Any virtualization software I’ve used very quickly makes the laptop fans ramp up for me, windows or mac.
Unless everything you work on is already locked to the mac environment I would go PC and save $$$ all day long. I work for a large tech company and we support both OS’s and the mac vs pc debate is so 10 years ago. They both work perfectly fine with similar reliability, which makes their price difference silly.
Beyond that, some thoughts:
Make sure to get the most RAM you can buy. Like seriously, alll of the RAM.
You don’t tell us what processing chips you are getting, i7 and E3 aren’t specific enough to really judge them. In general xeon chips are workstation chips with more features/cost. But its realllly dependant on what specific processor you are getting and it’s features.
You don’t tell us what GPU the surface has, NVIDIA Geforce is just a brand name, it doesn’t tell us what the card is. NVIDIA Quadro m1200 is a card for 3D modeling it has high end openGL support which speeds up viewport rendering.
As for the display, if you are going to work from your laptop a lot, the more pixels the better. So you would notice a huge difference between the surface and dell in this case. Keep in mind though, more pixels also means more battery drain. Also, if you are going to work from a monitor most of the time it won’t matter.
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That Lenovo sounds pretty nice, I’ll totally be looking into it! Thanks! @drkstr318, I’ll also be checking out the manufacturers you listed 
@henryhbk yeah, probably should have clarified earlier that my modeling licenses were for Windows haha.
Wow @Hirudin, that’s super helpful!! Thank you!
@newbies_234 haha, and this is what I meant when I said people will know far more than I. The info I listed was all that was given in the basic specs section of each laptop, so I’ll have to dig a little deeper! Thanks for the in-depth clarifications, all that info is very helpful.
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I agree with all three points. Still use Macs at home, but my new work machine is a Lenovo T460 laptop. The SSD makes a huge difference.
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Intel has used the “i7” and “E3” names for years, across many generations of chips. You’ll need the full model number of the chip to know what its specs are. e.g., Xeon E5-2670v3 or Core i7-6600U.
Same thing on the GPUs. “GeForce” is the brand name applied to most consumer-grade Nvidia cards made in the last 18 years! That’s something like 14 generations of GPUs, with many models in each generation.
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Oh, well that’s like when people ask Canon vs. Nikon, and after a lengthy discussion find out they have a large glass collection worth $10,000 of one or the other… Then you want a windows machine.
Xeon is actually not always faster, there was a great article on Ars some time back on that for most applications (not massively multithreaded problems) the i7 was actually faster at single threaded performance for almost any code than the Xeon was. Sure it can have way more instructions in flight and way more predictive branches in flight, but that turns out not to apply to almost any application we all use. (again, 3D rendering is always the exception - to everything)
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I’ll just quote myself from the same thread. lol
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I was referring to the class rather than the specific models. One line is optimized for multithreading (rare applications effectively use it) while the other is optimized for single threaded integer performance. Inside each line is a hellacious pile of models which are impossible for almost anyone to balance the performance tradeoffs…
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When I buy an Intel processor for building my PC, I don’t bother with Xeon, but I always bet on cache. Lots and lots of L3 cache. You can have a CPU running at a fast clock speed, but it’s hampered by a CPU waiting for things to do.
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When I was shopping for a good computer for CAD and 3D modelling a few months back I realized that I could just search for “gaming” computers. They have boosted processors and graphics cards, and you get a lot more search results for comparisons.
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Looks like only one i7 has been in Surface Books, a 6600U. The GPUs have been…
The one with the 965M had a big ol’ bump on the keyboard dock.
Surface Book-related quote… 
[quote=“dan, post:22, topic:2960”]
@Shell and I both sport Surface Books, much to our mac-using colleague’s chagrin.
[/quote]
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I prefer Mac over Windows for desktops but MS got it right using a regular OS and apps for the Surface. When Apple released the iPad it was a huge disappointment, they had a real opportunity to go full bore MacOS, put desktop power into a tablet, and completely borked it. Of course, maybe some time within the next 5-10 years they will migrate that direction then tout it as revolutionary. LOL.
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just configured one of these for a designer at work (I cant tell you the price)
zbook 17
xeon e3-1535m
quadro p3000
64GB2x512 m.2
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Thanks for the vote of confidence @henryhbk!
@steph have you considered gaming laptops? They can be really beefy and usually have an excellent video card.
If you’re serious about a tablet, check out the Wacom Mobile Studio Pro, they’re not super fast, but the tablet part is awesome.
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Just my experience, MSI GT72, 1TB HDD, 256 GB SSD, GeForce GTX 980M, 32 GB RAM, Core i7. Runs all my games at max graphics and flawless with F360.
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I got the Surface Book i7 when it first came out. I love it. There were some firmware issues early on, but those have been worked out.
The one-year refresh beefed up the GPU even more on the top end keyboard and added more batteries. These days you can charge overnight and use it pretty much all day.
GeForce vs. Quadro… they are optimized for different kinds of work. GeForce puts more silicon into the programmable shader pipeline while Quadro is more built for fixed function vector rendering. High end CAD–jet engine type work–will benefit from the Quadro line. Games benefit from the GeForce line.
I recommend the Surface Book without hesitation. (Disclaimer: I work for Microsoft, but not in the division that makes the hardware.) the screen is beautiful. The fveel of the pen on the glass is very smooth. And being able to detach the screen…or flip it around is great. One thing to note is that if a program really needs the NVidia renderer, it won’t run in detached tablet mode…but you can reattach the screen reversed and use it as a thick tablet with full power.
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Seriously, you guys are amazing!!! I know so much more about the inner workings of computers now 
I’ve been exploring the Lenovo Legion line, and the Y720 sounds pretty nice. Since figuring out Rhino 5 uses OpenGL 2.0, I’ve been able to narrow my graphics card search. Sounds like a GeForce line card will work well, but if I can get one from the Quadro line I’ll definitely go for it since those seem to be more optimized for OpenGL.
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I’d stick with lenovos business lines. Consider the t470, 470p, or larger depending on what you want for screen size. More than 14" is too much for me
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Also, make sure to use the Barnes and noble discount if no one has mentioned that yet. Significant savings on a lot of Lenovo products (just a different login portal on lenovos site)
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Not primary work device is a surface book i7 with gpu. Runs fusion360?no problem
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