ThinkPad P51 Vs. Dell 5540

[DmisDave]

My laptop running my Offline PC-Dmis CAD++ 2017 R1 is struggling, so I’m looking at new. Hexagons requirement of NVIDIA Quadro K1100M graphics limits my choices.

I use models for everything. 30-50 MB is typical with all my fixturing.

Sure, a $4K laptop would be cool, but I don’t think I need that, and I’m paying for this myself, so price is important.

I’ve always bought Dells and been happy with them. But with them, once you specify Quadro graphics you are in Workstations.

So I had a Dell configured for what I thought I needed and it was $1532.88. No discounting (like Veterans Discounts or coupon codes) because the workstation folks at Dell don’t believe in any of that. You have to stay on the mere mortal side to get those. And of course, there is no Quadro graphics on that side.

Then I did a chat with Lenova. They started out pretty much the same as Dell, so nothing really impressive. Then he asked me where I wanted to be. I told him a grand. And he put together the ThinkPad P51 below. For $460 less it looks good to me.

Obviously the 6 core (Dell) vs. a 4 core (Thinkpad) will make a difference.

The Quadro T1000 should be faster than the M1200, but they are both 4GB.

The Thinkpad has 16GB of ram and a SSD hard drive, The dell has 8GB and SATA drives.

What do you guys think? Do you think the Thinkpad will be okay?

ThinkPad P51 Mobile Workstation
Part No: 20MNS08X00

Processor "Intel® Core™ i7-6820HQ with vPro™
(2.70GHz, up to 3.60GHz with Turbo Boost, 4 Cores, 8MB Cache)"

Memory 16GB DDR4 2133MHz (2 X 8GB)

Graphics NVIDIA® Quadro M1200M 4GB

Hard Drive 512GB Solid State Drive, PCIe, Opal

Display Type 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-glare

Operating System Windows 10 Pro 64

Wireless Intel® 8260 vPro™ 802.11AC (2 x 2) + Bluetooth® 4.1

Keyboard Backlit Keyboard - US English

Pointing Device Clickpad

Camera 720p HD Camera

Fingerprint Reader Fingerprint Reader

Warranty 3Y Onsite upgrade ($79) from 3Y Depot/CCI, Part No: 5WS0V07088

Base price $899.00
Warranty $79.00
Sub Total $978.00
Tax $95.35
Total $1,073.35

************************************************** ***********************

Mobile Precision 5540
Part No: Dell Precision 5540 CTO Type C Base

Processor "Intel® Core™ Processor i7-9750H, 6 Core, 12M Cache,
2.60GHz up to 4.5GHz Turbo, 45W"

Memory 8GB, DDR4-2666MHz SDRAM, 1 DIMMS, Non-ECC

Graphics Nvidia Quadro T1000 w/4GB GDDR5

Hard Drive "2.5"" 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
2.5"" 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive (Second Drive)"

Display Type "15.6"" UltraSharp FHD IGZO4, 1920x1080, AG, NT, w/Prem
Panel Guar, 100% sRGB, Titan Gray w/ HD Camera"

Operating System Windows 10 Pro 64

Wireless Intel Dual Band Wireless AX200 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.0 vPro

Keyboard Internal US English Keyboard, Backlit

Pointing Device

Camera HD Camera

Fingerprint Reader No

Warranty "1 Year ProSupport with Next Business Day Onsite Service
Limited Time: Upgrade to ProSupport Plus at no additional charge."

Base price $1,396.70
Warranty
Sub Total $1,396.70
Tax $136.18
Total $1,532.88

[Kp61dude!]

Just saw this the other day:

https://www.costco.com/MSI-GL75-Raider-Gaming-Laptop---9th-Gen-Intel-Core-i7-9750H---GeForce-GTX-1660-Ti--1080p.product.100508748.html

[HxSwartwood]

Then you can game when you don't want to work!!!

[NinjaBadger]

I've just got a P51S (ultra-book version of the P51) for £500 (approx $600) second hand.

Only 2GB Quadro M520 GPU but I've always run specs roughly at the bottom end of the spec scale and I've never had issues, even with big models and assemblies.

I know CMMers who are all like 'well I should have the same spec machine as the CAD monkeys' but as having done both roles I disagree.

IMO there's a huge difference between importing and viewing a model (CMM) and actually creating and changing and updating (CAD monkey). The only exception to that is if you're doing lots of scanning or working with COPs.


Other than that, I really really like the ThinkPad (I came from a DELL Precision 5510 at my last place). The ThinkPad wipes the floor with it - but it is a couple of years newer.


Oh, the 16GB RAM and SSD will likely make much more noticeable difference than Hex vs Quad core and slightly better GPU.

[AndersI]

Oh, the 16GB RAM and SSD will likely make much more noticeable difference than Hex vs Quad core and slightly better GPU.

+1 on that. I wouldn't want to run any modern Windows version in less that 16GB RAM, and PC-DMIS isn't overly good at using a lot of cores, it is better with a few cores at higher speed than many at a lower.

I'm not sure about SSDs - some of them (earlier types?) are deteriorating quite fast when written to, which is something both Windows and PC-DMIS are good at... A 10K physical disc as I have had in earlier computers felt quicker than the SSD I have now, but there may be other factors involved (increased load from paranoid settings of network and antivirus, for example).

[Matthew D. Hoedeman]

+1 on that. I wouldn't want to run any modern Windows version in less that 16GB RAM, and PC-DMIS isn't overly good at using a lot of cores, it is better with a few cores at higher speed than many at a lower.

I'm not sure about SSDs - some of them (earlier types?) are deteriorating quite fast when written to, which is something both Windows and PC-DMIS are good at... A 10K physical disc as I have had in earlier computers felt quicker than the SSD I have now, but there may be other factors involved (increased load from paranoid settings of network and antivirus, for example).

that's why you put in 2 drives, a SSD for Windoze and programs, and a spinner for files & virtual memory. Yeah, get the virtual memory off the SSD, you'll be much happier. They had ONLY SSD drives in the computers for the mills here, which also had the programming software on them. MILLIONS of read/writes per day (hour?) and they were burning them out in 6 months or less. I told them put an SSD for the op-system, and a spinner for everything else. Been 3 years sine they did what I told them, haven't had a drive burnout in that time.

[AndersI]

Yep - that's my setup too. My spinner is 3.6 TB, so it's not quite full yet...

[Peter Fuller]

RAM is cheap, cheaper than it's been for as long as I can remember. Unfortunately Windows 10 gets nasty with you when you try to disable it. It's the primary reason I didn't opt for 32Gigs of ram for my desktop. I just forked out 60 dollars for a good quality smaller drive that I can host my VRAM on instead of a dinosaur HDD. Backups still go to a Mechanical HDD but with the dirt cheap prices of super high quality SSD there is no reason for me to use HDD for anything but backups.

[DmisDave]

I ordered the ThinkPad, so I hope it works out.