New Laptop Advice
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Im not sure if this is the correct forum to ask this but since Im still a Newbie I will do it anyway. Im considering a new laptop that has a better video card than my current.I have experienced some bad performance on things like #3D walkthroughs. I need a laptop so I can go to a clients house and present a new remodeling project. Price is a consideration so I cant go get the top of the line gaming laptop as it will most likeley be out of my price range. I would like to stay at or below $800 US. Any advice? Thanks
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Thanks SFTO. That looks like a great possibility.
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must be a secret
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Ken,
The link (link removed, description added)below is for a laptop i7 dual core processor, 8gb DDR ram, and Radeon card with dedicated 2g vram. Less than $700.00.
However, like you, not sure if this would be a good SU/LO machine. I would love for the SU community to comment on this unit.
What kind of modeling and LO work could someone do with a machine like this? I know it in no way compares to the machines that Solo and crew recently purchased (insert drooling smiley face here), but is this laptop worth a try?
3rd generation Intel Core i7-3537U 2.0GHz processor and 8GB DDR3 Memory; allows you to handle daily computing demands
1TB HDD; lets you save all your files, programs, and other digital data
2GB AMD Radeon HD 8730M; provides clear performance with ultra-realistic detail while viewing movies and playing games
17.3" Display; for sharp visual experience
LAN connectivity; lets you connect to the web easily
DVDRW optical drive; to play or burn data on CDs and DVDs -
This thread should be old enough that I can "slightly" expand it...
Like the OP, I'm in the market for a new laptop, however my budget is ~$1600 (preferably lower). Having had good experiences at work with a less than 1 year old "republic of gamers" ASUS laptop I figured I would start there...
Those machines start at ~$1200 and go way up from there. At those prices Macbooks become competitive. I don't want to start a mac vs pc war but if I'm going to spend that much on a laptop should I just get a macbook? I've only used pc's professionally but I am familiar enough with mac's that I'm not against the idea of getting one.
I haven't searched much yet but I imagine there are better deals out there than gamer branded machines. Any links, recommendations, tips would be appreciated.
Oh and this machine would be used similarly to the OP's; outside office presentations using sketchup and lightup. I'd probably put thea on there at some point too. Thanks.
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Hi Brokenkeys,
We are way beyonds the Win v Mac wars. A truce was call some time ago
If you want to get a good deal on a MBP, check out the Apple Refurbished site, http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac
I recently purchased a high spec MBP Retina and got around 20% discount of the full price. I very much doubt the machine I received was ever used much. In a way a refurb unit can be a good investment as it probably has been put through its paces.
I don't know where you are from but the USA site http://store.apple.com/us/browse/home/specialdeals/mac has a large selection of refurbed units on offer. Here is an example,
I got mine of the Irish Apple site. I had to keep checking on the page until I could get a unit with high spec, 2.7Gh i7, 16 gig of ram and a 730 SSD. It was not the top spec available but came in at second place, so good enough for my needs.
The other thing you might consider is a high spec 17" MBP with no retina display as there are a few still floating around. I am now wondering if the retina display is that much use to me!
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Thanks Mike. I actually bookmarked your post about macbooks being the best windows machines. I think mackbooks will be the benchmark to beat. I feel similarly about the Retina display; It's great but I'll skip it if I can get the same spec machine cheaper.
For comparison, this is what republic of gamers gives you for the same price; ASUS G75VW-RH71 17.3 LED Notebook Intel Core i7-3630QM 2.4 GHz 12GB DDR3 750GB HDD DVD SuperMulti NVIDIA GeForce GTX 670M Windows 8 Black
Some specs are better and some are worse. It will probably come down to the little details. For example I hate windows 8 & a 17.3" laptop is too big for what I need. I'll keep hunting.
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i think anybody contemplating a laptop right now should hold out a few months til the intel iris pro gpus start showing up in machines which no longer will offer discreet cards as well..
i admit though- this is completely selfish advise.. i'm just trying to get enough guinea pigs testing the cards so the rest of us can get some hands on feedback .. thanks
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@brokenkeys said:
I'd probably put thea on there at some point too. Thanks.
If GPU rendering with Thea is in your interest, pick one that has GeForce 700M series GPU, more RAM and CUDA cores on GPU the better... otherwise macbooks are my favorite (and you naturally can run Linux or Windows on those too
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@notareal said:
If GPU rendering with Thea is in your interest, pick one that has GeForce 700M series GPU, more RAM and CUDA cores on GPU the better... otherwise macbooks are my favorite (and you naturally can run Linux or Windows on those too
)This gets at the heart of my dilemma. I do need the GPU power for walkthrough's and the occasional away from the office rendering but I don't think I need it enough to justify the price (either way I can't afford a $2k+ machine). So if I'm looking at the 600 series cards then macbooks are looking like the best contenders at my price range.
@unknownuser said:
i think anybody contemplating a laptop right now should hold out a few months til the intel iris pro gpus start showing up in machines which no longer will offer discreet cards as well..
This sounds promising but I can't wait a few months. I need a laptop in hand by September.
Thanks for the tips guys. This has been extremely helpful.
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For desktops there are external cuda boxes, I think there are some for laptop, but with PC laptop PC only feasible connection is via express card interface (naturally need laptop with it). If you find a PCIe expansion box, you might need to equip such box by him self and need to verify that it works with cuda... Mac may use Thunderbolt http://www.magma.com/catalog/thunderbolt-pcie-expansion
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