Bob,

Unless there is a need for laptops to be used frequently on the road, there
are a lot of drawbacks to using laptops in this environment.

1.) The ergonomics are not as good (keyboard/mouse/screen) as you would
have with a desktop for less money.

2.) The reliability of laptops is far less.

3.) Laptops are more easily lost/damaged/stolen.

4.) The performance is going to be far inferior on the laptop. The Dell
Precision would probably come with upwards of a 3Ghz CPU

5.) Especially for a graphics application (autocad), the graphics speed
(x16 PCIe) will be a lot faster in the desktop.

6.) Price. I priced a Dell Precision 380 (3.0Ghz CPU) with 2Gb memory,
250Gb disk, upgraded graphics card and it comes to only $2838. Is his IT
person an employee or an outside vendor that has an interest in selling the
most expensive equipment he can?

At 08:08 AM 11/20/2005, you wrote:
>This is a hardware question but not a building question:^))
>
>I'm trying to help my son who runs a small architecture firm decide if he
>should upgrade some desks to high end laptops as replacements for
>desktops.  These machines would be loaded with AutoCad or AutoCad LT
>depending on who uses them.  His IT person is recommending DELL Precision
>M70 with a 2.13GHz CPU, 2 GB RAM and a FX Go1400  256 MB graphics
>card.   We understand that a separate issue is: does the user travel with
>the laptop.  The current price on these computers is about $3700 with XP
>Pro and Small Business Office Suite.   A Dell Precision Workstation with
>Xeon CPU and 2 GB runs about $3100 including monitor.
>
>So the question is:  Does it make sense to use laptops for AutoCad
>architectural work?
>
>Bob Warasila
>
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