Choosing a suitable laptop for UDesign/RoofWright
Introduction
This guide outlines the hardware specification required to run RoofWright/UDesign on your Laptop and get
the best out of our software.
This guide does not take into account any other software that you may wish to run on your laptop, so if
you're a part-time DJ or budding Video/Photo editor in your free-time, please also check the hardware
requirements for these applications, prior to purchasing. You may find that the other applications you wish
to run require a higher overall specification, or require your budget to be spent in a different area (Music
creation software for example may require a well specced PC in terms of it's soundcard and processing
power, but won't necessarily require top-of-the-range visual output. You'll need to find the right
combination to match all software you intend to run.
Unless price is no object when choosing your laptop, it pays to research the spec required so that you get a
balanced system offering the best 'Bang for your buck', rather than spending a chunk of money on a Laptop
with the best possible graphics card, then sacrificing on other components, which may be the bottleneck in
your system.
The sections/components listed below are ordered by priority, Graphics Card being the most important and
Operating System being the least important (as the only versions currently available to purchase are
Windows 7 and Windows 8, with which both RoofWright and UDesign are compatible).
This guide will conclude with 5 suitable example laptops, at a range of budgets - bear in mind however, that
as the program develops and features are added or enhanced, the program may become more demanding
on your laptop. Purchasing a laptop on the borderline of the minimum spec could be false economy. If your
budget allows, try to futureproof your laptop by selecting the best spec that your budget can afford.
Sony VAIO laptops have a great deal of appeal amongst buyers due to their aesthetics. Although they may
look the part with smart aluminium casing, they aren’t the best value for money compared to other brands
and they can be notoriously hard to get along with. Driver support isn’t always great.
One well-specced PC, if well maintained , will perform solidy and reliably for a few years to come. It’ll likely
out-last two base spec laptops.
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Graphics Card
This is 3D design software, therefore graphic processing is very important. Low-spec graphics will require you
to run the software at it's lower settings and you may need to turn off textures, you'll experience choppiness
when moving/rotating the drawing or zooming in or out. This very much defeats the object of 3D design
software, as it'll hamper your productivity in the office when looking to draft up jobs quickly and also not
offer the customer the best visualisation of what your hoping to sell to them when drawing in the customers
home!
Graphics cards come in two main types - one being 'Integrated' - the other being known as 'Dedicated' or
'Discrete'.
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Integrated Graphics allocate a portion of the Laptop's RAM for graphic processing tasks. Even if
you're laptop has plenty of RAM installed, Integrated graphics are usually slower and less capable,
but due to their low cost, account for 90% of PC's/Laptops sold.
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Dedicated Graphics cards have their own memory and interface with the system through a PCI slot,
the data transfer speeds (bandwidth) are much greater. The memory used is specially designed and
optimised for this type of task
Click here to see a list of the many popular graphics options in a handy table. This hierarchy chart maps ATI,
NVidia (GeForce) and Intel's models against each other, so that you can see how one card stacks up in
comparison to the other brands available.
It is recommended that you opt for a Laptop with graphics matching or exceeding the level shown below –
Full table at the link above.
GeForce
Radeon
Intel
Discrete: 6800 Ultra, 7600 GT,
7800 GS, 8600 GS, 8600 GT
(GDDR3), 9500 GT (DDR2)
Go (mobile): 7800 GTX, 7900 GTX
Discrete: X800 XT (& PE), X850 XT (& PE),
X1650 XT, X1800 GTO, HD 2600 XT, HD
3650 (DDR3), HD 3670
Mobility: X1900, 3670
Integrated: 6520G, 6530D, 7480D
Integrated: Intel HD
Graphics4000
Graphics card upgrades are practically impossible to shoe-horn into a laptop once you've bought it,
therefore it’s paramount that you ensure the graphics card meets our recommendations
If your budget allows, look for a laptop with either ATI or Nvidia graphics, a minimum of 256MB is
recommended. If you cannot find a laptop within budget that has dedicated graphics, the latest Integrated
Intel HD4000 graphics are satisfactory.
Don’t spend all your money on the best card that money can buy, unless you have bottomless pockets –
Laptop graphics are currently available in sizes up to 4GB, although the benefits between a 512MB and a
4GB card are not worth the additional expenditure. Save some of your budget for the other components.
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Processor
The processor is the heart of the Laptop. As its name suggests, it processes information and performs all
computations. Processors are measured by their clock speed, number of cores and cache size. The cache
stores recently accessed information for quick recall.
The better the processor you choose, the quicker RoofWright/Udesign will perform during editing. If you
under-spec your processor, you may notice delays between clicking to add features and the changes actually
being applied to your model. On larger or more complex roofs the delay will be amplified – spec your
processor correctly to allow your work to flow as smoothly as possible. As an example a 10 second delay
waiting for a window feature to be applied adds up to 2 minutes of waiting, for a conservatory with 12
frames.
Avoid 'netbooks' (Usually supplied with Intel Atom processor)- they may appeal due to their portability, but
are designed for long battery life. Low power consumption is achieved at the detriment of performance.
These have limited capability and are definitely not suited for use with RoofWright/ Udesign.
The Intel 'Celeron' or ‘Pentium’ range are aimed at the budget/ home computing market - these are
perfectly capable of tasks such as word processing, web browsing etc, but can struggle with more
demanding applications. These are also best avoided.
Intel's i3, i5 and i7 range are popular choices, better suited to demanding tasks. They come in a range of
different clock speeds and currently in their 4th generation. To research these processors, click here then
select ‘Mobile Products’ – browse the highlighted categories below – click into each one for the full range.
Details such as clock speed and cache size are displayed.
If you intend to spec your laptop with an integrated graphics card you should select a laptop with either a 3rd
or 4th generation Core processor. Any older core processors may feature inferior graphics cards. The Intel
website shows which graphics are included with which processor
Core i3 is the minimum that we’d recommend, Core i5 is what we’d suggest you should use. The Core i7 is
not necessary, however as we’ll be displaying example laptops covering a variety of budgets, the top of
the range offering will feature this.
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RAM
Data is cached in the RAM temporarily, so that it can be accessed by active programs. RAM is volatile
memory which is cleared each time the Laptop is powered down (This memory is not to be confused with
your hard-drive, where you store your files)
The more RAM you have, the better your laptop will multitask and perform with multiple applications open.
Some types of software such as CAD and Image manipulation programs such as Adobe Photoshop require
large amounts of RAM – it’s not uncommon for a Photoshop user to max out an 8GB setup whilst working on
a project.
When shopping for RAM, there are a few figures that manufacturers quote. The most important factor when
considering the RAM for RoofWright is the amount of RAM that you have. Low Latency and High BUS speed
aren’t particularly important (More important for gaming).
As RAM is very affordable and simple to fit, if you find a laptop which ticks the boxes for it's graphics and
processor don't be too concerned about picking up a laptop with only 4GB of RAM, providing there’s room
for expansion.
You can also find this information on Crucial’s website, by searching the brand and model of the laptop - It'll
advise Here
Windows 8 requires 2GB of RAM, just for the Windows operating system alone. On top of this, you will have
RoofWright/UDesign running, and maybe an antivirus and email client running (possibly others too).
4GB would be the minimum RAM I'd suggest going for (most on the market today come with that as a
minimum). 8GB would be a better option however. Greater than 8GB isn’t required, again, unless you
don’t have a budget for your new laptop.
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Screen
The screen selection, although an important factor - is much a matter of personal preference. The only
suggestion would be a standard Laptop size (15.6 inch screen) as a minimum, capable of a resolution of
1366x768 pixels or greater. This should allow enough screen area to show a customer their design on screen,
as well as provide a comfortable working environment in the office, anything smaller may be more difficult
to design on.
Screens are available in matt and gloss finishes - Either one is fine. The 3D drawing may look better
presenting to a customer on a gloss screen, but you may also find that reflection is more of an issue with
gloss screens, if you use it outdoors whilst on site. I'll leave that decision up to you!
Pick a laptop with a 15.6 inch screen, that you like the look of. If portability is not a concern and your
budget allows, you may prefer to go for a larger screen, such as a 17.3 or 18.4 inch.
Hard-Drive
This is the least important components to consider. Two features of hard drives are their speed and capacity.
Capacity is not the main feature to look for as a RoofWright/ UDesign installation is approx only 350MB in
size and the average job file is 250KB. Most new laptop have at least 500GB hard-drives, meaning you’d have
to draw and save over 2 million conservatories to use up that amount of space, if you were using your laptop
exclusively for RoofWright/UDesign. The emphasis on shopping for a hard drive is the speed, rather than the
size. The quicker the hard drive can access files, the quicker the laptop will boot up, and the quicker
programs and documents will also load.
There are two main types of storage device used; Traditional mechanical hard drives and SSD (Solid State
Disc). Standard hard drives are found at a lower cost per GB of storage capacity compared to an SSD (Solid
State Disc) type. If purchasing a traditional hard drive, there are different drive speeds available. Most laptop
hard drive spin at 5400 - 7200RPM but drives that spin as fast as 15,000RPM are available - Faster spinning
drives can access the data quicker.
Solid state discs offer much faster performance. They have no moving parts, unlike a standard hard drive, so
also offer better shock performance. If you’re using it out on site, it’ll be a little more robust and less likely to
suffer data corruption. Problems such as stiction are not associated with SSD’s because of the lack of moving
parts.
Click here for a side-by-side test of two identical laptops (Except for the hard drive) - the increase in
performance is very noticeable.
Use the standard Hard-drive that comes supplied with the laptop. A standard hard drive with 500GB
capacity will serve you well. If you’re budget will allow, upgrade to an SSD – 128GB will be sufficient unless
you’re planning on using the laptop for more than just RoofWright/Udesign.
The ideal setup would be to have one hard drive for the Operating System and system files and another
hard drive for document storage - If Windows Fails, you won't lose your saved jobs. This is the costliest
option, so if money is no object, go wild!
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Examples of Suitably Specced Laptops
OK - Lenovo Essential B590
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3rd Generation Core i3-3120M processor - 2.5GHZ
4GB Ram
Intel HD 4000 Graphics
15.6 inch screen (resolution 1366x 768 pixels)
500GB Hard Drive - 5400RPM
Good - £500 - Lenovo IdeaPad G500
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3rd Generation Core i5-3230M processor - 2.6GHZ
8GB Ram
ATI Radeon HD 8750M - Upto 2GB video memory
15.6 inch screen (resolution 1366x 768 pixels)
1TB Hard drive - 5400RPM
Great - £800 - Asus N550LF
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4th Generation Core i5-4200U processor - 2.3GHZ
8GB Ram
NVidia GT 745M Graphics - 2GB video memory
15.6 inch screen (resolution 1366x 768 pixels)
750GB Hard drive 5400RPM
Excellent - £1600 - MSI GT60
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4th Generation Core i7-4700MQ processor - Upto 3.4GHZ
16GB Ram
NVidia GTX 770M Graphics - 3GB video memory
15.6 inch screen with Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels)
750GB Hard drive + 128GB SSD drive
Overkill - £3800 - Alienware Gaming Laptop with 18.4 inch screen
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4th Generation Core i7-4930MX processor - Upto 4.3GHZ
32GB Ram
Dual Nvidia Graphics - GTX780M with 4GB video memory
18.4 inch screen with Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels)
750GB Hard drive with 80GB SSD cache
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