here is my bottom line. If you run just the AutoCAD and SketchPad without a lot of 3D or rendering in the field, then the Acer with 2GB RAM might just be the people tool/ computer you are looking for. My bet is, if you want to run the Solidworks and ProE then the Sager is the only one that could handle it. You are the best judge...you know how your desktop runs with the different programs and if that grinds in those two programs, you have a choice to make.
Hope this provides some assistance. Examine closely what you really want to do in the field and if you know that, your choice will probably be self evident.
FWIW.
You are welcome, Asmodeus. Now a question for you. What kind of desktop do you use for your work and do Solidworks and ProE take more resource than AutoCAD? What kind of video card do you use?
Your answers would be helpful in determining where our shop goes in the future.
Thanks in advance
This is my current desktop setup:
P4 3.2ghz
abit ic7-max3 w/1.5gig of ddr400 ram
nvidia quadro fx 3000 video card
5x maxtor 200gig in raid 10 configuration
2x samsung syncmaster 213t lcd's
i use solidworks, pro-e, autocad, cosmosworks, algor, and ansys 8.0 multiphysics suite...
this computer is basically running 24/7 doing anything from my design and engineering work to simulations, FEA, renderings, and animations...
solidworks and pro-e use up a lot of resources... more so than autocad i imagine... these are 3d design/engineering programs whereas autocad is a 2d design package...
what is it exactly you are trying to do...? are you thinking about going to solidworks or pro-e...? if you are, then i would recommend that you steer towards solidworks, not because pro-e is bad, but because solidworks is cheaper, easier to use, and will do anything pro-e does... pro-e is expensive and the only reason i even have a license is because i have clients and legacy projects that use it...
quote:Originally posted by ArJay
You are welcome, Asmodeus. Now a question for you. What kind of desktop do you use for your work and do Solidworks and ProE take more resource than AutoCAD? What kind of video card do you use?
Your answers would be helpful in determining where our shop goes in the future.
Thanks in advance
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