Thanks Sam, and others - lots of good stuff to consider there, eg the numeric keypad, which I never think of until it’s too late.
Screen size isn’t too important because I’ll seldom/never need to use the ‘stock’ screen vs an accessory desktop screen when using for CAD. I often work on construction jobsites, with most of my work NOT being CAD, but more run-of-the mill web-browsing. Sometimes it’s from a car or truck, but 15" is prolly OK for most or all of that - better in fact, for mobility - but I’m only now seeing that the Costco.com options are mostly 17", so maybe that’s moot.
I’ll mostly use this for my own work & hobby stuff, after my current project is done - it’s usually the case that an employer will provide me a laptop (for better or worse…they’re seldom new or current-generation) and I’ll have to use that to comply with their hardware/email protocols, but not this time. The one I’m working from now is mine, and……let’s just say I’m going to donate it to someone or some agency when I get a replacement, and hope they don’t come find me to give it back.
As to longevity, I tend to hang on to hardware until some economically-irreparable defect or damage occurs, and then move on to something new, vs offloading anything while usable, even if it’s become a lot less than leading-edge in speed, etc.
I’m quite prone to keeping large numbers of browser tabs open and multitasking any PC to death, so I guess I can’t have too much RAM.
Lenovo kinda creeps me out, what with repeated reports of baked-in spy-■■■■. It’s not like I work for DOD or do intelligence work, but I’d still rather minimize my data exposure…so as an alternative I’m looking at the Acer model, a couple of notches lower in cost (https://www.costco.com/Acer-Predator-Helios-300-Gaming-Laptop---Intel-Core-i7---6GB-NVIDIA-Graphics---1080p.product.100368662.html). I did the four-model comparison and noted that it’s still got the 256GB SSD and 1TB HD like the Lenovo, though not the 4K display - but at $400 less than the Lenovo. Maybe there are other comparison items I should know about?
I’m thinking I might max it out with 32GB RAM for about that price-difference (Crucial has 32GB kit for $370) so I would in theory not be blaming any slowness on lack of RAM.
A recent Sketchup project - one that I’m far from being done with - centers on drone survey topo data (Liam, above, assisted a lot with that initial foray, BTW). It’s quite likely that will come back to focus for me soon, while working remotely with whatever laptop I buy now. The resolution of the 3D contours can pretty quickly result in very sluggish modeling, I found. I’ve not really “done” anything yet with the raw model/data, just poked at the model enough to discover my old desktop setup was barely able to deal with it (though much better now with a 32GB memory upgrade).
Anyway, maybe that gives a more useful picture of how I would be using the new machine, whatever it might be. Any hateful issues with Acer?
–Dave