Laptop System Requirements for CAM Package

Hi to you all. Thinking of purchasing my own CAM system, just one of the more reasonably priced ones which will be adequate for my requirements. I want to be mobile with the CAM package so I will be running the CAM system on a 17" laptop which I need help with in determining the spec required before I purchase.

My first thoughts was to go with an off the shelf "Gaming Laptop" such as Alienware. The thought being if the system can handle some of these new 3d super fast games then it should be able to handle the CAM package. Please correct me if I am wrong?

Any help or suggestions appreciated.

Thanks

I have an HP Pavillion dv7-6c43cl and it works just fine. I run SprutCam, MOI3d, and Alibre on it without any problems. I think it cost me $900 at Costco. Alienware is overkill unless you just want an excuse to buy one.

If you are going with less that that type of system, you don't even need a laptop that powerful. I ran Dolphin CadCam on an old Toshiba with a quad core I believe and that ran great as well.

Wade

dell`s precision mseries laptops work fine for most cadcam work unless your doing heavy surfacing or multiaxis stuff or heavyduty modeling
and are much cheaper than alien stuff

I bought an ASUS G750 to run Mastercam X7, and with the exception of Windows 8, It's working just fine.
It seems that the heavy duty gamer boxes are usually pretty compatible with the CAD/CAM workload...
Be advised that it's hard to find a box that isn't loaded with Win 8, and you may not be able to find drivers for the hardware
if you want to dump it and load Win 7.

Ended up paying around $1350, 17.3" w/8gb RAM, 1Tb HD, 64bit
(if you go with this laptop, be careful getting a case for it, it's oversize!)

Thanks for all the advise, all very helpful. I have also spoke to a friend who knows a little bit about computers and he mentioned that if I was going to purchase a mid range laptop then i would be better getting one with had a dedicated graphics card rather than using shared memory. I would definitely go for Windows 7 too, not just because of the compatibility but I have read some bad feedback about Windows 8, some say its the new Vista!but thats a statement for a different forum ;)

Thanks

Your friends advice is good; I use a lenovo g780 with good results, but win8/8.1 still drives me crazy daily.

Its able to handle some decent assemblies in solidworks/hsmworks. The monitor size eventually got annoying, so I picked up a 24" to attach up to it when i'm home. 17" is tolerable when i'm away, both in carry size and monitor size.. Any smaller and it would be cumbersome to use, any larger and it would be annoying to carry.

Also, ensure it has a high resolution screen. Many 17"ers are sold with abysmally low screen resolution, which would be a nightmare. You can usually add more ram or hard drive space, but its tough to upgrade the screen.

I have one set of OneCNC XR4 mill 3D professional if your interested asking $2.5k


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I'm running a HP EliteBook 8760w with the NVIDIA 3000 graphics card, 8GB of memory. Excellent.
PowerMill, MasterCAM, CATIA V5, Solidworks and Geomagic all run solid on it.

I am just getting started and would like recommendation on what Cad and CAM software , I am a hobbiest and like to build minature radial aircraft engines etc.

As per any cad or cam software first of all you need ample memory and a fast processor.You can choose intel's 3rd generation processors.It can help you.
Thanks

The dell Precisions are built for running all Cad- and Cam software's . but how you set them up as per CPU,GPU ram and hard drive make a difference on how much they will handle compared to a top of the line Dell Precision M series laptops. I own 6 of them and I use them for my business and run HSMWorks for Inventor and Solid works, Mastercam Latest, as for Cad I run Inventor 2014,Solid Works 2014 and Space Claim 2012+ and they work great for these software's. I do allot of high end work to.