Technical machine specs for best performance

[Old Guy In Stanton]

At

I found the following technical specs for running Sketchup:

Recommended hardware
2+ GHz processor.
8+ GB RAM.
700 MB of available hard-disk space.
3D class Video Card with 1 GB of memory or higher. Please ensure that the video card driver supports OpenGL version 2.0 or higher and up to date.
SketchUp's performance relies heavily the graphics card driver and its ability to support OpenGL 2.0 or higher. [highlight=#ff4040:2i7npo8y]Historically, people have seen problems with Intel-based cards with SketchUp. We don't recommend using these graphics cards with SketchUp at this time.[/highlight:2i7npo8y]
3 button, scroll-wheel mouse.
Some SketchUp features require an active internet connection.

(1) How accurate is the above, particularly the highlighted info regarding Intel graphics cards?

(2) We are going to be doing some sketchups of a very large space ship (miles in diameter). Is doing this even feasible in Sketchup?

(3) Will the above specs be enough, or do I havge to get more robust hardware?

(4) I've had reasonable success in buying reconditioned laptops at a place called Computer Surplus Solutions in Garden Grove. I ran the above specs through their tech guy, and he said that a laptop almost always has Intel graphics, so he is recommending a desktop system at around $250. Thoughts?

Again, thanks in advance.

[solo]

I believe that recommendation refers to Intel integrated graphics. I honestly would suggest a dedicated Nvidia card, I would discourage AMD due to historical issues with SU.

Are you only using the machine for Sketchup? as SU utilizes only one core, so clock speed is important.

If you are also planning to render then there are more factors to consider.