Laptop advice, heavy processing.

[Dan]

Currently looking for a new laptop.

I do a lot of photography editing which was fine on my older laptop as that was the only thing I did on it.

But I'm now undertaking an engineering degree so will be using CAD/CAM as well as producing engineering projects for my work place.

Can anyone recommend me a laptop that will fit this bill?

Thanks

 

[SharkyUK]

Ouch - it's not going to be cheap if you're after a workstation level laptop...

If you're doing heavy processing with CAD/CAM then you ideally want something with a nVidia Quadro GPU in it, plenty of RAM and a fast hard drive. As en example..

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173...00m16gb-ddr4-256gb-nvme-ssdplus1tb-hdd-dvd-rw

 

[charltjr]

Does it have to be new, or just new-to-you? If the latter I'd have a look at used Dell Precision machines. Bought by a lot of corporates, values not that great because to most of joe public they're just a laptop but they're built like battleships and tend to have good specs.

My current machine is one with a Core i7, 16Gb RAM, nVidia Quadro. It gets used for some fairly heavyweight data processing work and has always been rock solid.

 

[Andy_con]

Ouch - it's not going to be cheap if you're after a workstation level laptop...

If you're doing heavy processing with CAD/CAM then you ideally want something with a nVidia Quadro GPU in it, plenty of RAM and a fast hard drive. As en example..

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173...00m16gb-ddr4-256gb-nvme-ssdplus1tb-hdd-dvd-rw

that's mental 4k for a laptop

 

[iain187]

Ouch - it's not going to be cheap if you're after a workstation level laptop...

If you're doing heavy processing with CAD/CAM then you ideally want something with a nVidia Quadro GPU in it, plenty of RAM and a fast hard drive. As en example..

https://www.scan.co.uk/products/173...00m16gb-ddr4-256gb-nvme-ssdplus1tb-hdd-dvd-rw

why not get 2?

What's the budget?

 

[Darren S]

As Andy says, a Quadro card would be a good shout. Though failing that, an i7 would be a must for your requirements.

 

[botfch]

Pick one up second hand from here.

https://www.europc.co.uk/

That where all ours come from and we are dealing with much bigger stuff than engineers.

 

[Dan]

Pick one up second hand from here.

https://www.europc.co.uk/

That where all ours come from and we are dealing with much bigger stuff than engineers.

That looks like a good shout.

My work place currently use Lenovo laptops instead of having towers in the work place.

Tbh I think the higher price systems would be a bit OTT

I would like to use it as a normal system for home etc would be nice too.

I have a £1000 budget, I have been looking at the i7 processor units at the usual PC world etc.

Tbh I would use a separate hard drive to save memory from now on too, as my old Toshiba satalite pro is slowing down massively now.

 

[SharkyUK]

why not get 2?

What's the budget?

LOL! I like your thinking, it's good to have a backup machine. Just in case.

 

[SharkyUK]

that's mental 4k for a laptop

True, but high-end Quadro GPU's don't come cheap. The equivalent desktop GPU (non-laptop) is around the 2 grand mark. We've got some new(ish) Quadro M6000 GPU's where I work and they weigh in at just over 4.5k each!

 

[Dan]

got a HP machine in the end.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...5-ar052sa-15-6-2-in-1-black-10147539-pdt.html

i7 and it seems to do the job well enough as well as being tidy looking

 

[Typhoon]

got a HP machine in the end.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...5-ar052sa-15-6-2-in-1-black-10147539-pdt.html

i7 and it seems to do job well enough as well as being tidy looking

God forbid you didn't find your computer attractive.

 

[Dan]

God forbid you didn't find your computer attractive.

No I'm not that type of guy

 

[Darren S]

got a HP machine in the end.

http://www.pcworld.co.uk/gbuk/compu...5-ar052sa-15-6-2-in-1-black-10147539-pdt.html

i7 and it seems to do the job well enough as well as being tidy looking

Just check that your's doesn't follow that ridiculous trend of soldering memory to motherboards. Apple started it and I've see HP following suit. You might have 8GB now, but unfortunately that is what you'll be stuck with - assuming this is the case?

 

[Dan]

Just check that your's doesn't follow that ridiculous trend of soldering memory to motherboards. Apple started it and I've see HP following suit. You might have 8GB now, but unfortunately that is what you'll be stuck with - assuming this is the case?

I checked this and others have increased RAM very easily,
Simply plug and play from what I have seen, I did think about that as 8GB is within the limits of CAD/CAM but more intensive software maybe used in the future and it may need to be increased for it.

 

[JB21]

Pick one up second hand from here.

https://www.europc.co.uk/

That where all ours come from and we are dealing with much bigger stuff than engineers.

Thanks to @Archtronics for the above site. Just ordered a Dell inspiron 15 3000 6GB RAM, 1TB, i3 processor with 3 year dell warranty for £300.

https://www.europc.co.uk/dell-inspiron-15-3558-118216.html#