I purchased the laptop from Langmuir Systems and appreciate the upgrade. It is a Dell Inspiron 15 3000.
However, when running Fusion, it is very slow. It sometimes takes 30 seconds or more to open the data panel or to load a saved file.
I’m currently trying to set up a 2’x2’ sheet with 55 small tabs and keep getting error messages about slow performance.
Does anyone know what I would need in order to upgrade this laptop to achieve reasonable speed and functionality? Or would I be better off purchasing something different entirely?
Do you have a faster desktop or laptop computer you can do your CAD/CAM work on?
The laptop sold through Langmuir Systems seems fine as a controller unit (for running Mach 3), but does seem a bit underpowered if you’re going to be using it for CAD work. I just used an old (i5) Windows machine for running Mach 3, but use my Mac for Fusion 360 since it’s faster.
(Fortunately Fusion 360 works on both platforms and saves to the cloud, so I can always load a design on my Windows controller machine for small modifications, to post G-code, etc.)
In searching for recommendations (beyond the minimum specs from Autodesk), it looks like NYC|CNC has a good list of machine spec suggestions:
In summary here are my recommendations for a computer capable of running Fusion 360:
* Faster clocked CPU over slower clocked CPU with additional cores.
* SSD Drive
* Discrete graphics card
* 8 GB of ram.
I’m not familiar with the Dell they sold, but I did upgrade the memory and drive (to an SSD) on my Windows machine and it’s definitely helped. You can usually do those on most non-Apple laptops. The CPU and graphics card aren’t generally things you can change on a laptop. If you’re going to do all of those, it would probably make more sense to get a new machine with those specs.
Thanks for the reply @Brent. The NYCCNC recommendations really helped narrow down what I need.
Went to Best Buy today and picked up an Acer gaming laptop. It handled setting up the 2’x2’ sheet of brackets I was working on yesterday without a hiccup and is very fast in comparison to the Dell.
Here’s the link to the laptop I purchased if anyone else is in the same boat:
I’m glad you found a solution that works for you. I’m going to add some information for others that may want to try an upgrade to the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 first before buying a complete new computer. According to Langmuir (http://www.langmuirsystems.com/blog/production-update-7 and Laptop specs provided with system) that model comes with 4GB RAM and a 500GB HDD. You’ll do MUCH better with that system if you upgrade the RAM to 8GB and upgrade the HDD to an SSD instead. I strongly recommend either Samsung EVO 860 SATA SSD or a new Intel SSD. I usually use the Samsungs, but Intel makes good stuff too.
I urge you to double check your laptops model number and using that to verify that the next is accurate. Based on what I can pull up, that model Dell laptop is able to use 2 each of the 4GB DDR3L-1600 SODIMM Modules. I suggest using a matched pair of memory, but if you really want to use what is already in there, that is up to you. A pair of DDR3L-1600 Laptop Memory 4GB sticks will run about about $60 to $80 total for the pair.
A 250GB Samsung SSD is about $75 or a 500GB is $108. At the time of writing this, Newegg has a couple of coupon codes for additional discounts on those SSDs. You can go from a 500GB HDD to a 250GB SSD. Personally, I use Acronis TrueImage to make a backup of the original drive and then I restore that backup to the new SSD. That’s another $20-30 for the software though there are other ways to do it with other programs of varying costs from free to a lot more.
I hope this at least helps some folks understand what their options are and what those options would cost. With 8GB of RAM and an SSD, running Fusion 360 will be a lot smoother.
For people who haven’t bought the laptop yet and want to use a single laptop for CAD/CAM (Fusion) and as a CNC Controller machine (Mach 3), it’s probably worth noting that it’s probably a bit better to do a bit of deal hunting and buy a beefier machine outright than getting the Dell mentioned above and then paying for the upgrades separately.
For example, this laptop on Newegg comes with 8 GB of RAM and a 256 GB SSD, but also a faster processor and higher resolution screen (1080p) for $480. Unless you’re planning on using an external monitor, I think screen resolution/real estate is also important for CAD work in Fusion 360’s UI. Adding an NVIDIA GeForce processor to that machine (the last NYC|CNC recommendation) brings the price up to $550.
I 100% agree, Brent. I was replying to the folks that already bought it and might be interested in trying to make it faster instead of buying a whole new computer. A nice fast one is a good investment and the advice for a dedicated graphics card is best.
I am also having a hard time running the program with the Dell purchased from Lanmuir. I installed all the updates and it helped some but its still very very slow. If I try to simply open Fusion most of the time it takes 2 or 3 attempts before it ever works. This is very frustrating!!!
Fusion is tough on any laptop. It really benefits from a real serious graphic card and laptops generally don’t have high-end graphics cards. A gaming laptop would work well. For a general purpose laptop you’ll see the Fusion warning about your graphics and it will render slower. But it will still do what we need, just not as snappy as we might like.
I do my design in other apps and just use Fusion to do the toolpathing and G-code.
Fusion 360 is a memory hog, as are all CAD programs. Put as much memory in it as you can. This will be the most expedient solution. If that doesn’t work for you, consider buying a workstation designed for running CAD programs.