Need help with Computer Specs

[racerfan]

We are looking at computers for DS14. We were planning on getting him one for Birthday/Xmas anyway, but think we may need a different one than what we have been looking for. He is taking an Engineering course at school (9th Grade Intro to Engineering) and the Teacher will be giving them a program from the school for them to have at home. The name of the program is Autodesk Inventor. We have been given the system requirements and I just saw 2 laptops that we are interested in but not sure if they have the correct graphics cards since I have no idea about cards. Below are the system requirements that was given to us. Thanks for the help.

 

http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?siteID=123112&id=13727144

For Windows Users

 

For General Part and Assembly Design (Typically Fewer than 1,000 Parts)

 

* Microsoft® Windows 7 (32-bit or 64-bit) Home Premium, Professional, Ultimate/Enterprise, or Microsoft® Windows Vista® (SP2) (32-bit or 64-bit) Home Basic, Home Premium, Business, Enterprise, or Ultimate, or Microsoft® Windows XP Professional (SP3) or Professional x64 Edition (SP2) (1,2)

* Intel® Pentium® 4, 2 GHz or faster, Intel® Xeon®, Intel® Core™, AMD Athlon™ 64, or AMD Opteron™, or later (3)

* 2 GB RAM or more (4)

* Microsoft® Direct3D 10® or Direct3D 9® capable graphics card (5)

* DVD-ROM drive (6)

* Microsoft® Mouse-compliant pointing device

* 1280 x 1024 or higher screen resolution

* Internet connection for web downloads and Subscription Aware access

* Adobe Flash Player 10 (7)

* Microsoft® Internet Explorer® 6.x through 8

* Microsoft® Excel 2003 through 2007 for iComponents, thread customization, and spreadsheet-driven designs

 

For Complex Models, Complex Mold Assemblies, and Large Assemblies (Typically More than 1,000 Parts)

 

* Windows 7 64-bit, Windows Vista 64-bit (SP2), or Windows XP Professional x64 Edition (SP2)

* AMD64 or Intel® 64 processor

* 6 GB RAM or more

* CAD workstation-class graphics card

 

For Macintosh Users

 

Boot Camp

You can install Autodesk® Inventor® Professional software on a Mac® computer on a Windows partition. The system must use Boot Camp® to manage a dual OS configuration and meet the minimum system requirements.

 

* Mac OS® X 10.5.x

* Boot Camp V 2.0 or higher

* Intel-based Mac (64-bit Windows Vista requires an Intel Core™2 duo or Xeon processor)

* 3 GB RAM (Recommend 4 GB for 32-bit Windows OS, 8 GB or more for 64-bit Windows OS)

* 20 GB disk space for Apple OS partition or Windows OS partition

 

Mac Virtualization on Parallels Desktop

Autodesk Inventor Professional can be used on the Mac via Parallels Desktop for Mac without having to boot directly into the Windows OS, so it is easy to switch between platforms. The system must meet the following requirements:

 

* Mac OS X 10.6.x

* Parallels Desktop 5.0 (5.0.9344 or higher)

* Intel based Mac (64-bit Windows Vista requires an Intel Core 2 duo or Xeon processor)

* Minimum 4 GB RAM (6 GB system memory for 32-bit Windows OS, 8 GB or more for 64-bit Windows OS recommended)

* Minimum 40 GB available disk space (100 GB recommended)

 

For more details, please read the Inventor for Mac FAQ.

Notes

 

1. Autodesk® Inventor® 2011 and AutoCAD® Mechanical 2011 software applications are each provided both as 32-bit applications and as 64-bit applications for installation and use on the corresponding operating system only. Autodesk® Vault Explorer 2011 is a 32-bit application for installation and use on either a 32-bit or 64-bit operating system.

 

2. Autodesk Inventor/AutoCAD Mechanical design applications and Autodesk Vault must all be the same language on a given computer. English versions of these applications will run on any language operating system. Other language versions of these applications will run on operating systems of that same language.

 

3. Autodesk Inventor 2011 has been optimized to take advantage of the SSE2 extended instruction sets supported on Pentium 4, AMD Athlon 64, and AMD Opteron processors. Inventor 2011 will not install on computers that do not support SSE2. Several utilities are available on the Internet that report CPUID, including supported instructions sets.

 

4. Recommended minimum RAM for using Inventor Tooling is 3 GB. In addition, Autodesk recommends settings which allow Microsoft Windows to manage virtual memory, as needed. You should always have at least twice as much free hard disk space as system memory (RAM).

 

5. Please refer to the Autodesk published graphics card information. http://www.inventor-certified.com/graphics/

 

6. Inventor 2011 is available only on DVD media (or electronic download in some situations). CD media is no longer available. A DVD-ROM drive is not required if installing via electronic download. However, you will need 15 GB of hard disk space to accommodate the installation files and temporary files created during the installation.

 

7. The multimedia learning components of the Inventor Help system, such as the UI Video Tour, Command Reference, and Show Me animations, require Adobe® Flash® Player 10. If it is not already installed, you can download it from the Adobe website.

Edited October 10, 2010 by racerfan

[racerfan]

Here are 2 laptops we were looking at

 

http://www.staples.com/HP-G72-B66US-17.3-Laptop/product_905670_HC2&cmArea=CIRCULAR

 

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+/+Intel%26%23174;+Core%26%23153;+i3+Processor+/+17.3%22+Display+/+4GB+Memory+/+500GB+Hard+Drive/1287391.p?id=1218247187251&skuId=1287391&st=HP%20G72-B66US&cp=1&lp=1

 

If there are any others please let us know. His last laptop we got for him is not even 2 years old (will be Xmas day)but the motherboard is dead and it costs about $350 for a new one. 2 years ago we paid $700 for that one.

 

Thanks

[racerfan]

Anyone?????

[KoopawnKode]

BestBuy link didn't work but I looked up sku 1287391 based on link.

 

They are similarly spec'd and the base price is the same (I think it may in fact be the same laptop, just different model # because one is staples and one is best buy) so I would go with the staples model that is currently $479 after rebate. The best buy model is still $749.

 

So long as they don't end up modeling 1,000+ part items in class, it should be sufficient. I would personally prefer a better graphics card (as the one in both is just integrated Intel HD) but it would suffice 95% of the time. The rest of the time, it might lag for a little bit while it is processing the information (not likely due to the high school courses) but it will get the job done.

 

If you are worried about it and would prefer something with a graphics card (and assuming the $750 area is in your price range) the other staples deal is pretty good.

http://www.staples.com/HP-Pavilion-dv7-4171us-17.3-Laptop/product_905669?cmArea=FEATURED:SC3:CG71:DP4118:CL161747

It has a mid range mobile graphics card and the Phenom triple-core processor is rated higher than the other lappie's Corei3-370, it comes with a 9-cell battery vs the 6-cells and has a blu-ray rom

[KoopawnKode]

also, if you recycle any qualifying computer @staples, you can save an additional $100 instantly when you purchase any HP computer. in store only according to their ad

[racerfan]

Thanks. Are the graphics cards you mentioned similar to what is in the specs?? " Microsoft® Direct3D 10® or Direct3D 9® capable graphics card" The teacher mentioned something about it being a 3D models?? I really don't know much about it. I do know that he is designing a toy that will be molded into plastic on the schools special printer that the have for this class. Some of the toys made last year was a train and a Rubiks cube looking toy that had various shapes that fit together.

[racerfan]

also, if you recycle any qualifying computer @staples, you can save an additional $100 instantly when you purchase any HP computer. in store only according to their ad

Would love to recycle his computer but the ad says that it has to turn on. His laptop paperweight turns on with lights but nothing happens on the screen, that stays black.