The Perfect CAD Machine: Say No to Laptops
Recently, I was asked to submit to my organization's IT department concerning what kind of computer setup is best for civil technology. My answer might be surprising to some: it's not a laptop, it's not 4k, and it's not a "workstation" setup.
Right off the bat, laptops are simply out of the question for any heavy duty work.
The reason is that while processors are getting faster and faster, laptops lack the physical space to dissipate heat effectively. There virtually no space for a proper heat sink, fan, and air flow channels, the secondary vents are often on the bottom of the laptop which do not work unless the laptop is raised off the desktop. Not many people use their laptop raised off their desks. The high heat typically makes the laptop throttle down its chips, resulting in a massive reduction in performance and often, catastrophic hardware failures.
Let's consider the heat sink design problem for laptops. There is no room for a proper heat sink with optimal dimensions. Therefore, the metal fins of heat sinks are just sandwiched closer together to fit more fins in order to maximize surface area. The problem with this is that it becomes easier than ever to collect dust. Once a blanket of dust clogs the heat sink, it acts like a blanket instead, trapping heat. To make matters worse, laptops often refrain from spinning its fans so that it runs quieter, as Louis Rossmann tested on a Macbook recently This is because small fans produce higher pitched noise, which we typically find very annoying. When larger fans simply won't fit, you either run the smaller fan at a lower RPM, or don't run it at all.
These issues can raise internal chip temperatures in the 85+ degree celsius range regularly in laptops. This is bad. This is very bad. All sorts of internal components get cooked, and the heat conducting medium between the chip and the heat sink become burnt or boiled off, making the problem even worse.
On a laptop, the ultra high performance CPU and graphics chip specs are often just theoretical. They're only there to sell the product. Without an ideal setup (e.g. a beefy cooling pad under the laptop) and frequent vacuuming of the vents, an laptop will never perform safely.
This is not an issue for Autocad or Civil3D, since these programs only use 1 CPU core for most of its operations (they're not thread safe). However, it is a HUGE issue in 3D rendering. Even relatively short rendering times (e.g. Lumion) would make me nervous. I would not even dare running a multi-day render operation on a laptop.
Why Not a Laptop
Right off the bat, laptops are simply out of the question for any heavy duty work.
The reason is that while processors are getting faster and faster, laptops lack the physical space to dissipate heat effectively. There virtually no space for a proper heat sink, fan, and air flow channels, the secondary vents are often on the bottom of the laptop which do not work unless the laptop is raised off the desktop. Not many people use their laptop raised off their desks. The high heat typically makes the laptop throttle down its chips, resulting in a massive reduction in performance and often, catastrophic hardware failures.
Let's consider the heat sink design problem for laptops. There is no room for a proper heat sink with optimal dimensions. Therefore, the metal fins of heat sinks are just sandwiched closer together to fit more fins in order to maximize surface area. The problem with this is that it becomes easier than ever to collect dust. Once a blanket of dust clogs the heat sink, it acts like a blanket instead, trapping heat. To make matters worse, laptops often refrain from spinning its fans so that it runs quieter, as Louis Rossmann tested on a Macbook recently This is because small fans produce higher pitched noise, which we typically find very annoying. When larger fans simply won't fit, you either run the smaller fan at a lower RPM, or don't run it at all.
These issues can raise internal chip temperatures in the 85+ degree celsius range regularly in laptops. This is bad. This is very bad. All sorts of internal components get cooked, and the heat conducting medium between the chip and the heat sink become burnt or boiled off, making the problem even worse.
On a laptop, the ultra high performance CPU and graphics chip specs are often just theoretical. They're only there to sell the product. Without an ideal setup (e.g. a beefy cooling pad under the laptop) and frequent vacuuming of the vents, an laptop will never perform safely.
This is not an issue for Autocad or Civil3D, since these programs only use 1 CPU core for most of its operations (they're not thread safe). However, it is a HUGE issue in 3D rendering. Even relatively short rendering times (e.g. Lumion) would make me nervous. I would not even dare running a multi-day render operation on a laptop.
Why Not 4k
If you have over-sized screens (close to 30"), then 4k would be fine. But if you have typical mid-size monitors (21-24"), 4k is a pain. If you are on the road and only have your laptop screen, 4k is a nightmare.
The main problem is that the user interface of most programs are just not designed for 4k. Icons become tiny, text menus are barely readable, and it's just a huge strain on the eyes.
Sure you can up the text/icon sizes via Windows settings, but many programs don't respect this adjustment. In fact, the UI in a lot of them end up breaking altogether. Even Autocad has only adjusted for 4k setups as of its 2019 versions.
Why Not Workstation Components
This was covered in an older article complete with benchmarks, so I'll just give a quick refresher here. Workstation video cards are just older generation of hardware with drivers optimized for cad work. The problem is that video cards are often unused for Autocad in the first place. Turning on hardware acceleration in Autocad can lead to problems like lines shifting in their coordinates. As for 3D rendering, more and more rendering engines use the same technology as modern games, which do not have the workstation driver optimizations anyway. So what you end up with is just an older generation video card that doesn't justify its high price point.
Workstation CPUs are not as blatantly poor as workstation video cards. They actually tend to perform fairly well, but the negligible performance gains does not justify the massive price premium. It's better to save that money for things that will actually have measurable impact in productivity and user comfort.
Summary
So what kind of machine is best for civil tech? The ideal machine is a plain full-tower desktop with easily replaceable consumer components with a good performance-to-value ratio. If a component fails on a desktop, you can likely swap out the offending component in under half an hour and be ready to go again. A typical laptop with a failed component will likely have to be sent to a shop to be serviced, knocking it out for several days.
The money saved from buying desktops with consumer components can be put into buying high quality keyboards, mice and power supplies. These components are often neglected, yet are often the first components to fail. A good mouse and keyboard will also vastly improve the user experience and ergonomics as well. I would also consider picking up a battery backup device, which can prevent work loss, prevent power supply blowouts, and guard against data corruption during power interruptions.
The money saved from buying desktops with consumer components can be put into buying high quality keyboards, mice and power supplies. These components are often neglected, yet are often the first components to fail. A good mouse and keyboard will also vastly improve the user experience and ergonomics as well. I would also consider picking up a battery backup device, which can prevent work loss, prevent power supply blowouts, and guard against data corruption during power interruptions.
I hope this helps.
Please leave any comments or criticisms, and thanks for the read.
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