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Seeking advice ( about laptop setup )

null
greetings :) 
 
I need some advice from more those who have experience.

Here´s the thing, I will be  going on a trip for about a year, (I'm from Argentina, but I will be visiting France.I have an aunt there. and Brazil. and a few other countries). As a 2D freelance artist I work 95% of the time  at home, so this trip comes  just on time  when should upgrade my pc (mine is already 7 years old :P), but as I need to save money and also I´ll be traveling  I will  postpone this a year, year and a half. Besides, I want to learn 3D modeling and rendering.

I did my research, (and almost went nuts XD) hardware for rendering is more  tricky than  just for plain 2d. Ok so, if anyone can advice  me I will be grateful!  

I need a laptop. (because of traveling ) but  as I said. I need to save money  and also no point to burn bucks now for a laptop  because  after a year I will be building a new pc.  I don´t need a super extreme one.  IM not a hardcore gamer and I don´t care if  cpu is not the latest one.
 or the gpu is not the most powerful at this moment also I don´t care if I need to wait some more minutes, since I will be learning.

What I understand that cpu comes first, ram  more is  better, ssd and hdd and a good quality lcd  (I will be doing some 2d art ocationaly so I need a good ips screen).  

I will be using "modo" and Z brush,  and if I can something like Painter. 
zBrush is more cpu bounded so not much to say here I guess.  
Modo  relys  on open gl for viewport right ?  for what I found yes,  so. what gpu ? (correct me if Im wrong pleas)
Rendering  maxwell.octane. vray ?  I dont have a clue about them, some are gpu accelerated  like octane.
 but since I don't plan to render  biiig scenes.  

Also  since I prefer to save some bucks,  getting a  9xx m  nvidia gpu. would be enough?

What I want to achieve is  build a model and render it, like some of  Mr. Tor Frick  3D stuff (model +render).
 
To sum up,  a laptop with and I7 HQ  cpu.  16GB Ram, 250-500 ssd + 1tb hdd. is ok-ish?
Rest of the setup :  GPU : ?  970M ?  1050 ti ? 980m ? As for the  screen, 1080p or 4K?   I don't mind if the laptop is heavy. so better a 17" screen ? 

That's all. Keep in mind folks that  didn't bought a laptop since  peeff! like 8 years.  I was using ipads, cintiq companions and my desktop pc. 
I have  a budget of 1000 u$d  (I can go higher but I prefer avoid that), I don't mind getting  a used one on ebay either.

Regards to all  and thanks  in advance.

TLDR: I will be traveling, I need a laptop. My budget is ~$1000.00 USD. I don't need bleeding edge hardware. Tor is my hero, I use Modo, zBrush and Painter, HALP!

Mod edit: Fixed formatting -Vig

Replies

  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    First of all, why did you format your post in the ugliest, hardest to read way possible? 

    Yes for ~$1000 USD, you should get a 1080p IPS screen, 4 core i7 processor (check the core count on laptops), 16 GB ram, GTX 1050ti or GTX 1060, 256gb SSD. At that price point it might not have a 1tb HDD, but plenty of laptops today make that an easy upgrade to do yourself. Which you could do later when you need more storage. 

  • Elithenia
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    Elithenia polycounter
    I can't read your thread :/ 
    why did you format it that way?
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    I've been working away from  my workstation for the last few months and had to get a laptop. I'd never worked on one before and was dreading it but, it's actually not too bad at all. For around your budget I got a Dell Inspiron 15 gaming LT. 

    I'm running 3dsMax, Zbrush, Substance Painter, UE4, Arnold and Keyshot for rendering, Photoshop, and sometimes Marvellous Designer.(not all at the same time :) )  The performance is not bad at all. Ram gets low and it works pretty hard when rendering. I'm able to work fine on it considering the comparison with my workstation.

    Specs are latest 4 core i7/1070 4gig/16gig ram/250 ssd/1tb data(4x portable TB drives)

    If you're mostly doing 2d and will be dabbling in Zbrush/Modo then these specs will be fine for your purposes.
  • nervouschimp
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    nervouschimp polycounter lvl 4
    Since you will be using Modo, don't get a laptop with a high-res screen. Unlike blender, Maya, Houdini, etc, Modo does not have any UI scaling options.
  • ambelamba
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    ambelamba polycounter lvl 6
    Can I tag along?

    I have a laptop with a 16GB RAM and a GTX 1050 4GB GPU. (The CPU is some kind of i5.) Should I upgrade the RAM to 32GB and/or get a new laptop with 1050ti GPU?
  • Axi5
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    Axi5 interpolator
    Just throwing in something for Modo. The Devs have been working pretty hard on improving the performance on AMD. I'm personally running an R9 290 and didn't experience any problems with it after 901.

    So if you read any posts out there about Modo running sluggish on AMD (There were a lot), check the date. It could save you some money that you could spend elsewhere. Though going Nvidia is still a safe bet, it just gives you more options.

    Cheers
  • musashidan
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    musashidan high dynamic range
    ambelamba said:(
    Can I tag along?

    I have a laptop with a 16GB RAM and a GTX 1050 4GB GPU. (The CPU is some kind of i5.) Should I upgrade the RAM to 32GB and/or get a new laptop with 1050ti GPU?
    Get more ram. You're not going to notice much difference between the 1050 and the 1050ti. Whereas doubling your ram will make a big difference. 
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