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    Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D printer

    I looking for a laptop computer to do 3D software for a 3D printer I have a few laptop computers but they were meant for Windows 7 and are very slow on Windows 10 I do not have any laptop computers that were meant for Windows 10

    I have a budget of a maximum of $800.00 any good choices out and what makes them a good choice

    Can anyone make some good recommendation for me I would appreciate the information and feedback
    9 PC LCD Monitor
    6 LCD Flat Screen TV
    30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
    10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
    6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
    1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
    25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
    6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
    1 Dell Mother Board
    15 Computer Power Supply
    1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


    These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

    1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
    2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

    All of these had CAPs POOF
    All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

    #2
    Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

    It would help if you said what 3d software you wanted to use

    Comment


      #3
      Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

      Originally posted by brethin View Post
      It would help if you said what 3d software you wanted to use
      ^This, that being said looking at the system requirements for a few common ones. Any semi-recent Intel I5/AMD Ryzen 5 or better with at least 8GB (though 16GB is often recommended) will likely do the trick (and a dedicated GPU wouldn't hurt, though integrated GPUs, especially on the AMD chips have gotten a lot better as well).

      After the better part of a decade of stagnation, Laptop (and Desktop) CPUs have made some major performance jumps in the last 2-3 years (largely thanks to Ryzen lighting a fire under Intel's ass with some real competition for the first time since the Core2Duo days). NVMe SSDs have also become fairly standard with significant performance improvements (at least on the better drives) over their SATA counterparts. As a result even modern "budget" laptops can match/beat ~5 year old mid-range business laptops or ~10 year old high-end workstations, and modern mid-level (~$500-800) laptops can run circles around ~6 year old high-end workstations.


      Here are some performance comparisons with a couple new and some older laptops:

      First the new:

      My new HP Victus 15-fb0121nr (if you live near a Micro Center they have these for $550 right now, one hell of a deal, though note it comes from the factory with a single stick of 8GB RAM so I'd recommend spending a few bucks more to add a second stick to bump it up to 16GB and more importantly enable dual-channel):
      Specs:
      -CPU: AMD Ryzen 5 5600H
      -GPU: Nvidia GeForce GTX1650
      -SSD: 512GB NVMe (since upgraded to a Crucial P5 plus 1TB for capacity, which is theoretically faster than the HP supplied Hynix drive, but write performance is about the same, so the interface seems to be the limiting factor here)
      -RAM: 16GB (upgraded from the 8GB it came with) DDR4 3200MHz
      -Display 15.6" 1920X1080 144hz refresh
      -OS: Windows 11 Home




      The Lenovo Ideapad3 I recently setup for my dad:
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel I5-1137G7
      -GPU: Intel Iris Xe integrated
      -SSD: 512GB NVMe (The old Hynix drive from the HP Victus, replaced a slower Samsung P991 256GB that came with the laptop)
      -RAM: 8GB DDR4 3200MHz (4GB soldered on the motherboard + a 4GB stick)
      -Display 15.6" 1920X1080
      -OS: Windows 11 Home




      My HP 14-fq0090tg cheap travel Laptop (this is below what I'd recommend for 3D/CAD work ,but just to show what even new
      "low-end" laptops can do):
      Specs:
      CPU:AMD Athlon Gold 3150U
      GPU: Integrated Radeon
      SDD: 256 GB M2 NVMe (upgraded from the included 128GB dog-slow M2 SATA drive) Silicon Power P34A60
      RAM: 8GB DDR4 3200 (upgraded from the included 4GB)
      Display: 14" 1366x768
      OS: Windows 10 Home





      Now some older ones:

      Lenovo ThinkPad T460 (circa 2017):
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel I5-6300U
      -GPU: Integrated Intel HD Graphics 520
      -SSD: 256GB SATA Intel SSDSC2KF256H6L
      -RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600
      -Display:14" 1920x1080
      -OS: Windows 10 Pro




      Dell Precision M4800 (circa 2015):
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel i7-4910MQ
      -GPU: Nvidia Quadro K2100M
      -SSD: 500 GB SATA SSD Samsung 970 EVO
      -RAM: 16GB DDR3 1600
      -Display: 15.6" 1920x1080
      -OS: Windows 10 Pro




      Lenovo ThinkPad W520 (circa 2012):
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel I7-2760QM
      -GPU: Nvidia Quadro M2000
      -SSD: 240GB SATA SSD Teamquest T-Force Vulcan Z
      -RAM: 8GB DDR3 1600
      -Display:15.6" 1920x1080
      -OS: Windows 10 Pro






      And now a couple of real dinosaurs:

      Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (circa 2009):
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel Core2Duo T9900
      -GPU: Integrated Intel
      -SSD: 120GB SATA SSD SanDisk SSD Plus (slow SSD but since this Laptop is only SATA 3 it will still be limited by the interface rather than the drive)
      -RAM: 4GB DDR3
      -Display:15.6" 1280x800
      -OS: Windows 10 Pro




      Dell Latitude E4300 (circa 2009):
      Specs:
      -CPU: Intel Core2Duo P9400
      -GPU: Integrated Intel
      -SSD: 120GB SATA SSD Kingston A400 (slow SSD but since this Laptop is only SATA 3 it will still be limited by the interface rather than the drive)
      -RAM: 4GB DDR3
      -Display:13" 1280x800
      -OS: Windows 10 Pro
      Attached Files
      Last edited by dmill89; 08-15-2022, 12:37 PM.

      Comment


        #4
        Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

        Thank you for the information
        Last edited by SMDFlea; 08-16-2022, 05:16 AM. Reason: removed full quote
        9 PC LCD Monitor
        6 LCD Flat Screen TV
        30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
        10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
        6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
        1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
        25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
        6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
        1 Dell Mother Board
        15 Computer Power Supply
        1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


        These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

        1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
        2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

        All of these had CAPs POOF
        All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

        Comment


          #5
          Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

          STL files, the common file for models to print, tend to be small files and are recommended to be below 15MB, so any computer can handle this. Most models are simple, but high-resolution models can be very large files.

          Comment


            #6
            Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

            Originally posted by Ember View Post
            STL files, the common file for models to print, tend to be small files and are recommended to be below 15MB, so any computer can handle this. Most models are simple, but high-resolution models can be very large files.
            If all you're doing is printing existing models, correct anything that can competently run windows will do. If you're designing your own models using CAD software you'll need a bit more power to run the software (but again most <3 year old mid-range laptops will be sufficient).

            Comment


              #7
              Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

              I built my Thinkpad 460s for around $300... and that was with the RAM maxed out to 20GB (4GB soldered plus a 16GB module) and with a 500GB SkHynix Gold P31 NVME SSD added. I also had to replace a faulty battery... the laptop was sold AS-IS with no SSD and supposedly having a different issue. My only complaint is the speakers are borderline useless... they rattle and clip (distort) with low frequencies unless one runs a custom equalizer that cuts 180Hz (and clips anything lower a bit too). But otherwise, for a modern (Skylake) laptop with a 1080p display, it was a steal. Noticably faster then the T440s it replaced (also a good laptop, though).
              sigpic

              (Insert witty quote here)

              Comment


                #8
                Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                Originally posted by ratdude747 View Post
                My only complaint is the speakers are borderline useless... they rattle and clip (distort) with low frequencies unless one runs a custom equalizer that cuts 180Hz (and clips anything lower a bit too).
                Have you tried to install the official Lenovo sound drivers?
                I made a clean install on mine when it was brand new (an older model than yours) and it always sounded like shit.
                Then for some reason I tried the official drivers and it actually made it sound quite decent!
                "The one who says it cannot be done should never interrupt the one who is doing it."

                Comment


                  #9
                  Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                  I am creating my own 3D files as well as using files that are made by others so I need get a computer that can do this with out freezing or talking a long time to boot up

                  Because the computer that I have right now take a long time to boot and sometimes just freezes for no real reason

                  These computers are way more than 3 years old so this is the reason for asking this question about what would be a good buy for the capability of the computer so I can make an informed decision about buying a new computer

                  Unfortunately the 3D software that I am using requires a minimum of Windows 10 the slicer program as far as I know does not have this requirement
                  Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 08-16-2022, 07:51 PM.
                  9 PC LCD Monitor
                  6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                  30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                  10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                  6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                  1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                  25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                  6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                  1 Dell Mother Board
                  15 Computer Power Supply
                  1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                  These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                  1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                  2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                  All of these had CAPs POOF
                  All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                    The reason I did go with a laptop computer for this is because the one that Best Buy had was a lower end graphics card and it was only 16 gigabytes of RAM and was reasonably priced and little bit below what I had budget for a computer but it was the graphics card that killed it for me

                    I decided to go with a midrange gaming desktop system computer with a high performance graphics card ( not the most expensive graphics card ) and with 32 gigabytes of RAM and a I9 processor which was in my budget for this computer

                    One other note I had to spend more money than I originally planned on but after thinking about it and wanting not to have freezing up issues when trying to create an object in 3D for my 3D printer

                    I also talked to my son who is gaming player and he bought a gaming computer and is very happy with it ( I was very impressed with the graphics on this computer ) except when playing Call of Duty and he saying that he starts having heating issues and going to get a new computer that has a cooling system installed in it already ( I also bought the same brand but with a graphics card one step higher than one in his system )

                    Now I need to get my 3D printer back up and running and put in the automatic leveling system that I bought for it but stopped using because of my computer freezing issues and graphics issues even with a decent monitor

                    I want to start making battery holder with a holder for the BMS protection board and make it an all in one unit that is the plan and also make other items as well

                    Now I will still use my older desk top computer for my battery testing machines and possibly use my old laptop for this purpose as well I might even try to use the older computers for the slicer program but I am going to use it on the new computer and see if it makes a difference with how fast it complies it and how easily it is seen on the screen will be the determining factor about this though

                    One note the battery testing machine can very easily run on Windows 7 with no issues at all so I would not even think about putting this software on the new computer but maybe get a slightly better graphics card for the computer that I am using for it

                    And on this note I have a HP 8300 elite computers with a dual monitor graphics card ( not the built in one ) in there now but for the graph chart for the battery testing machine could be a little bit sharper than it is now

                    I have even tried this on a 52” LCD TV screen and it is a little bit better but still not as sharp as I thought it should be but it might be the software might be the issue it has a feature where you can see the actual voltage and current in a given time frame and that is the part that is what is not clear as it should be

                    Any recommendations for this upgrade if it possible I am using a gaming monitor right now on it

                    This was on the 52” LCD TV screen I will try to get a picture of when using the hovering feature and I will try to show what I am talking about ( this screen shot was from a battery pack that was very low on charge should be 4.20 not 4.42 that I put on the chart )
                    Attached Files
                    Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 02-05-2023, 05:28 AM.
                    9 PC LCD Monitor
                    6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                    30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                    10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                    6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                    1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                    25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                    6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                    1 Dell Mother Board
                    15 Computer Power Supply
                    1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                    These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                    1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                    2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                    All of these had CAPs POOF
                    All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                      Originally posted by Per Hansson View Post
                      Have you tried to install the official Lenovo sound drivers?
                      I made a clean install on mine when it was brand new (an older model than yours) and it always sounded like shit.
                      Then for some reason I tried the official drivers and it actually made it sound quite decent!
                      Missed this.

                      Issues are primarily on arch linux... but official drivers on windows isn't great either.
                      Last edited by ratdude747; 02-05-2023, 01:17 PM.
                      sigpic

                      (Insert witty quote here)

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                        Well I finally got the new computer

                        I-Buy-Power gaming system
                        I9 processor
                        48 gigabytes of RAM ( it came with 16 gigabytes I add 32 gigabytes more )
                        Nvidia GeForce RTX3070
                        Hard Drive WD 1TB
                        Window 11 Home

                        I had Best Buy tech remove all of the Free Ware from the computer and install any updates for the system and install the two 16 gigabytes memory modules for a total of 48 gigabytes all together ( the reason for me doing this was because of the warranty and because of it being brand new I did not want any issues to deal with )


                        I installed Windows 3D Builder which I have used before and just doing the basic objects and moving them around what a breeze doing this on this computer now I just have to find my USB disk drive that I have some project on and relearn how to use this program again

                        I also watched a couple of music videos on YouTube and what a different experience that was ( video quality and not waiting for the buffering was not even an issue at all )

                        I will have to get use to using Windows 11 it is a little bit different than Windows 10 but not by much
                        Attached Files
                        Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 02-10-2023, 06:34 PM.
                        9 PC LCD Monitor
                        6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                        30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                        10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                        6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                        1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                        25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                        6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                        1 Dell Mother Board
                        15 Computer Power Supply
                        1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                        These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                        1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                        2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                        All of these had CAPs POOF
                        All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Re: Looking to buy a new laptop computer for doing 3D drawing software for a 3D print

                          I watched a video on YouTube about the new features Windows 3D builder and was playing around with a little bit more today I have get use to this program again I just realized that I had a lot of trouble with the laptop that had this software on and I had reformatted the hard drive because of it not wanting to boot correctly and completely most of the time so I lost all of the files that I had made it was just a few of them
                          I need to redo most of them anyway because of errors that I was going to fix

                          Plus the items that I had for the battery holders that I was making the custom cup ends needed to be a slight bit bigger in diameter anyway and the top half removed so the battery would go in and out of the holder easier

                          I also watched 4 hours of the tv show Moonlighting and not once did I have a hour glass or buffer issues on the other computer I have I could not do this it would have been torture to even attempt to

                          Just to watch Ploto TV was a chore sometimes time I have not tried to watch this yet but I will definitely try very soon and see how much better this is

                          So I just gave up streaming anything very much or not at all ( I use my IPad for 90% of all the internet surfing that I do and watch YouTube videos on but now that I have a computer that I can use for this I might only using the iPad when I am lazy and do feel like typing on a keyboard like now )

                          My problem is that I am very hesitant to buy new high end computers because most of the time I could not bring myself to spend that much money on one I would rather spend money on a low end computer that would work for getting emails and surfing the internet but not for streaming videos very often and not doing CAD drawings but after giving it a very honest try out and realizing that I could use it for making parts for projects and with a little bit of practice and a lot more money that I needed to spend I could do a better job and not get annoyed at the computer because of its limitations and lack of wanting to spend the money to not be aggravated with losing data freezing and what ever other issues that would pop up ( it took a while to get to point to want to spend the money on it ) My wife is just as bad as I am now she is going to be doing a lot of stuff for my son and his trucking company and our taxes she was using a computer older than the one I have it had gotten so slow even after defragging the hard drive helped some what but it still was very slow and sometimes just freezing or just taking a very long time to do certain tasks and even after reformatting the hard drive it was only some what faster I will use it for something that is not so demanding of resources
                          she finally broke down and bought a new laptop computer

                          The last time I bought a NEW laptop computer was over 5 years or maybe more because the computer I had bought had Windows 7 on it

                          I was given two HP8300 Elite computers from the one of the company that I used to work for and I bought one used one on EBay where I also bought the restore CD disk for this computer that had Windows 7 Professional Edition on them that I recapped the switching power supply’s that I got from my previous employer because they were used very hard installed a new hard drive in them
                          Last edited by sam_sam_sam; 02-11-2023, 11:51 PM.
                          9 PC LCD Monitor
                          6 LCD Flat Screen TV
                          30 Desk Top Switching Power Supply
                          10 Battery Charger Switching Power Supply for Power Tool
                          6 18v Lithium Battery Power Boards for Tool Battery Packs
                          1 XBox 360 Switching Power Supply and M Board
                          25 Servo Drives 220/460 3 Phase
                          6 De-soldering Station Switching Power Supply 1 Power Supply
                          1 Dell Mother Board
                          15 Computer Power Supply
                          1 HP Printer Supply & Control Board * lighting finished it *


                          These two repairs where found with a ESR meter...> Temp at 50*F then at 90*F the ESR reading more than 10%

                          1 Over Head Crane Current Sensing Board ( VFD Failure Five Years Later )
                          2 Hem Saw Computer Stack Board

                          All of these had CAPs POOF
                          All of the mosfet that are taken out by bad caps

                          Comment

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