What laptop for graphics work

nbd2

Hello all,
So i'm getting a new laptop soon for my final year in college, and i need some help buying it.

Firstly, I'm looking for something seriously high spec. I'm in Architecture, so I do a lot of graphic-demanding work; Photoshop, 3dS, Rhino, Vray etc etc. Usually i'd have 2 or 3 of those running at the same time, and right now, my 4 year old laptop just cant keep up with the new software. My problem isn't that I don't know what spec i'm looking for, or anything like terminology or any of that stuff, it's finding a place that will do the spec i'm looking for at a decent price. I was going to buy one from Malibal.com, but i'd be absolutely shat upon by customs charges etc, so that's out, although they do actually have the spec i want at a good price. Anyway, I've been looking around the web for an european/uk/irish site that has seriously good spec. NOT FUNKING ALIENWARE, AND NOT A FUNKING MAC EITHER! There's another site that's pretty close, called DevilTech.de , which is the front runner for european sites so far.

Anyway, based on the Malibal/DevilTech I was looking at, here's roughly the spec i'm looking for:

15.6" Screen (No bigger. I don't like 17" laptops. For something that size, I'd go desktop)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
2nd Gen i7 Processor (~2.2-2.4 GHz - I know some of the lower spec ones dont support 16GB of RAM, so i'm double checking them)
12-16GB DDR3 (At least 12GB, Preferably 16BG though)
500+ GB HDD

everything else is optional. Not picky about all that stuff like BluRay writers etc.

Seriously, ANY HELP on this is much appreciated. I need to order this pretty soon. Oh, and my budget is between 1200 and 1600 of my finest euros, but realistically, 1600 is pushing it a bit.

Cheers all!

Serephucus

Have a look at the Sager NP8150 on xoticpc.com. With an i7 2630QM, GTX 560, 16GB DDR3, and a 500GB HDD, it'll run you around $1,500. With customs, should come to about €1,400.

x in the city

nbd2 wrote: »

Hello all,
So i'm getting a new laptop soon for my final year in college, and i need some help buying it.

Firstly, I'm looking for something seriously high spec. I'm in Architecture, so I do a lot of graphic-demanding work; Photoshop, 3dS, Rhino, Vray etc etc. Usually i'd have 2 or 3 of those running at the same time, and right now, my 4 year old laptop just cant keep up with the new software. My problem isn't that I don't know what spec i'm looking for, or anything like terminology or any of that stuff, it's finding a place that will do the spec i'm looking for at a decent price. I was going to buy one from Malibal.com, but i'd be absolutely shat upon by customs charges etc, so that's out, although they do actually have the spec i want at a good price. Anyway, I've been looking around the web for an european/uk/irish site that has seriously good spec. NOT FUNKING ALIENWARE, AND NOT A FUNKING MAC EITHER! There's another site that's pretty close, called DevilTech.de , which is the front runner for european sites so far.

Anyway, based on the Malibal/DevilTech I was looking at, here's roughly the spec i'm looking for:

15.6" Screen (No bigger. I don't like 17" laptops. For something that size, I'd go desktop)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
2nd Gen i7 Processor (~2.2-2.4 GHz - I know some of the lower spec ones dont support 16GB of RAM, so i'm double checking them)
12-16GB DDR3 (At least 12GB, Preferably 16BG though)
500+ GB HDD

everything else is optional. Not picky about all that stuff like BluRay writers etc.

Seriously, ANY HELP on this is much appreciated. I need to order this pretty soon. Oh, and my budget is between 1200 and 1600 of my finest euros, but realistically, 1600 is pushing it a bit.

Cheers all!

you will be raped for duty if you get a sager, (almost guranteed!).

its pretty obvious you will be needing an i core processor, lots of memory but why restrict yourself to a weedy 15" screen

at the screen size you will strguggle to find a good graphic card.. any that you DO get will be severely punished to do its job because of its size, and heat will be a bitch.

especially doing architecture, i would at least want a 17" screee.

graphics speak for themselves, you want a nvidia or ati dedicated card.

if i could work around the duty a sager would be my first port of call.

Serephucus

Well if he'd make life easy for himself and just get a bloody Alienware import duties wouldn't a problem. (HIDevolution are pretty good in that regard.)

You can also look at Rock laptops; they're an English Clevo reseller, but you'll be paying a lot more by not getting it from the US. Do you know anyone over there that could send it to you?

x in the city

nbd2 wrote: »

Hello all,
So i'm getting a new laptop soon for my final year in college, and i need some help buying it.

Firstly, I'm looking for something seriously high spec. I'm in Architecture, so I do a lot of graphic-demanding work; Photoshop, 3dS, Rhino, Vray etc etc. Usually i'd have 2 or 3 of those running at the same time, and right now, my 4 year old laptop just cant keep up with the new software. My problem isn't that I don't know what spec i'm looking for, or anything like terminology or any of that stuff, it's finding a place that will do the spec i'm looking for at a decent price. I was going to buy one from Malibal.com, but i'd be absolutely shat upon by customs charges etc, so that's out, although they do actually have the spec i want at a good price. Anyway, I've been looking around the web for an european/uk/irish site that has seriously good spec. NOT FUNKING ALIENWARE, AND NOT A FUNKING MAC EITHER! There's another site that's pretty close, called DevilTech.de , which is the front runner for european sites so far.

Anyway, based on the Malibal/DevilTech I was looking at, here's roughly the spec i'm looking for:

15.6" Screen (No bigger. I don't like 17" laptops. For something that size, I'd go desktop)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
2nd Gen i7 Processor (~2.2-2.4 GHz - I know some of the lower spec ones dont support 16GB of RAM, so i'm double checking them)
12-16GB DDR3 (At least 12GB, Preferably 16BG though)
500+ GB HDD

everything else is optional. Not picky about all that stuff like BluRay writers etc.

Seriously, ANY HELP on this is much appreciated. I need to order this pretty soon. Oh, and my budget is between 1200 and 1600 of my finest euros, but realistically, 1600 is pushing it a bit.

Cheers all!

this baby is for you.!

Display 17.3" Full HD LED-Backlit Display with Super Glossy Surface (1920 x 1080)

Video & Graphics Card 2GB GDDR3 Nvidia GeForce GT 555M GPU with Optimus Technology / Embedded Intel HD Graphics

CPU Processor 2nd Generation Intel® Core™ i7-2630QM Processor ( 6MB L3 Cache, 2.00GHz) [$70.00]

Thermal Compound Stock Standard Thermal Compound

Operating System Genuine MS Windows® 7 Home Premium 32/64-Bit Edition ( 64-Bit Preloaded )

Memory 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz - 2 X 4GB [$70.00]

Primary Hard Disk Drive 750GB 7200rpm SATA 300 Hard Drive [$65.00]

Optical Drive Bay — Optical Drive or Hard Disk Drive in Optical Drive Bay with

Caddy case 6X Blu-ray Reader/8X DVD±R/2.4X +DL Super-Multi Drive & Software [$80.00]

Wireless Network Card Internal 802.11 B+G+N Wireless LAN + Bluetooth Combo Module

Primary Battery Smart Li-ION Battery Pack

Microsoft Office Microsoft Office Starter 2010 - Included in Price

Warranty Sager 1 Year Limited Parts and Labor Warranty

Carrying Bag Standard Carrying Bag


Sub Total: $1,274.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
Shipping (Worldwide Expedited): $238.17
Total: $1,512.17 (1,000euro)

add about 300eu for duty, still a bargain.

cookie1977

Buy the ram separately as most companies charge a lot for ram when buying a laptop. Otherwise you probably dont want to hear from me as I've an Alienware m14x

drlemon

There are laptops specially for graphics work, like Lenovo Thinkpad W520, Dell precision M4600, or HP elitebook 8450.

srsly78

Even a cheapo desktop will leave any of these laptops behind. Laptop graphics is a poor imitation of desktop. Also limited by low resolution screen. No laptop can even approach a 2560x1600 IPS monitor + desktop graphics card.

croo

I recently got a Thinkpad W520 - its blindly fast! for a laptop anyway. My main development box was getting on a bit but was a Dual CPU/Dual core Opterons with a bunch of 10krpm disks in a raid array & 8GB of ram. So hardly a slouch. The application I work on would "build" in 5 mins on it, but this laptop reduces the build to 1min. I only got the 1000M video card but even so with the accompanying mini-dock it can manage 4 monitors -3 external & the laptop screen- at HD resolution.

The one downside is that I mostly use linux and there are no drivers to use Optimus on it. But unlike other optimus laptops you do get to choose in the BIOS for the laptop to use;
1) just the Integrated Graphics of the iCore CPU - which is plenty powerful enough to run all the bells & whistles in the ubuntu desktop. The added benefit of using the IGP is the battery life is nearly 6 hours.
2) the nVidia graphics card. You get the full power of the nVidia card but the battery life drops dramatically
3) Optimus - as I said windows only but with it you get the best of both worlds. Long life if you don't need the power of the nvidia but when you do need it it automatically comes online.

There is an option for a minicard based 60GB SSD to speed up the boot. I skipped this but used an SSD from an older system in the main disk slot, then replaced the DVD player with a large HDD for extended storage.

Other nice things are the lovely thinkpad keyboard, USB3 & a beautiful LED HD screen. I got it on special around easter time for 1500 excl VAT. Pricey but a great system.