lemann, 1 year ago

If you’re looking at new laptops, there’s two main things to look out for IMO: soldered on RAM, and a plastic chassis.

Over the years I’ve had the unfortunate experience of repairing so many broken HP laptops in particular that I just avoid them out of principle. They tend to place a lot of heat generating components internally right beside the lid hinge, causing the plastic there to weaken and start to break off. On some occasions I’ve seen this plastic get stuck inside the nearby CPU fan, which causes the laptop to overheat and shut down on you without warning.

There are other companies that used to be more sensible with their component placement, like Asus and Fujitsu, but IMO it would be relatively safe to pick a laptop with a non-plastic chassis that feels good to use.

No, a desktop is not mandatory for CAD. I personally use both a 4 yo desktop and a 12 yo laptop just fine

Everyone else has posted some really helpful answers for your other questions so I’ll end my post here!