The 'is the x220 good enough' question

[onigiri]

Hi all,

So my friend currently has an x60s and she's been thinking of upgrading for work. She uses AutoCAD at work and finds that on the x60s, its way too slow. So she was thinking of getting an x220 as an upgrade. I was concerned it might not be good enough, even with the new processors, due to its graphics card. Would the T series be more suitable? Anyone have experience using this software? It's for building design so it's usually heavier files. On one hand, she really likes the portability of the x-series, but on the other, it needs to be able to do the work reasonably fast. Also, would anyone recommend upgrades, such as an SSD?
Thanks!

[penartur]

Hi all,

So my friend currently has an x60s and she's been thinking of upgrading for work. She uses AutoCAD at work and finds that on the x60s, its way too slow. So she was thinking of getting an x220 as an upgrade. I was concerned it might not be good enough, even with the new processors, due to its graphics card. Would the T series be more suitable? Anyone have experience using this software? It's for building design so it's usually heavier files. On one hand, she really likes the portability of the x-series, but on the other, it needs to be able to do the work reasonably fast. Also, would anyone recommend upgrades, such as an SSD?
Thanks!

X220 CPU is about 5x-10x faster than that of X60s. However, AutoCAD will probably benefit from having some fast discrete GPU, in which case it would be better to purchase W520 with Nvidia Quadro.
I'd recommend to install an Intel 310 80GB mSATA SSD in addition to having stock HDD for storage, that way you will get the best out of two worlds.

[khtse]

The CPU on X220 is a lot faster than that on X60. Despite it being made by Intel, the HD 3000 is actually a pretty decent graphic chip, significantly faster than previous generations of Intel graphics. I'm actually surprised by how good the HD 3000 is after receiving my X220 last week. I don't use AutoCAD so I cannot comment on that, but Googling "HD 3000 AutoCAD" resulted many informative discussions.

[onigiri]

Hey, thanks a lot you two! Doing my research into the intel graphics and w520 now!

[meat]

If she is doing 2D AutoCAD, the Graphics card should be fine and not an issue. If she is doing 3D AutoCAD, then she will probably want something with a better graphics card.

[vinuneuro]

i've been using autodesk inventor 2012 with my i5-2520M X220 and it's been working great. the largest assembly i have on-hand right now is about 30 parts and it pans/zooms/orbits quite smoothly. real view looks just as good as on my thinkstation with an nvidia FX 4800.

adobe CS5 is no problem at all. autocad mechanical 2012 and google sketchup 8 both work equally as well. i haven't tried revit or rhino as those aren't apps i use.

i'd recommend it as long as you don't expect miracles from an ultraportable. it's not going to be as ideal as a proper workstation graphics card but it's certainly good enough for low- to mid-level CAD tasks.

two recommendations would be to get 8GB of DDR3 1333MHz memory and a good SSD. the intel 320-series is currently the most reliable offering in my opinion.