psm Posted April 11, 2018 Share Posted April 11, 2018 Hi Folks, Need to get a new laptop as a Travel Computer / Desktop Replacement when away from my office. Currently my desktop is an I7-4770 @3.4ghz 16g ram , NVIDIA Geforce GTX 645 will have to update this desktop as well but hoping to get a couple of more years out of it. Do a fair amount of rendering Looking at new laptops and lots of options. Anyone have any recommendations on processor. Is a xeon worth it ($$$) and do you think a Laptop with one 500g SSD is adequate.. I have looked at the Knowledge base and the tested Machines on the Vectorworks site. Any laptop recommendations from users would be helpful. Need to pull the trigger soon. Thanks, -Paul Quote Link to comment
Tom Klaber Posted April 13, 2018 Share Posted April 13, 2018 This seems like a good time to upgrade - lots of fun stuff about to on the market. I am getting a new machine for the office - so I have been researching. The two I am trying to decide between are the: Gigabyte AERO 15x MSI GS65 Thin Others to consider: Dell XPS 15 (Underpowered) ASUS ROG Zephyrus GX501 (2018) ASUS Zenbook Pro (Underpowered) HP Pavillion G (Will be released at the end of the month) Those are all thin machines - which is my preference. They are using the newest Intel 6 core i Series. I never found value on the Xeon side. 500GB is really pushing it. You will end up using 150GB of that just for programs, libraries, and OS. I moved the whole server to the cloud and I am using file sync for most of it - but still need local copies of all active projects. I tried to be ruthless - and I still have 650GB of local storage filled. You could get a fast external to compliment, but a certain point there is little money savings in doing so - and inevitably once a week the data paths will break - which is not a big deal - but annoying. I would invest in 1GB - or if offered a 500SD OS drive and 1 or 2TB secondary data drive. Quote Link to comment
Jonathan Pickup Posted April 13, 2018 Share Posted April 13, 2018 I would wait for the i9 chips to appear in laptops. They aren’t far away Quote Link to comment
psm Posted April 14, 2018 Author Share Posted April 14, 2018 I think 19 will be my new desktop in a couple of years. spec look crazy good. i think the laptops are going to be top dollar. Not sure I can wait have some Biz travel on tap. thanks Quote Link to comment
psm Posted April 14, 2018 Author Share Posted April 14, 2018 I have never used a an MSI or gigbyte laptop. and it concerns me. I once owed a sony laptop that was a lemon. thinking lenovo (almost a pun) possible alieneware/ DELL seen some issues with HP s at work and home. HP seem to think there smarter than intel and put bloat on the system. Convince me? Quote Link to comment
Art V Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 500GB would be ok for just the system drive holding your OS and programs, as I am using approx. 270 GB for OS and programs. You should keep in mind that part of the disk is used for spare sectors in case some flash cells get corrupted/damaged, usually this is approx. 10% of the disk size so that would reduce effective storage space to a little under 450 MB. If you also want to put your data on the drive then a 1 TB drive should be the minimum size you need if there can be only one drive installed. Most laptops now have a SSD for OS and an additional HD for storage, but you may want to replace the latter with an equivalent SSD in a laptop. Quote Link to comment
grant_PD Posted April 15, 2018 Share Posted April 15, 2018 @xi makes great laptops. They aren't pretty, they are mobile desktops. Xeons are not worth the money in my opinion. More RAM, a good i7 chip, and a discrete graphics card are what really helps. These days I would probably even go higher end on the graphics card than the processor. My laptop has a full size keyboard as well, very helpful. Quote Link to comment
RickR Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 I recently made a similar jump. The Xeon isn't doing much but didn't cost much in my case. The HD decisions were cost driven. I wanted the fastest OS drive and figured a large slow data drive would be fine. The configuration costs were strange, so I got a nice 500gb SSD and plan on buying a second one when it fills. HD costs drop quickly and there will be more options in the after market so waiting should pay off. Quote Link to comment
grant_PD Posted April 16, 2018 Share Posted April 16, 2018 The last time I used Xeon's they needed more expensive RAM, don't know if that's still the case. Quote Link to comment
zoomer Posted April 17, 2018 Share Posted April 17, 2018 I think it depends on the mainboard. Xeons are just mandatory > if you want to use ECC RAM Quote Link to comment
Tom Klaber Posted July 5, 2018 Share Posted July 5, 2018 I just bought a CUK (Computer Upgrade King) house brand laptop as an emergency backup, and I have to say I am quite happy. 1070 8 gb GPU, i17 8th gen processor, 32gb ram - 1800 bucks. Its thin, light, and inconspicuous. Luckly there is no branding on it at all (especially with a name like CUK). At 600-800 dollars less then similarly spec machines, it feels like a good deal. At that price we can afford to upgrade almost a full year sooner. 1 Quote Link to comment
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