Puchasing Mobile Workstation - Need advice

No opinion on those two models. I wanted to say though that I moved to ALL Lenovo in the last few years, starting I think in 2003 and have been pretty happy, only one warranty claim and that was turned around pronto with no hassles. They shipped out a box, I shipped to them, they shipped back, IIRC, they turned it around in under 24 hours, basically a day for the empty box to arrive + three days for the shipping and repair of the laptop, I was impressed.

My wife did have a Lenovo consumer model that was a pile though, so I would stick only with the higher end commercial line, for laptops that is the ThinkPad's.

I currently have two Thinkpad laptops in production, a classic one as a spare (still says IBM on it with WIN XP) and one Think Centre tower.

SHG

If there is any chance that this unit will ever be used outside consider something like the tough book. It will cost more but the things are rugged as heck.

If this is just a home to work computer either should work fine but I have always been partial to Dells but that is just me.

I suggest upgrading the laptop HDD to Solid State Drive (SSD) to add speed, extend battery life, and reduce heat.

I both a rugged pansonic toughbook and ASUS laptop. In the toughbook you sacrafise speed and for ruggedness. I have SSD in both. I prefer the speed and almost always use the ASUS. Most surveyors know how to take of electronic equipment and don't need a toughbook, contractors need the toughbook.

I spotted a similar thread here a while ago and took notice of the PC Wendell had bought... ASUS N56V series and last week got mine. It came with 3rd gen i7-3630QM 2.4 GHz, 8 gigs ram (16 max), 1 TB HDD (slow), 2 gig NVIDIA GeForce video, 15.6 full HD screen,windows 8 64 bit.4 USB 3 ports. Easy enough to switch to a win 7 look, very fast and a separate number keypad which I like. $899 at Tiger Direct. Lots of bang for the money. Thanks for the advice Wendell. Only downside is the slow HDD which can be fixed by going solid state.
Good Luck w your search

I like LeNovo - the find the touchpoint mouse heaps better than a touchpad. Build quality is good too...

> Lenovo ThinkPad W530 Notebook ... 8GB DDR3, 500GB HDD, 15.6" screen, Win 7 64 bit
I had that exact setup at my former work and it was the best I've ever used. I'd go for that again in a heartbeat.

You haven't mentioned video card, upgrade that to the limit.

I recently bought the Dell M6600 Mobil Work Station i7-2760QM CPU@2.40GHz with 4.00 GB RAM and the $200.00 port replicator (docking station) connected to my network, monitor, keyboard and mouse and it runs C3D as well or better than my standard desktop models. The M66000 cost several hundred dollars more than a desktop but I don't need a laptop so it works out cheaper overall. Also you can use the laptop screen as a second monitor which is handy. It is a little heavy and the power supply is huge but I only need to carry it from the office to the truck.