Choosing a laptop for architecture school for your design needs

There are many options out there (as far as laptops) where you can run design software smoothly without any graphic problems. Most architecture programs will have their computer requirements on their school page. The laptop requirement for my school (UNC-Greensboro) was a macbook pro. It is a great computer however if you are running architecture software such as (revit,3ds max) you will need to add a copy of windows to it. ( bootcamp, or parallel) so the programs can run. (They make autoCAD for mac now). If you are just going to run sketchUp or adobe suite then you are going to be fine regardless of what you choose (again, depends how much memory space(ram, video card etc) you have on your computer) Check out these three steps when your making the decision on purchasing the next laptop (mac or windows (32 bit or 64 bit)

First,
  I would recommend to choose a laptop that is quad core,great processor ( intel 3rd generation i7 3630qm 2.4 ghz + is very good and also amd is a good choice (make sure you choose the latest) is another option.  



Second,
you need to have a good graphics card so it processes all these software. Example: I had windows xp (outdated graphics card) in my second year of school and I downloaded 3ds max, however, while using the software all I could see was wireframes because the graphics card could not handle and process every design I was making on the program. At the moment I am running nvidia geforce gt 635m with 2GB dedicated memory and it runs the programs great without a problem. Third, make sure it has enough RAM. RAM stands for random-access memory and these software would eat it up. ( I would recommend 8 GB+, currently I have 16 GB). 

Third,
I would make sure it has enough space in the hard drive itself. ( Right now you can get up to 1TB or more). Also, a big display screen would not hurt ( I have 17.3 inch and you can see everything clear including modeling, renderings or animations. You can also add parallel screen if you want more than output device (screen)). As I said before, there are many options out there and this is what has worked great for me so far. The ultimate computer would be building my own but that takes some serious time and in architecture/interior school you will find that time is very critical when it comes to your projects. You will learn how to manage time with your schedule and you will learn very soon that you can not afford your computer to crash on you. That is why I made the decision to purchase a laptop. What laptop has worked for you in this field and what other choices have would you recommend?

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