Too picky?

MagicHumanDoll

Right,

I'm an architecture student going into 3rd year next year and need to replace my heap of junk; Acer Aspire 5742, i5 M480, 6GB RAM, 5ish years old.
I use intensive programs both GPU and CPU wise and work with printing work a lot so need a decent display.
Budget wise is not set in stone, I'm a tech head who would love nothing more than a PC instead, or a lovely Macbook Pro (portability and screen, plus self confessed fan boy) but realistically no more than €1,200.

I've these two in mind, neither fit the bill fully but I don't think any laptop will;

Dell 15 7000
CPU - 6th Gen i7-6700HQ
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 4GB GDDR5
RAM - 8GB Single Channel DDR3L 1600MHz (8GBx1)
HDD - 1TB 5400 rpm Hybrid Hard Drive + 8GB Embedded Flash Cache

Now that's only 999, so I'd add an M2 SSD and another 8gb stick for another 100 or so to bring it to 1100

ASUS N552VW-FY094T
CPU - 6th Gen i7-6700HQ
GPU - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 2GB
RAM - 16GB
HDD - 1TB HDD + 128GB SSD

That's 1050 on Amazon.co.uk, I'm not familiar with using the other variations

Ideally I want something fast, portable, decent battery and a nice screen. Hence wanting a 13" Macbook Pro would be ideal but it's graphics card is non existent and CPU is only an i5 all for 1400 on Apple education!

I don't live at home so don't want a PC left in accom in case it get's nicked. But I'd love a decently fast PC over a laptop, all the laptop's seem ****e for the price (I know, smaller components etc)

Best case scenario; Laptop that doesn't need a cable after 1 hr (current laptop) can handle GPU and CPU intensive programs and has a nice screen (not 4k too much hassle) Maybe even run a monitor as secondary to bypass a bad screen.

Anyways if you tech heads who love this kind of thing have any ideas please fire away I'd love to discuss and resolve!!

MagicHumanDoll

Oh forgot to add, could get an Retina 13" Macbook Pro 256gb model on Laptopsdirect.ie for €1230.77 which would be just at the top end of budget, and would be my pick barring the bottlenecks with lack of dedicated GPU. Sorry

Alanstrainor

The current Macbook is old at this stage, it's in dire need of a refresh in both spec and pricing. At present they offer poor value for money, even at those reduced prices. Also the 8GB that comes with the Macbook Pro is not upgradeable so you're stuck with that already limited RAM until you buy a new machine.

Look at the Dell XPS15, it has a dedicated GPU, great spec and an option for a 4K screen. But even the standard 1080p panel is a good one.

MagicHumanDoll

Very true, XPS15 is a bit of a stretch too far I think, and the 4k screen doesn't interest me at all because the programs I run just don't scale well for them yet. Thanks though!