Buying Laptop w/ some demanding-ish specs

scopper

Headline hopefully drew in some tech heads. I do not need just any old machines, as per my usual 2 year routine, but something a lot more robust this year and hope boards can help. There is a lot of awful machines out there that are way overpriced simply because options + Ireland = what can you do.

So what would I want:
budget = 1,000 (prefer, obviously, not to spend all that, maybe I can upgrade RAM, etc.).

Want: i7 minimum, 8GB RAM (more would be awesome, but can install my own) and 15'6 inch normal size laptop. I'd love a nice graphics card if only because it helps with videos (not games) even if they are non-essential.

Where would I go in trying to find this. Or where would you go yourself?

Alanstrainor

You should be able to pick up those specs easily for your budget. You mention videos, are you editing video? Just be aware that not all laptops allow you to upgrade RAM any longer, I would say given what you are looking for you should be okay, but it's worth checking!

MagicHumanDoll

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B019KZV6I0/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=3VPE4YKR8Z3T6&coliid=I1HJC3NGSLRBLF&psc=1

This is decent.

http://www.dell.com/ie/p/inspiron-15-7559-laptop/pd?oc=cn95715&model_id=inspiron-15-7559-laptop

This is very easily upgradable, with a spare RAM slot (upgrade to 16gb RAM) and has a vacant M.2 SATA III slot which you could buy an M.2 SSD for to put the OS and some programs on!

Dubwat

I should start my reply by saying I'm no expert - take what I say with a large pinch of salt!

I'm in a similar position to you but, for me, it's photography & Lightroom/Photoshop. The main problem with most laptops is that the screen is not of high enough quality for colour accuracy etc. And with video editing, with all it's controls, a 15' screen might not be big enough.

So, for me, I've kinda come to the conclusion that I might buy a used laptop combined with a very good external monitor. The laptop could be used anywhere to dirty-edit the photos/video down to a manageable size. Then when you're ready, hook it up to the monitor for the final edits/colour grading.

Specs:
- i5 with a high clock speed (read somewhere that, photography-wise, i5 is not hugely different from i7 in performance/cost). Clock speed is important.
- 16Gb RAM (adobe have research from 2 or 3 yrs ago that 16GB is the sweet spot for performance/cost)
- 2Gb video card (Adobe uses the GPU if it's there. Can be used to drive external monitor)
- SSD for OS and programs
- 2nd 7,200 rpm hard drive for data/videos
- 15' HD screen
- USB 3 or better for backup purposes.

Something like that can be got for €300-€500 on adverts if you're patient.

And I saw this monitor released recently... The 27' BenQ PV270 which boasts 99% of the Adobe RGB Spectrum, a 2560 x 1440 QHD resolution & has a rrp of approx stg£800.

OK, I've gone 'slightly' over budget but I'm sure you could find a good monitor for €500 to bring it back under a grand?

My 'non-expert' 2cents!

ondablade

Hi S. No expert here either but I'm in the market for a Windows laptop after years on Macs and am struggling to understand the 15in market too.

It's a bit of a minefield, especially since it seems there may be variations in reliability not just between brands, but between models. There's really no great effort made to categorise what machines are designed for either.

So far as I can tell if you're buying new prices start to get beyond what you are thinking of once you include a very high spec screen - as on something like the Dell XPS 15 model.

There seem to be sub groups within that. Items like the Toshiba Tecra Z 50 or Lenovo ThinkPad are business class laptops. Probably reliable with better quality hardware (?), maybe some extra security features, high spec processor, a very decent but not in graphics terms ultimate spec screen, good connectivity and battery life but moderate sound. All in a reasonably compact but not slim case, but still large enough so there's room to add aftermarket RAM/fit a removable battery and cooling etc are not compromised.

Another group may be a built down to a price consumer version of something similar that ticks the spec boxes (and maybe has a whizz bang feature) but costs less. With probably (?) reduced parts and build quality - the cost has to come out from somewhere. Dell Inspiron etc?

Another is what seem to be called ultra books - very light and thin. (in the Mac Book Air space) Some now with top end specs like the i7 processor giving high end laptop performance in this packaging (e.g. Del XPS 15), but at premium prices and with tight internal packaging and consequent restrictions on upgrading RAM, ports/connectivity and battery replacement. Possible more marginal cooling too.

There's gaming specialised models with fancy lights, good sound, good graphics and a visually attractive screen - but I don't know where they fit in as it's not my space.

MacBooks in their various forms (while I've been put off by what I've experienced as poor but expensive support [especially for only slightly older machines - when all the 'nice' but ultimately time wasting talk stops and the corporate dictat running in the background finally emerges you know you're meant to dump it after only a few years and buy again], and an increasingly more blatant forcing of the customer into Mac sphere of business in recent years) do cover a lot of the bases.

Where to buy is a factor, in that apart from price it determines your point of entry for comeback in the event of serious problems. Not sure how generic warranty and support access are for PCs, does the manufacturer provide these (in which case it might not matter so much where you bought it) or are the arrangements determined by the seller?