Advice on equiptment for YDS CAD course (Rhino 5.0)

Hi there,
I am planning on enrolling on the YDS CAD course in the near future. I am currently looking in to purchasing a suitable computer. I am looking for some advice on what to buy (if there's anybody who has done the YDS course that would be great, if not, anybody with Rhino experience would be helpful). I would like to use a laptop if this is practical, purely because it gives me the flexibility of working away from the home. However, there seems to be a school of thought that suggests that a laptop is not powerful enough to handle 3d renderimg etc without dying an early death. I guess what I really want to know is if a laptop with good specs would suffice for the type of work I'd be doing on the YDS CAD course (an the main YDS curriculum later on) or should I difinitely go for a desktop instead?
I wasn't sure what topic to put this in so I posted it in software too.
Thanks in advance.

 

Please don't spam us with the same post in multiple forums.

 

Please feel free to delete inappropriate entries. As i explained, I wasn't sure where best to post my question. I think 'SPAM' is a little strong, it was a genuine request for advice from more experienced people than myself.

 

Damian,

Lots of laptops are used for gaming these days, no problem handling Rhino. Just get one with a real graphics card. My Dell Inspiron has a 1GB NVIDIA GeForce GT, runs rhino just fine.

 

It depends on the software you want to use. All applications, on their installation instructions, relate the minimum configuration required for the hardware. It also varies a lot if it is a 32 or 64 bits system.
According to what applications the screen size and resolution of a laptop may not be enough.
For complex naval architecture calculations with 3D solid models, I would recommend a portable workstation.

 

There is plenty of advice on the type of machine best suited to Rhino. Just try the Simply Rhino website. Basically for 3D rendering you need as many cores as possible, I'd say quad is a minimum. Rendering is multi-threaded unlike most CAD functions.

RAM slightly less important unless you have large models ie assemblies, where the 64 bit version can use more than the 32. 4Gb is minimum, go for 8+.
Also get a decent graphics card with good Open GL, generally one of the higher end Nvidia ones (over AMD) or at least the same chip as on the Quadro cards. Minimum graphics card RAM should now be 1Gb, though I would personally buy a 2 or 4Gb version.

You basically need a workstation type box, it will beat the hell out of most laptops and the components are cheaper. If you need to move it, put it in a carry/gaming type case. Oh, and use Win 7 Pro not 8.......

 

I fully agree.

 

So a laptop.would be ok provided in was quad core, 8-16gb of ram and had a quadro graphics card? I guess i won't be putting it through punishing 8 hrs days of professional work. Would it be ok yo tune the plug ins used during the course? Predominantly flamingo nxt, bongo and penguin?

 

Analyzes how comfortable you can feel working for several hours with the screen size and resolution you've planned.
Note that, at some point, you´ll start to move very fast and the equipment can become obsolete quickly.

 

To be honest, at this point id be looking at a second hand machine as frankly, i can't really afford a new one. Therefore, if it lasts me the duration ofvyhe course, ill be quite happy. My plan was yo also my a larger high res monitor to link up to whilst important at home. The laptops own screen would be just for the odd occasion i want to work somewhere else. Does this make sense to you guys or should I be thinking another way?

 

The dedicated graphic card requirement isn't necessarily true anymore. The current generation intel chips with the build in HD graphics are very powerful and right up there with many mid level cards. Don't get sucked into the idea that a separate chip automatically means it will be faster. There are lots of crappy graphics cards out there.

I also wouldn't worry about getting a dedicated workstation. They usually start around 2 grand and you can get a very good machine that will run Rhino just fine for half that. At the same time I would recommend avoiding used machines unless you really know what you are getting. Every generation of processor and graphics chip can be a big step up from the previous. A current gen Quadro K1100M is faster than a Quadro K2000M of the last generation.

Also I may be mistaken here but I believe that Rhino is not a true multithreading application, so more cores doesn't really help make it run faster. More cores should help with running multiple applications simultaneously but not Rhino. Likewise Rhino doesn't make use of the video card as much as some people think. I just noticed that there are some good answers about this on the Rhinor forums:
http://discourse.mcneel.com/t/does-rhino-5-use-all-6-cores-on-6-core-processors/8360/2

I've been using a laptop for the last year with an intel i7-4700MQ with with the built in HD Graphics 4600 and it's been working just fine. Mind you I don't do as much modeling as I used to but I've never noticed substantial slow down or graphic fragments. The graphic power of this built in chip is substantially faster than my previous Nvidia 9600M GT, both for games and professional applications.

I almost always use the laptop with an attached 24" monitor with both screens at 1920x1080 res. I currently have two instances of Rhino open., plus Autocad, two excel spreadsheets, two instances of google chrome with 9 total tabs open, and photoviewer with several pictures open and it's all running as smooth as butter.

The website notebookcheck.net keeps an updated sequential list of laptop graphics graphics cards. I've found this list to be a fairly accurate predictor of the performance of a graphic card.
http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

You can see in that list that the built in Intel 5200 is only slightly behind the current generation Quadro K1100M and the GT 650M.

Rendering is a whole separate beast. Different rendering engines and different plug ins have different GPU+CPU requirements and if you plan to do a lot of rendering you will have to look into those separately. Any machine can make a render and they all will take a long time to make a high res image.