What are the Best Laptops for Solidworks 2023? Guide

Dell Precision 5770 Mobile Workstation– Best with i9 Processor (High-End Category)

One of Dell’s flagship professional workstation laptops, the 17″ Precision 5770, with upgraded configuration, will power your Solidworks modeling and rendering workflow effortlessly. This is one of the machines in this round-up with some of the best high-end configurations, with upgraded processors, graphics, and storage. Dell holds a rock-solid reputation as a technology company that makes solid laptops, and this is no exception. The 5770 owes its design and looks to the XPS 15, and if you use that machine and love it, then you are going to love this workstation.

The Precision 5770 sports a 4K WLED Ultra-HD display and is powered by a 9th Gen i9-12900H vPro 14-core (6 P-cores, 8 E-cores) processor with 20 threads, a base clock of 2.5GHz, and a max turbo frequency of 5GHz. This is a powerful processor in its own right, delivering blistering speeds in handling and manipulating Solidworks assemblies, and rendering. The graphics system is powered by a workstation-class Video Card, the NVIDIA RTX A3000 with 12GB GDDR6 graphics memory. With such a powerful combo of the i9 processor and Quadro at your disposal, you won’t be lagging behind in modeling and rendering in Solidworks.

The system RAM is maxed out at 64GB Dual Channel DDR4-4800MHz RAM, and it allows you to run Solidworks smoothly, even when running multiple apps. This is far higher than the minimum recommended 16GB of RAM for Solidworks.

The display is stunningly beautiful. Let’s not forget this is a 4K LED display, which means you can connect to an external 4K monitor for the best viewing experience. The display is also equipped with an Anti-Reflective Touch IPS, so you can see images better, swipe, zoom, and pinch away. At this much resolution, images stand out in much greater clarity and detail.

The display also has up to 500nits of brightness. This is quite impressive and should provide adequate brightness even in daylight conditions. You also have the inbuilt low Blue-Light feature that eases viewing this laptop display for extended periods of time.

The Storage features a 2TB PCIe NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive for speedy data access and performance, plus a host of connectivity options including 4x USB Type C ports with DisplayPort and Power Delivery, 4x Thunderbolt ports, RJ45, and card reader slots.

It also has Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2. There are also high-quality speakers and a 720p camera for video conferencing installed. Well, if you want to do some voice recording on the go, there is a microphone to do just that.

The battery is a six-cell 97Wh with ExpressCharge for faster charging, with a battery life of just about 6+ hours. This is not bad, as we don’t expect a very long battery life with this level of configuration. Also, note the cooling system; dual fans keep the system cool even under heavy workloads. What about weight? There’s a total weight of 5.67lbs, which we consider heavy.

These features combine together to make this machine a CAD powerhouse, you can’t afford to not get your hands on one! Click on the link below to check it out.  

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4 Mid-Range Machines – Best Laptop for Solidworks 2023

Lenovo ThinkPad P51 Mobile Workstation Laptop – Best Value (Mid-Range Category)

Our first candidate the Lenovo P51 makes a bold statement with its impressive specifications. Let’s look at its performance and specifications.

For starters, the processor is an Intel Xeon E3-1505M with up to 4GHz clock speed. The 4 cores are a little letdown; we expected at least a 6-core CPU. There’s also a generous 8MB Smart Cache for speeding up calculations in Solidworks.

This processor supports hyper-threading – meaning that you’ve got a total of 8 threads for handling the rendering and visualizations.

The graphics department is handled by an NVIDIA Quadro M2200M with 4GB of dedicated graphics memory. Well, for a laptop of this caliber, we expected a much better graphics chip such as the P4200 or P5200.

Nevertheless, it’s not a bad performer altogether, with up to 1024 CUDA cores, it can still handle low to medium model count assemblies with ease. It’s comforting to note that you can actually output to a 4K display using the provided mini-Display or HDMI port if you want a bigger screen, that is.

The RAM installed is 64GB of fast DDR4 RAM for serious multi-tasking and heavy modeling tasks. This is more than enough as it far exceeds the minimum requirement of 16GB of RAM. Then we’ve got the big 15.6” screen with IPS with anti-glare which enables you to view the screen from far angles. Our particular test machine is full HD, but if you look around, you can actually get a 4K resolution Thinkpad P72 model.

For storage, we’ve got a total of 1TB SSD. We expected a speedy NVMe, but there’s just plain SSD. The drive of course houses the Windows 10 Professional OS.

Plenty of connectivity options abound, with Bluetooth 4, Thunderbolt, 3 USB 3.0 ports, 2 USB Type-C ports, 1 HDMI, and mini-Display ports, a 3.5 mm audio combo jack, and Intel Dual-band Wireless AC protocol with the 802.11a/b/g/n/ac specification. There’s also an integrated 4-in-1 media card reader.

Other goodies include the backlit keyboard for easy work-in-the-dark convenience, a fingerprint reader for additional security, and a 720p HD webcam which comes in handy for video chats. The total weight of this machine is 5.8 pounds, which we consider average by standards.

On the Lenovo website, this machine is touted to last up to 8 hours on tests with MobileMark 2014. When utilizing Solidworks for modeling and rendering, expect the battery life in the region of 6 – 7 hours, depending on your workload.

You might want to check out the following accessories for your Thinkpad P51 which include ThinkPad Thunderbolt 3 Workstation Dock, ThinkVision P27h-10 27-inch Wide QHD IPS Type-C Monitor, Lenovo Passage Backpack, and ThinkPad 230W AC Adapter Slim Tip.

Even though the P51 is not one of the flagship machines by the manufacturer, it still has some decent features that qualify it as a mid-range machine. Besides, it’s one of the  Solidworks recommended laptops with ISV certification. All the same, it’s not a bad option either. Check out the link below for pricing.  

Dell Precision 5530 Mobile Workstation– Best Value/Battery Life (Mid-Range Category)

So we’ve got this beautifully crafted workstation lappie with amazing specs. For a mid-range machine, it’s a great bargain. For starters, it sports an i7 processor, the 6-core Intel Core i7 8850H Processor clocked at 2.6GHz up to 4.30GHz Turbo, 9M Cache, and 45W power rating.

It’s a hyper-threaded chip, meaning you can finish renders in a reasonable time with 12 threads at your disposal. Yes. You’ll get better performance when running Photoview 360 and Solidworks Simulation, after all, this is a mid-range configuration.

Then we’ve got an Nvidia Quadro P1000M with 4GB GDDR5 RAM powering the graphics. This graphics chip will allow you to comfortably run Solidworks Conceptual Designer and Solidworks Industrial Designer with its 640 CUDA cores but don’t expect the best results though. It’s a mid-range workstation graphics chip after all.

The M7510 is fitted with 32GB of fast DDR4 RAM which we consider impressive. No need for an upgrade if you are handling medium to large model assemblies. We’ve also got the 512GB SSD drive for holding your OS and data. Then you’ve got the beautiful 15.6” ultra-sharp full HD Display at 1920×1080 pixels with Premium Panel Guarantee.

Other options include the fact that this machine has provision for two storage devices: one M.2 PCIe solid-state drive and one 2.5” PCIe/SATA drive which is already occupied by the 512GB SSD drive. So you might want to add an M.2 SSD for even better storage performance.

Connectivity options include 4 USB 3.0 with PowerShare, 1 Thunderbolt 3, 1 mini-Display Port, 1 HDMI, 1 Headphone and microphone combo jack, and a SmartCard Reader. There’s also an SD Card Reader for SD, SDHC, and SDXC variants, supporting up to 64GB, and Intel Dual Band Wireless 8260 (802.11ac) with Bluetooth.

The unit is powered by a 6-cell 91WHr battery, with battery life topping roughly 13 hours, which we found quite impressive for a workstation laptop.

Finally, the total weight of this lappie is 6.16lbs, and you’d get 3 Years of Hardware Service Warranty with this purchase. For the specs, we think this is a good deal. So don’t hesitate to check out the price with the link below.