Here is where we pick up the CAD hardware discussion on mobile workstations, or notebooks, given that I’ll throw in a few consumer-grade options that should get the job done on  your next project as well. All things are not created equal when comparing desktop hardware and notebook computers. The form factor is different, components must be shrunk down to fit in a small space, power hungry devices are toned down to suit the battery supply, and heat becomes an issue with electrons blasting a light speed in such confined quarters. Many manufacturers claim to offer a “desktop replacement” laptop, but few – if any – succeed.

At the crux of the issue, it isn’t feasibly possible to fit a mobile workstation with desktop caliber components. There is no wiggle room here. It is just a fact. Take a look at desktop processors compared to those available for notebooks – there is a major difference in speed, cache, power draw, and number of cores. These same comparisons can be made about graphics cards. However, when it comes to the quality of the motherboard (chipset), available ports, hard drive/solid state drive, memory (RAM), and optical drives little sacrifice needs to be made, if any at all. This is important, as more and more professionals are on the move, out in the field, and take work home with them.

Mobile Processors

When it comes to speed, reliability, power consumption, and availability, Intel has a huge upper hand over AMD. So much so that I’m not going to even discuss AMD CPU’s in this article. It isn’t that they are poor quality or that I’m unfamiliar with them, it is just the fact you’d be taking a wrong turn out of the gates if you went with an AMD chip in a mobile workstation when Intel performs so much better and its ubiquity makes complimentary components less expensive.

With that said, the Intel Sandy Bridge mobile processors have been available since the beginning of this year. They are a significant upgrade from the previous generation in speed, cache, advanced Turbo Boost capabilities, power consumption, and even price. The standard fare CPU in many mid-to-high end consumer notebooks and entry level mobile workstations is the Intel Core i7-2630QM processor (2 GHz Quad Core w/ 6 MB L3 Cache). This CPU is likely powerful enough for daily CAD design and basic modeling capabilities. You may find it can do much more, but with most CAD applications only taking advantage of a single processor core, there’s only so much you can squeak out of this chip (even with Turbo Boost focusing up to 2.9 GHz speeds to a single core when under heavy loads).

The Core i7 chip line rounds out with the 2720QM (2.2 GHz w/ 6 MB L3 Cache), 2820QM (2.3 GHz w/ 8 MB L3 Cache), and 2920XM (2.5 GHz w/ 8 MB L3 Cache) all sporting Turbo Boost technology allowing a single core to get around a 30-40% jump in performance on heavy calculations. At a price point of about $1k above the 2630Qm, the 2920Xm processor knocks the budget out of the park and I would be skeptical buying it at all due to the heat it will generate, power drain, and lack of return on investment from performance.

Those that keep up with gadget news will know there are also Core i3 and Core i5 versions of the Intel Sandy Bridge chips, but these tend to be quite underwhelming under anything above basic tasks on modern CAD applications.

The Verdict

From my pricing, testing, and scrutinizing, it appears the Core i7 2720QM CPU is the best of the bunch when comparing performance vs. price. Given an extra $100-150 in budget or savings in another component category, though, the 2820QM processor is desirable with the extra cache and significant jump in Turbo Boost allocation.

Special Note

Intel is rumored to release several (9) new Sandy Bridge mobile processors very soon. These are apparently going to be a little better in performance compared to the current line and have slightly higher clocked HD 3000 graphics. I would guess they’ll be similarly priced between the 26xx, 27xx, and 28xx series, so it should be a pretty easy choice on new notebooks.