ALIENWARE COMPUTER?

[nitram-10614035]

i am going to be a freshman in archiecture school this year and want a laptop to run revit on and i was looking at an alienware mx17 ...'
processor: i7 2.0 ghz 2.8 turbo, 6mb cache
ram: 8gb
videocard: 1gb


my question is this going to e enough to run the progam, im not going to be using it everyday i just want a computer that will run it fairly well.


THANKS!!

[Brian Myers]

Yes, it will run it. Of course, Alienware machines are traditional gaming machines and normally a bit more expensive than other similar machines. I can understand why you would get it, but there could be better value for the buck depending on your motivations/needs.

[nitram-10614035]

Yes, it will run it. Of course, Alienware machines are traditional gaming machines and normally a bit more expensive than other similar machines. I can understand why you would get it, but there could be better value for the buck depending on your motivations/needs.

what would computer would you suggest?

[Brian Myers]

If you can give us an amount you are willing to spend, we can likely give you some ideas.

[nitram-10614035]

well the alienware was 1800 and thats about the most i want to spend so anywhere from 1000 to 2000

[nitram-10614035]

If you can give us an amount you are willing to spend, we can likely give you some ideas.

i was also looking at the dell xps but i know a guy who had one and he said it was slow but im not sure what his configuration was.

[keyp]

I recommend searching the Autodesk website and researching the best/most commonly used video card also.

[MikeJarosz]

i was also looking at the dell xps but i know a guy who had one and he said it was slow but im not sure what his configuration was.

Be careful about "slow" claims. A lot of people who will tell you something is slow have an immediate gratification attitude. Revit is an immense and powerful program. There are some things it does that do not come quickly on any hardware. I run Revit on a top of the line 64 bit Dell T3500 with 6GB memory, double screen with NVIDIA Quadro FX display card and more. Rendering a small view can take half an hour. To an immediate gratification type, that is an eternity. But I can remember not too long ago when a moderately sized ray trace took four machines 70 solid hours to compute, one agonizing pixel at a time. I also have Revit running on a Dell Inspiron, which is little more than an email appliance. Works fine (for me)

[RevitNinja]

The previous poster who mentioned "immediate gratification" hit the nail on the head. I own an Alienware and a Dell Precision. The only difference that I can see in the performance of my Alienware and my Precision is the fact that the Precision can handle larger (in terms of file size) models because it has double the amount of RAM. The processors are both Core 2 Duos of roughly the same clock speed.

Be careful if you are a veteran player of games that require "alienware" caliber hardware. Your alienware might run Call of Duty at some ridiculous resolution without a hiccup, but Revit is a different story, particularly Revit MEP. "Gamers" are generally folks who expect that expensive hardware = performance, and when it comes to games, they are usually right. Quality hardware can run Revit well, but know that it will never run "fast" like a modern FPS game.

If you are sold on an Alienware, at least make sure you buy an i7 and not one of their i5s.

[david_peterson]

Knowing that this is your personal computer and not one for work, may make this point a little mute, but....
One other thing to look at is error correcting Ram. I don't believe most gaming workstations use this. Not saying that it will, but it could get in you into trouble.
The other thing that will make revit run faster would be faster and more Ram. Depending on model size and how long you want you're laptop to be functional for revit, may require you to look at something that can handle 16gb+ or ram as every year, it seems adesk doubles your system "Recommend" Requirements.
Just some thoughts.

[vonwolfgang463553]

The previous poster who mentioned "immediate gratification" hit the nail on the head. I own an Alienware and a Dell Precision. The only difference that I can see in the performance of my Alienware and my Precision is the fact that the Precision can handle larger (in terms of file size) models because it has double the amount of RAM. The processors are both Core 2 Duos of roughly the same clock speed.

Be careful if you are a veteran player of games that require "alienware" caliber hardware. Your alienware might run Call of Duty at some ridiculous resolution without a hiccup, but Revit is a different story, particularly Revit MEP. "Gamers" are generally folks who expect that expensive hardware = performance, and when it comes to games, they are usually right. Quality hardware can run Revit well, but know that it will never run "fast" like a modern FPS game.

If you are sold on an Alienware, at least make sure you buy an i7 and not one of their i5s.


Thanks, great information. I'm in the market for a laptop for Revit MEP. I've always liked the look of Alienware laptop. What's the difference between quality vs expensive (for example a video card), I'm not being a wiseguy, I just don't know. This laptop will me used 60% for 2013 Revit MEP, 30% for 2013 AutoCad and 10% other. Thanks again

[david_peterson]

For a graphics card, get a cheep basic Gaming card. Unless your doing a lot of point cloud stuff. Otherwise it won't be used for much anyway.
In order of priority for performance.
1 - Processor Speed, The faster the better
2 - Ram - the more the better - anything over 32gb would be overkill IMHO - there's better ways to model
3 - Video card - Revit doesn't really utilize so it's wasted money IMHO.

[Mike L Sealander]

I had a Dell XPS, and it was fast, but crashed a lot. I now run a Lenovo W530, and it's incredibly stable. I don't think I'll go back to Dell again.

[dhurtubise]

MacBook Pro here and not going back to a PC manufacturer trust me :)