• New Laptop that balances a little bit of everything
    20 replies, posted
Hey guys, I'm looking for a new laptop that basically has a balance of everything like: - Portability - Battery Life - Power (Editing, Playing Games decently, CAD + Modeling) I also would much prefer a SSD + 1 TB HDD combination because I do end up using a lot of space, the SSD can just be for Windows honestly. So far I've been looking at the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro and something like the ASUS Zenbook UX501, but what is the performance difference between a 960m and 970m? Obviously it would be super unrealistic to expect ALL of this, so of course I can compromise one one or the other, there's just a whole lot of choices especially on MSI's website and I'm confused. I'm just not looking for a beefy pro gaming laptop or an under-powered ultra-thin notebook, something in between. Also, no price limit really...
what sort of cad. Solidworks for example doesnt take much at all, even on semi complex parts.
Well I'm going to be a Mech Engineering major, I assume Solidworks is what I will use, or maybe AutoCAD?
XPS 15 with 1080p Screen.
[QUOTE=rhx123;49395910]XPS 15 with 1080p Screen.[/QUOTE] How decent are the Intel 530 Graphics tho? :V
[QUOTE=thefreemann;49396603]How decent are the Intel 530 Graphics tho? :V[/QUOTE] Intel graphics processors are never "good", but I've always found them to be reliable. Nothing will run pretty, but it will in fact run.
Yeah its actually funny how much WILL run on them. They always tend to support the latest directx and ogl. Dunno much about autocad, but i did a lot of solidworks stuff on my laptop which is an i3, 330 @ 2.13 with a gma hd, and i was able to open up a model of a transmission and have it still render around 10 frames a second. Honestly though, in a laptop, get something with a high end AMD APU. It might sound cheesy, but they actually have fairly decent graphics performance, and some of the a10s in laptops run at like 3ghz or more, AND they dont break the bank!
And they often overheat like balls and require you to use AMD mobility drivers.
[QUOTE=thefreemann;49396603]How decent are the Intel 530 Graphics tho? :V[/QUOTE] You can get it with a 960M, 16GB RAM, 84wHr battery, 512SSD, and 1080p screen for $1,779.99. [editline]27th December 2015[/editline] [t]http://i.imgur.com/OBOoG24.png[/t]
And it's a hell of a laptop if you're got the cash. I'd fucking love one.
With no price limit, the Razer Blade 14 is pretty much the best laptop you can get period for a compromise between performance, battery life and overall form factor. Expensive, though.
[QUOTE=fishyfish777;49398600]With no price limit, the Razer Blade 14 is pretty much the best laptop you can get period for a compromise between performance, battery life and overall form factor. Expensive, though.[/QUOTE] I actually took a look at those too, something that puzzles me however is: Why does the Pro have a 960m but the regular has a 970m? Also the HDD extra storage is only an option for the Pro... In the end I guess I could go with an SSD-only setup, but I wonder how fast transfer speeds are for external hard drives now. This one looks neat I guess: [url]http://www.razerzone.com/store/razer-blade-fullhd[/url]
[QUOTE=ricky23;49395706]what sort of cad. Solidworks for example doesnt take much at all, even on semi complex parts.[/QUOTE] Wut, I open a full model of my grado headphones on my 4670k + 970 and it grinds to a hold. At work we run K2/4000's and I can open 20 without a hitch. Solidworks can be heavy, it just depends on the complexity of the model and the amount of stuff in your assembly. [editline]28th December 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=thefreemann;49395736]Well I'm going to be a Mech Engineering major, I assume Solidworks is what I will use, or maybe AutoCAD?[/QUOTE] You dont need much for school as you wont be getting very complex models. A simple 700-1000$ laptop with at least a Nvidia 920 would do. (AMD mobile GPU's suck for CAD+gaming).
[QUOTE=taipan;49404213]Wut, I open a full model of my grado headphones on my 4670k + 970 and it grinds to a hold. At work we run K2/4000's and I can open 20 without a hitch. Solidworks can be heavy, it just depends on the complexity of the model and the amount of stuff in your assembly. [editline]28th December 2015[/editline] You dont need much for school as you wont be getting very complex models. A simple 700-1000$ laptop with at least a Nvidia 920 would do. (AMD mobile GPU's suck for CAD+gaming).[/QUOTE] Yea but I would like to do some decent gaming as well which is why I'm willing to spend more than the $1k mark
What do you plan on doing? If this is for college I recommend you build a gaming desktop which can double as your workstation and a cheaper but capable laptop for when youre out
[QUOTE=redBadger;49405624]What do you plan on doing? If this is for college I recommend you build a gaming desktop which can double as your workstation and a cheaper but capable laptop for when youre out[/QUOTE] I already have a gaming desktop, I just want an "equivalent" for a laptop. I am not sure if the dorm I will be staying in can accommodate my desktop. Plus I just want a laptop that I can play games on in case I wanna bring it to a friends' place so I don't have to lug around my heavy desktop.
[QUOTE=thefreemann;49395536]Hey guys, I'm looking for a new laptop that basically has a balance of everything like: - Portability - Battery Life - Power (Editing, Playing Games decently, CAD + Modeling) I also would much prefer a SSD + 1 TB HDD combination because I do end up using a lot of space, the SSD can just be for Windows honestly.[/QUOTE] I tried finding the same in September 2015, realistically the best thing you're going to find is something that is in the 15 inch range. It's rare to find a quad-core CPU in a 13-14 inch laptop due to a million reasons but the new Skylake CPUs might make it more common. This is because of their better efficiency, with leads to less heat production. It's also rare to find a dedicated GPU in a 13-14 inch laptop unless you want a somewhat thick laptop. I ended up coming to the conclusion that the best combo for me would be a beefy desktop and a lightweight 13-inch ultrabook 4 months later. Still no desktop, but the plan is to get the desktop eventually. I tried to run everything off a laptop but that didn't go so well. [quote] So far I've been looking at the MSI GS70 Stealth Pro and something like the ASUS Zenbook UX501, but what is the performance difference between a 960m and 970m?[/quote] I currently have the [URL="http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msca/en_CA/pdp/MSI-GE62-6QD-Apache-Pro-004US-Signature-Edition-Gaming-Laptop/productID.327741400"]MSI GE62 6QD Apache Pro-004US Signature Edition Gaming Laptop[/URL] and overall it's good but I hate the keyboard's space bar. I hit it with my right thumb and for some reason, it doesn't register when I press it on the very right part of the space bar. It is kinda annoying, otherwise it's a decent laptop. It's on the thicker side, so since you wanted more portability, I'd get the one that you listed as that one's thinner and lighter. I tried the Asus ZenBook Pro UX501 back in September, [URL="https://facepunch.com/showthread.php?t=1481923"]even made a thread on FP back then.[/URL] Windows 10 scaling is just not there yet, if you're going to get this, get the 1080p version. The 4K version is really nice and all but when you start running programs that aren't even optimized yet to scale properly on 4K displays (cough, 3ds Max) then it's going to either have broken ass menus or it's going to be blurry as fuck. It might take Microsoft another year or two to fix that shit so honestly, don't bother with 4K displays with Windows. On Mac OS X, it's a lot less terrible. Oh and scrolling on web pages suck in 4K, it just lags with blocky rendering. It was just terrible and I wouldn't get 4K on any display right now. On desktop, sure. But laptop? No. And I don't think Asus updated the ZenBook Pro yet with the new Skylake CPUs. Oh and Thunderbolt 2 on the UX501 is useless when Windows can't even use the Thunderbolt 2 devices without rebooting each time you want to plug it in. [quote] Obviously it would be super unrealistic to expect ALL of this, so of course I can compromise one one or the other, there's just a whole lot of choices especially on MSI's website and I'm confused. I'm just not looking for a beefy pro gaming laptop or an under-powered ultra-thin notebook, something in between. Also, no price limit really...[/quote] You could get this,[URL="http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/zbook-studio.html"] the HP ZBook Studio.[/URL] Although it doesn't have a "gaming" GPU, it would still be able to play games. Just not as well as a GPU built for "gaming". If you care a bit more about gaming, get the XPS 15 that was linked earlier.
[QUOTE=garychencool;49437232] You could get this,[URL="http://www8.hp.com/us/en/campaigns/workstations/zbook-studio.html"] the HP ZBook Studio.[/URL] Although it doesn't have a "gaming" GPU, it would still be able to play games. Just not as well as a GPU built for "gaming". If you care a bit more about gaming, get the XPS 15 that was linked earlier.[/QUOTE] Thanks for the comprehensive response. Those Zbooks look pretty neat, how well do those Workstation gpu's work on games though? (Sort of a vague question, I know)
[QUOTE=thefreemann;49437806]Thanks for the comprehensive response. Those Zbooks look pretty neat, how well do those Workstation gpu's work on games though? (Sort of a vague question, I know)[/QUOTE] Workstation GPUs typically have less shader count which usually leads to worse gaming performance by outputting less frame rates when gaming. Although for things like calculations and rendering, the workstation GPUs would be better suited for that. The HP Zbook Studio has the NVIDIA Quadro M1000M which has "certified drivers" for things like CAD work, so you'd typically get better stability and performance when doing things in AutoCAD vs. a laptop with a gaming GPU. [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-Quadro-M1000M.151582.0.html"]According to NotebookCheck[/URL], "As the exact clock speed of the M1000M is still not known, we can only speculate on the performance of the card. However, it is a lower mid-range model from the mobile Quadro line in 2015. It should be slower than the GTX 950M in 3D gaming due to the lower shader count, but should easily outperform the old Quadro K1100M." Basically it's saying it should be worse than the 950M but some gaming benchmark numbers says otherwise. The article also has a bunch of benchmarks and whatnot if you scroll down. It can do games but a 960M or better will typically beat it. Different games and benchmarks perform differently, some cases the 950M and 960M looses in some games. If you're playing something like CS:GO or DOTA, the workstation GPU should perform fine. You also mentioned that the price doesn't matter, you can easily drop $3k+ on a the HP Zbook Studio. If you care more about gaming, I'd recommend the Dell XPS 15 that was listed earlier instead. Basically "Compared with the more prominent GeForce chips, the Quadro M1000M is positioned between [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950M.138026.0.html"]Nvidia's GeForce GTX 950M[/URL] and [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-960M.138006.0.html"]GTX 960M[/URL]." according to [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-5510-Workstation-Review.156441.0.html"]another review.[/URL]
[QUOTE=garychencool;49438240]You also mentioned that the price doesn't matter, you can easily drop $3k+ on a the HP Zbook Studio. If you care more about gaming, I'd recommend the Dell XPS 15 that was listed earlier instead. Basically "Compared with the more prominent GeForce chips, the Quadro M1000M is positioned between [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-950M.138026.0.html"]Nvidia's GeForce GTX 950M[/URL] and [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GTX-960M.138006.0.html"]GTX 960M[/URL]." according to [URL="http://www.notebookcheck.net/Dell-Precision-5510-Workstation-Review.156441.0.html"]another review.[/URL][/QUOTE] I see. You mentioned though that you had trouble with 4k displays with the ASUS. Can you not just change the system's resolution to 1080p and avoid all headache? Or is that not how it works?
[QUOTE=thefreemann;49440632]I see. You mentioned though that you had trouble with 4k displays with the ASUS. Can you not just change the system's resolution to 1080p and avoid all headache? Or is that not how it works?[/QUOTE] I tried that but that just ruins the point of having such a high resolution display. In 1080p mode, basically things are "blurry and blocky". It just doesn't look as good as it should be. The text looks terrible because you can see the "artifacts" when the monitor upscales it. You'd expect it to display 1 pixel of 1080p as a 4-pixel (or 2x2 pixel) large on the 4K display but it just doesn't do that. It looks worse than an actual 1080p display. Some things are scaled properly for the 4K display while most things are not. The rendering speed is obviously better in 1080p mode. For games, I usually ran them full screen in 1080p mode since at that screen size, 1080p is already pretty good. For things like reading lots of text, 4K is great. The problem is that a lot of the images on web pages are not served/optimized for high resolution displays so they usually look blurry.
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