Video Cards for Laptop?

[Moose]

I am looking for a laptop and I see a lot of the manufactures offer video cards for laptops. My question is how do they install them? Is this something I could do myself and save some $ on the laptop and then pick the card I want later? I am looking at HP and Sony which do you prefer and why.

[Nick Kuhn]

The graphics card is not a card at all: it is a package soldered onto the motherboard and often relies on shared memory. You will not be able to upgrade at a later time.

What are you looking to do on the laptop that requires significant graphics horsepower?

[Moose]

The laptop is for my son going to school for electronic engineering. They say if may need to run solids works or cad need the graphics to render 3d. He also wants it to get him through the 4 years and not be to out of date. Looking at 3rd generation i7 8gb ram 640gb hybrid hdd 7200rpm. I can configure both HP and Sony in a 14" unit. The Sony has 1600x900 screen and the HP has 1300x900. They both offer a Graphics card above and beyond the onboard graphics. I was just wondering how their attaching the card and how difficult it would be to install ie full dismantle or just putting into a PCI slot

[Nick Kuhn]

Again laptops do not use a PCI slot like a desktop, they are soldered directly to the motherboard. And it would be impossible to hand solder even if you could find a drop in upgrade (they aren't for sale anyway).

You should be able to get by with anything that doesn't use Intel's graphics (and even the Intel graphics will probably be adequate). Most simulations for EE are very CPU heavy, but not necessarily GPU intensive. SO I don't think you need the latest and greatest in laptop GPU's, just something that has a little bit of dedicated memory.

[Moose]

Would I be better off looking at ADM quad core processors instead? That way I would get the ADM GPU.

[Shack]

Personnaly I am an Intel guy but certainly:

Quote:

They say if may need to run solids works or cad need the graphics to render 3d.

Quad anything will make the above easier for him to learn and more of a reality with using it given today's standards of running heavy software.

Some laptops will offer a easier replacement type video card but like Nick said, most do not. You would have to make sure the model you choose has a Mobile PCI Express Module (MXM) which is something like the card in this dell:

#6 and will have a heatsink made of copper stemming form it for cooling purposes.

I know some Apple laptops and Toshiba offer this but its going to be in the higher-end models most likely.

For the most part any laptop will have a video "chip" and although replaceable or "upgrade-able" as a chip, the task itself is not as easy as one may think. You most likely would just replace or upgrade the mother board after you destroyed the old one trying to replace the graphics chip.

Quote:

He also wants it to get him through the 4 years and not be to out of date.

Your best bet is just to go "high end" then with what is currently offered on the market as of now based on the possible software he may be using.

Seriously though, this type of laptop purchase should have an X-amount of dollars max that you can spend and this figure should be over the $1000, unless you find some deal at a clearance center offering custom built business grade laptops someone ordered and did not follow through on purchasing.

Basically, the term "deal" or cheapest and finding at a Big Box store honestly is not what I would focus on. Big box stores will provide you with something that will do, but I would be shocked if they offered something which fills all your requests. If they did, I assume it would have to "out of date" to receive any sort of deal.

Also you are going to want to focus on that 12 gig of RAM market. 8 gig will be long gone in 4 years and offered new in $299 systems at Walmart.

Good luck!

[Whoaru99]

I have an HP 8540W laptop running the Core i7 with 8GB RAM, and it was ordered with the higher NVIDIA Quadro FX1800 1GB video system. This is the laptop the company spec'ed out for Engineering with their graphics requirements.

Usually schools will have hardware specs/recommendations for the various academic courses. I'd consult the school for the hardware requirements of the computer for the software they're going to be using in the selected courses.

You may even be able to buy one right from the school and it might even come with some sort of on-site support built into the cost. In this case I think paying a bit more would be worth it if that's the case.

[Moose]

ASU doesn't spec hardware they just say get what works for you. Kinda silly if you need special set of requirements to run a CAD or other engineering program. I found a refirb HP DV6 with a 1gb Radeon HD 6770m graphics, 8gb ram upgradable to 16,i7 quad core this version only runs 2.0 ghz,led backlit screen, 750 hdd. Think this will do it for 4 years? One nice thing about ASU is thier Tech Club does free computer tech service for the entire university so if he has aproblem with it they will take care of it for only the cost of the parts. This also offers the $15.00 upgrade to Windows 8 when it comes out. It weights in at 5.8 lbs but he's a big guy. What do you think about the Windows 8 Pro offer will 8 be the next XP or the next Millennium Edition

[MN Mike]

I think the system you are looking at will be well suited for the next 4 years ( spec wise ). I've setup a few systems, mostly desktops ( but a few laptops too ) for AutoDesk products and some of those systems are pushing 5 years old or better and we plan on running Inventor 2013 on them this year.

One thing I did encourage Parents to do when they sent the kid off to College with a new laptop was the accidental warranty ( from the manufacture ), often it paid, it was just stupid stuff that happened, kids were careful but as they say s#*t happens and believe me, it did. Most of the time an extended accidental warranty was around $150 - $200 or so depending on the model of the laptop, on a refurb I don't know if it would be possible to buy that kind of warranty though.

I wouldn't be too quick to jump on the Windows 8 bandwagon, often times your CAD program is not ready to run on the new platform for quite a few months after it's release and with the HUGE change in the operating system from Windows 7 to Windows 8, you going to have to wipe the computer out and start from scratch ( thats my hunch anyway ). We've had Windows 8 up and running for a month or 2 in our office and I like it so far, I think folks that have smartphones will adapt pretty quick but Mom and Pop are probably going to FREAK! ( thats just another hunch of mine )

Mike