Laptop that can handle anything

govenordann · 21-04-2014 12:22pm #1

Hi I'm looking for a laptop that can handle anything. I want to use the laptop for a bit of everything 3d cad,gaming,video editing,photo editing. But most of all I just want to know that it will be able to do everything I want it to in the future without buying a new laptop. I want a good battery life,a nice design,a good resolution but most of all I just want it to be fast. I have been looking at second hand alienware but I say that would be a bit of a overkill. My budget is about €900. I don't mind buying second hand or new. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

smileyj1987 · 21-04-2014 1:44pm

I'm an alienware owned and would recommend their machines . I bought mine second hand a year ago for a good price . It does everything I need and then some . The battery life is about 2 hours on mine . The only bad thing about alienware is the size and weight . They are a fairly hefty laptop but they are a great machine . Plus a lot of the system can be upgraded including graphics card which is a great option in a laptop .

govenordann · 21-04-2014 3:29pm

smileyj1987 wrote: »

I'm an alienware owned and would recommend their machines . I bought mine second hand a year ago for a good price . It does everything I need and then some . The battery life is about 2 hours on mine . The only bad thing about alienware is the size and weight . They are a fairly hefty laptop but they are a great machine . Plus a lot of the system can be upgraded including graphics card which is a great option in a laptop .

Thanks for the answer but I have been looking at the alienware laptops and went off them because they were so heavy,big and expensive and for the things I'd be doing they would be a bit of an overkill

smileyj1987 · 21-04-2014 3:31pm

govenordann wrote: »

Thanks for the answer but I have been looking at the alienware laptops and went off them because they were so heavy,big and expensive and for the things I'd be doing they would be a bit of an overkill

I would look at pcspecialist.co.uk to see if there is a machine that could suit your needs .

designbydan · 21-04-2014 3:42pm

govenordann wrote: »

Hi I'm looking for a laptop that can handle anything. I want to use the laptop for a bit of everything 3d cad,gaming,video editing,photo editing. But most of all I just want to know that it will be able to do everything I want it to in the future without buying a new laptop. I want a good battery life,a nice design,a good resolution but most of all I just want it to be fast. I have been looking at second hand alienware but I say that would be a bit of a overkill. My budget is about €900. I don't mind buying second hand or new. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

have you done video editing and 3d work before? I'm not being cheeky thats a genuine question, because for the likes of that there is NO such thing as overkill.

You always want to render faster don't you? rendering in 10 mins instead of twenty might not seem like a big deal, but when you're being paid for it, and you can render something in 2 days instead of 4, or a week instead of 2. it makes a huge difference.

I think any (pc) laptop for that price is going to be a little bigger.

I use a 2011 macbook pro (bought second hand) and its great for 3d work and eidting/motion work, you could buy one of those for about 600, then upgrade the ram to 16gigs, get a ssd, and maybe swap the disk drive for a 4Tb hdd, that woulod cost about 900 total, you'd be flying then and it's quite small.

Only issue then is games for mac are limited and don't play as well usually.

Overheal · 21-04-2014 5:47pm

govenordann wrote: »

Hi I'm looking for a laptop that can handle anything. I want to use the laptop for a bit of everything 3d cad,gaming,video editing,photo editing. But most of all I just want to know that it will be able to do everything I want it to in the future without buying a new laptop. I want a good battery life,a nice design,a good resolution but most of all I just want it to be fast. I have been looking at second hand alienware but I say that would be a bit of a overkill. My budget is about €900. I don't mind buying second hand or new. Thanks for any advice you can give me.

You want a god damn unicorn.

First of all, there isn't a laptop around that is going to stop itself from having to be replaced.

Secondly, depending on the CAD package you're talking about it will certainly run it, but how well you need it to do this depends on your application. GPUs are pretty much geared to either doing Professional well, or Gaming well, but not both. Anything with an i5 can certainly run Solidworks for instance but getting bogged down in the more demanding drawings and features will cost you time. Run a stress analysis or sketch a dozen helixes into a model and you'll know what I mean.

Straight on to the next point, if you want it to be as fast as a unicorn and as powerful as a bull ox you're not going to get good battery life, not without sacrificing size and weight. Workstation laptops are thick, heavy devices for a reason.

Basically with the budget you've set you're pinned to the secondhand market at best. Buying something new with the specs you want will cost you far more than you're willing to spend, and tbh it sounds like all you want is a Macbook Pro, and those do not start off at 900 euro. Not for what you want.

Frankly though I suggest buying something mediocre and secondhand, then you can get a feel for what you really need, and go do it right the next time, with a larger budget. A Mac Pro isn't outside my own realm of personal wants, but that all depends on whether I would need one professionally. To give you an idea, those can spec up to $10,000, and at that level of performance are rather not in need of any upgrades for quite some time.

govenordann · 21-04-2014 7:17pm

Ok let me rephrase my question. What specs will I need to have solidworks,do photo editing,do video editing and a little bit of gaming.

Snake · 21-04-2014 7:24pm

govenordann wrote: »

Ok let me rephrase my question. What specs will I need to have solidworks,do photo editing,do video editing and a little bit of gaming.

If I was you I'd get Alienware. Simply because their built to be rebuilt, so even when stronger hardware becomes available, you can keep your machine, and upgrade it as you want, lots of laptops don't allow for that, at least not easily.

Overheal · 21-04-2014 7:32pm

Like I says, you can accomplish much within even the basic confine of an Intel i5 without any outside GPU, so it really depends on how serious you are either about gaming or about professional work. If you want to be able to max out Planetside 2 get a gaming laptop, if you need to work professionally more, get a workstation laptop. There's no simple answer for this, and I'm sure it's rather frustrating, but often the error is people cannot adequately understand their needs without hands on experience first. For your budget, workstations are ruled out, and gaming laptops will not meet your other demands of design and battery life.

designbydan · 21-04-2014 8:31pm

govenordann wrote: »

Ok let me rephrase my question. What specs will I need to have solidworks,do photo editing,do video editing and a little bit of gaming.

Like someone else said. you'll be able to do all those things.. just with various success..

but which ones are more important to you, and exactly how important?

if you could number your needs what would be at the top?

Also do you have a certain video editor in mind? because you won't be able to use final cut on a windows laptop, and photoshop handles better on a mac I think (personal preference after using both),

but if gaming is very important to you then a mac will just be frustrating.

Whatever you buy I would suggest one thing as a general rule, Buy something UNDER your budget and then spend a bit of cash upgrading it yourself, you'd be very surprised what a solid state drive will do for you in terms of speed, esp for rendering times.

Laptop that can handle anything

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