I am an architecture student working in a rather tight budget (500-600 USD) to get the best bang for the buck in terms of the performance and portability of a device. First of all, I am not sure whether I should go for a laptop or a pc build machine, because I usually take my work with me when I leave home from uni , which is every week or two.
I use programs such as AutoCAD, Revit, Photoshop, Rhino, Lumion, 3ds Max, ArchiCAD etc. so it would be used for 3D rendering and conceptual design, oh and for the occasional gaming session or two.
Also, sometimes laptops are in use within classes for "on the fly" demonstrations, in which I use my current laptop ( a shitty HP 250 G3 ), and I felt that a change was inevitable because the workload gets larger and larger.
My biggest dilemma is contained within the price to performance ratio - If I decide to get a pc, I lose the portability aspect, and if I get the laptop, there is no possibility for an upgrade, the performance is worse and I'll probably end up overpaying the entire thing. I was thinking of maybe upgrading my current laptop with additional sticks of RAM, and going with the pc build.
tduds
Aug 13, 18 2:20 pm
If that's your budget, get the Desktop (Also, it's called a desktop, not a "PC")
Non Sequitur
Aug 13, 18 2:26 pm
$500 can easily be the cost of your tower's GPU.... not sure sure how you'll manage all those softwares with a non existant budget. Best to build a tower and spend the max you can now on the CPU and MB and add to it when you have the funds (GPU and RAM)
Archicore
Aug 13, 18 2:53 pm
My desktop setup must be nearing $1.5k total. I've used Lumion and according to the internal benchmark, I'm at the maximum recommended level for everything except for the CPU. If you're looking for that, you might have to raise your budget a bit.
I would highly recommend using PCPartPicker to help check for compatibility and general organization of your build. You can also save a link for later reference.
Does that $500-$600 include the software licenses?
Non Sequitur
Aug 13, 18 4:58 pm
zing!
Kenann
Aug 13, 18 5:42 pm
My God,
Who would have thought that I'd get such snobbish answers from people of such noble profession. I am not from the US or any western country ,so sometimes the world is not built within a vacuum of perfection where everyone has a large income at hand and sometimes you have to work around the law itself in order to perform the best you can (i.e. pirating). But, what amazes me the most is the perfidious relationship without any sort of empathy towards a fellow architect in the making that is purely judgmental and hair splitting. I came here seeking for advice from people that should have experience in dealing with this sort of thing,and ended up just getting confused.
Anyhow, I wish you all the best and God bless you all!
JLC-1
Aug 13, 18 6:12 pm
well, pirate the computer parts as well, no shame in that. I've had the same dilemma for years, it would be great to assemble a portable gadget with the desktop capabilities, so far I haven't seen anything like it. god bless y'all as well.
Non Sequitur
Aug 13, 18 6:26 pm
God is as false as the idea 500usd is a respectable budget for a performance pc. Things cost money? What a concept.
randomised
Aug 14, 18 8:09 am
I asked a simple question, no need to drag your god into this.
Non Sequitur
Aug 14, 18 8:10 am
Rando, my god is better than your god.
randomised
Aug 14, 18 12:28 pm
So, better than nothing
Non Sequitur
Aug 14, 18 1:25 pm
Obviously.
dissector92
Aug 17, 18 4:14 am
If I were in your place I would increase my budget a little bit and go for both laptop and desktop. If possible buy a desktop( 2 gpu Sli nvidia gtx 10 series go as you said you like to do gaming and another nvidia quadro workstation gpu) to work home efficiently and a cheap laptop which has the ability to run such programs so that you can work at school and tutorials whenever its needed.
Right now Im using Alienware 15 R3 and it works fine but the main problem of the laptop is no matter how good specs it does have, while rendering cpu process is hampered due to the power limitation for thermal throttling. You wont experience such problem in desktop.
You have decide between portability and performance.
Duke250
Aug 22, 20 9:12 am
My suggestion is that you should go for a laptop. Even though, you may have to shell out extra dollars for a laptop, it'll be useful for you as it enables portability. As an architecture student, you would have to visit sites so laptops will be more useful for you.
Non Sequitur
Aug 22, 20 9:22 am
You must write some awfully boring fortune cookies.
apscoradiales
Aug 23, 20 8:54 pm
Unfortunately for your pocket, you will need both.
Start with the laptop first.
Talk to your instructor as to what kind of a laptop, and how much memory/processor/HD size.
Get a Windows machine - Autodesk are bastards when it comes to various platforms; they've been known to switch platforms without care for their users.
Hey guys,
I am an architecture student working in a rather tight budget (500-600 USD) to get the best bang for the buck in terms of the performance and portability of a device. First of all, I am not sure whether I should go for a laptop or a pc build machine, because I usually take my work with me when I leave home from uni , which is every week or two.
I use programs such as AutoCAD, Revit, Photoshop, Rhino, Lumion, 3ds Max, ArchiCAD etc. so it would be used for 3D rendering and conceptual design, oh and for the occasional gaming session or two.
Also, sometimes laptops are in use within classes for "on the fly" demonstrations, in which I use my current laptop ( a shitty HP 250 G3 ), and I felt that a change was inevitable because the workload gets larger and larger.
My biggest dilemma is contained within the price to performance ratio - If I decide to get a pc, I lose the portability aspect, and if I get the laptop, there is no possibility for an upgrade, the performance is worse and I'll probably end up overpaying the entire thing. I was thinking of maybe upgrading my current laptop with additional sticks of RAM, and going with the pc build.
If that's your budget, get the Desktop (Also, it's called a desktop, not a "PC")
$500 can easily be the cost of your tower's GPU.... not sure sure how you'll manage all those softwares with a non existant budget. Best to build a tower and spend the max you can now on the CPU and MB and add to it when you have the funds (GPU and RAM)
My desktop setup must be nearing $1.5k total. I've used Lumion and according to the internal benchmark, I'm at the maximum recommended level for everything except for the CPU. If you're looking for that, you might have to raise your budget a bit.
I would highly recommend using PCPartPicker to help check for compatibility and general organization of your build. You can also save a link for later reference.
https://pcpartpicker.com/list/
If you need an idea of how different components shape up, you can check PassMark's benchmark tests. From what I've heard they're good place to start.
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/
Good luck with your build!
2 of my favorite sites.
Does that $500-$600 include the software licenses?
zing!
My God,
Who would have thought that I'd get such snobbish answers from people of such noble profession. I am not from the US or any western country ,so sometimes the world is not built within a vacuum of perfection where everyone has a large income at hand and sometimes you have to work around the law itself in order to perform the best you can (i.e. pirating). But, what amazes me the most is the perfidious relationship without any sort of empathy towards a fellow architect in the making that is purely judgmental and hair splitting. I came here seeking for advice from people that should have experience in dealing with this sort of thing,and ended up just getting confused.
Anyhow, I wish you all the best and God bless you all!
well, pirate the computer parts as well, no shame in that. I've had the same dilemma for years, it would be great to assemble a portable gadget with the desktop capabilities, so far I haven't seen anything like it. god bless y'all as well.
God is as false as the idea 500usd is a respectable budget for a performance pc. Things cost money? What a concept.
I asked a simple question, no need to drag your god into this.
Rando, my god is better than your god.
So, better than nothing
Obviously.
If I were in your place I would increase my budget a little bit and go for both laptop and desktop. If possible buy a desktop( 2 gpu Sli nvidia gtx 10 series go as you said you like to do gaming and another nvidia quadro workstation gpu) to work home efficiently and a cheap laptop which has the ability to run such programs so that you can work at school and tutorials whenever its needed.
Right now Im using Alienware 15 R3 and it works fine but the main problem of the laptop is no matter how good specs it does have, while rendering cpu process is hampered due to the power limitation for thermal throttling. You wont experience such problem in desktop.
You have decide between portability and performance.
My suggestion is that you should go for a laptop. Even though, you may have to shell out extra dollars for a laptop, it'll be useful for you as it enables portability. As an architecture student, you would have to visit sites so laptops will be more useful for you.
You must write some awfully boring fortune cookies.
Unfortunately for your pocket, you will need both.
Start with the laptop first.
Talk to your instructor as to what kind of a laptop, and how much memory/processor/HD size.
Get a Windows machine - Autodesk are bastards when it comes to various platforms; they've been known to switch platforms without care for their users.