What computer are you using for serious CAD/Graphic work at anchor.

[Franziska]

Hey Cy,

great reply!

Especially as you know my aging workhorse Z800 and the MSI machines.

I think I wait til the MSI GT75VR-013 or similar with AMD chip comes down in price.
Than kit it out with a single recent GPU like the GTX1080 or similar and max RAM. I think it will run still with a single power brick.

I'm lucky that my current software can run happily on Gaming PC's. So I do not need the Quadro cards but can go with a 1080 or similar.
It will boost performance even when I compare it with the current setup.

As I am not only doing renderings, I think I can live with the slightly lower RAM, do graphics and modelling and some rendering on board an upload bigger render jobs on a render farm.

Great info everyone, feels like it will be possible to do it!

[jclifton]

I've deployed a half dozen of these in the last week or so. ISV or Adobe suite, PTC Creo, SolidWorks and AutoCad.

https://www.thinkworkstations.com/pr...thinkpad-p52s/

These are going to be very popular and very price friendly.

Jason

[cyan]

Originally Posted by Franziska

Hey Cy,

great reply!

Especially as you know my aging workhorse Z800 and the MSI machines.

I think I wait til the MSI GT75VR-013 or similar with AMD chip comes down in price.
Than kit it out with a single recent GPU like the GTX1080 or similar and max RAM. I think it will run still with a single power brick.

I'm lucky that my current software can run happily on Gaming PC's. So I do not need the Quadro cards but can go with a 1080 or similar.
It will boost performance even when I compare it with the current setup.

As I am not only doing renderings, I think I can live with the slightly lower RAM, do graphics and modelling and some rendering on board an upload bigger render jobs on a render farm.

Great info everyone, feels like it will be possible to do it!

I like your idea to get a model or two older than the current beast. My colleague has an older MSI laptop with a 1050 (?) GPU that is much lighter and only needs about 230W total. (though it has less RAM) The real power hog is the GPU. The dual 1080's are a bit extreme, and they are what the power demand is all about. One issue is that these GPU's are essentially the same power-hungry beasts that can be installed into a desktop. Previous models had "portable" GPU's that were designed for specifically laptops.

If you can get by with less GPU horsepower, then I think you will be happy with a single older one as your power budget won't be destroyed.

[ironvalleyfab]

while i am not a techie i use a dell 7710 for my solidworks (not on a boat but in the field for on the fly design work) they are spendy though but not as much as a BOXX workstation dual1tb harddrives nividia m4000 i only have 32gb of ram but will be stepping it up to as much as will fit soon enough

currently i can wotk for about 6hrs before needing to plug in

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by cyan

The real power hog is the GPU. The dual 1080's are a bit extreme, and they are what the power demand is all about. One issue is that these GPU's are essentially the same power-hungry beasts that can be installed into a desktop.

I dream of owning such GPU power. Or the ability to plug an additional GPU in or out on demand.

My current daily ride is an MSI GT73VR 7RE - only with a 1070 GPU :-(

But with a 120 Hz 5 ms display :-)

[adam_175]

I owned a MSI prior to my current laptop. I don't personally like them, I found them to be somewhat cheaply made. My suggestion to you is to call Gaming Laptops - XOTIC PC - Gaming Notebooks - Custom Laptops - Custom Notebooks

Talk to one of their sales reps and they can customize a setup for your needs. They are a U.S. based company with amazing customer service.

[cyan]

Originally Posted by jclifton

I've deployed a half dozen of these in the last week or so. ISV or Adobe suite, PTC Creo, SolidWorks and AutoCad.

https://www.thinkworkstations.com/pr...thinkpad-p52s/

These are going to be very popular and very price friendly.

Jason

I really like the new Thinkpad displays! I always use multiple monitors for CAD, even with a laptop, and having a really high quality display on the laptop makes for a good setup.

The model mentioned has a very modest power draw. However, it also has a Quadro P500 which has less than 10% of the GPU horsepower as a single 1080. I would be cautious about 3D CAD performance or rendering with a P500, especially on multiple monitors. Once again, the main power budget will be spent on the GPU for serious graphics applications.

[FabioC]

I do heavy 3D CAD work on a top-of-the-line Mac Book running Windows on Bootcamp. It is way faster than the Z800, which I also have, so for sure you can find good laptops capable to do the job, but you should choose the faster processors, as many cores as possible, and lots of RAM. Windows on Bootcamp on the Mac is as fast or faster as any other Windows native laptop with similar processors.
The one advantage of the Mac Book over its PC counterparts is the retina display, which is unmatched in the PC world. The latest one is so good that it is more than adequate for heavy CAD work. That would likely be the lowest power solution that you can get, since it does not really need a monitor.
If you are like most of us, and absolutely want a large monitor, I am using a Dell Ultrawide, which is excellent for CAD work and not incredibly power hungry (there are other 4K monitors that are beautiful and not so power hungry). I found that the retina is sufficient or even preferable about 50% of the time (I guess it varies depending on the work you are doing), so most likely you do not need to have the monitor on all the time. When I travel, I have to use the retina only, and I survive quite happily, you just need to organize your work a bit more and not keep so many menus and tools next to each other.
Overall, the laptop draws 85W and the monitor less than 200W. If you use the laptop only, you can run on batteries for quite a while and then run the gen when you recharge or in the evening.

[Franziska]

Hi, everyone, thanks again, good input!

My schedule has a bit of time, destined to move on board about 2020.

As my criteria are that the machine is not less powerful as my current setup, I will target in 2020 when the prices have come down, a refurbished 2018 laptop model with single 1080 or 1070 card, 64GB RAM and one external Monitor.

Manufacturer will depend on power requirement and availability.
MSI seems to cover the above well. Might find alternative manufacturers with similar specs.
For my type of work a gaming machine will be fine.

Customized spec is unfortunately not an option to me, as I will not buy new.
I am Europe based so will source over here.

Will be interesting how far prices drop and calculation power goes up until then.

[scubano]

My best option has been an Intel NUC, you basically build from a barebones kit footprint is about 5X5x2". I have 500Gb SSd (2 256Gb cards) with 32Gb of RAM with offline storage, and just the onboard video card.

[Franziska]

32GB is their max. Unfortunately not enough for me. If that would be not an issue I think the NUC is a great option.

[Fiveslide]

I ran Civil3D on an oldish Thinkpad. Generally small, newer projects, so not a ton of data, but did build 3d surfaces and such. Just make sure whatever you buy meets software requirements. Nothing portable will be a speed demon with Cad software, had to be patient.

[daga]

Look at Intel NUC with i7 and Optane. You can put 32G RAM in them They run on 12V and the Optane certainly helps with disk speed. I use a cheapy 24 inch LG monitor (also 12V) and an 8TB 5.25 inch external USB drive, which also runs directly off 12V, Draws about 60W all-up. Your biggest performance limitation for CAD is probably GX.

[Franziska]

The 32GB RAM do not cut it for me. 64GB is acceptable. On my shorebased system I have 72GB.

Besides the 3D & Render stuff
I am working on very large graphic files which can only be sliced down after a large part of the editing is done.

So the NUC won't work (for me).
The MSI machines can accommodate 64GB and a 1080GTX....

[roland stockham]

All depends on the work you do. I do occasional CAD but mainly photography. My 'big' computer is a desktop PC. The things I need are lots of storage and a big accurate screen. I suspect that is the same for all CAD work but with 3d also needing fast processing. So limitations as far as working on a boat are;
Space - do you have room for a tower and screens? If not you will have to look at some sort of compact machine and put up with the limitations.
Power - If you look at what uses power it is processor speed and screens. Particularly screens. A big screen or two uses far more power than the processor or memory. You can save some power on the storage side with SSD discs and by turning of the main hard drive array when not in use but other than that less power = less capability. So can you work without 1 or two large screens?
My suggestion is to keep the power and flexibility you have in a desk top (provided you have the physical space) and spend the money on a couple of additional solar panels + larger house bank. Even the best machine can be run on a decent 200w solar setup. Panel space can be a challenge on a mono but no problem on a cat. I have seen cat setups that produce 1kw +!!
What you will need is a high quality inverter and I would suggest a dedicated battery setup built like an uninterruptible PSU. Pumps fridges and the like can produce spikes and surges that PC's don't like.