Selecting a laptop for my daughter (3rd year interior design student in architecture dept.) has not been an easy task. She will use autocad and revit; probably 2013. She will also be doing renderiing. I have reviewed the school's recomendations, read AutoCAD discussion groups and autodesk's specs.
The system I selected is a ThinkPad W530 with i7 3630QM 3.40 GHz, 16 GB ram, 256 GB SSD, 500 GB hard drive, Nvidia Quadro K2000 M graphics card with 2GB DDR 3 memory. The system is $2200 including tax and 3 year protection plan.
I feel this may be overkill, but I would like to minimize computer problems. Is this system more than she needs and if yes, what specific computers and specs would you suggest? Less weight would also be nice for her.