Best budget laptops right now

yukonwanderer · Jul 2016

I have a decent build on my desktop but am going to be abroad for a few months and so I'm thinking of buying a capable laptop rather than trying to fly with my desktop. As an aside - has anyone ever tried that?

I really would like to limit the price to around $1300 CAD. I've been looking at either the Asus or the MSI gaming laptops. Those base models are both at the end of my budget...can I get something decent for even less? What specs are you guys using?

Kevin Albers · Jul 2016

Are you planning on doing 3D work on it? If so, what kind? Zbrush high poly modelling, Substance Painter etc can be fairly demanding, so you would need a pretty serious laptop for that. If you are just doing some modelling and basic texturing, you could easily do that on your budget. If you don't plan on doing 3D work, you could probably get away with spending half of what you mention, and end up with a nice laptop for general use.

If I was going abroad for a few months, I would probably assume that I didn't need to do high end gaming, or serious 3D work, since my focus would be on 'being abroad', and I would probably budget around 600$ for a laptop that was good for web browsing, watching videos etc.

ZacD · Jul 2016

Get at least a 860M or 960M, anything else isn't really with it if you are planning on using a modern game engine like UE4, Cry Engine, or Unity with the settings cranked up.

Fuiosg · Jul 2016

Is even a 960m good enough? I'm sort of in the same boat and considering the dell XPS 15 (refurb) since it has a wide color gamut panel, but the 960m is hard to swallow given the 970m is so much better. But at this price range you pretty much have to prioritize what's most important.

yukonwanderer · Jul 2016

Kevin Albers said:

Are you planning on doing 3D work on it? If so, what kind? Zbrush high poly modelling, Substance Painter etc can be fairly demanding, so you would need a pretty serious laptop for that. If you are just doing some modelling and basic texturing, you could easily do that on your budget. If you don't plan on doing 3D work, you could probably get away with spending half of what you mention, and end up with a nice laptop for general use.

If I was going abroad for a few months, I would probably assume that I didn't need to do high end gaming, or serious 3D work, since my focus would be on 'being abroad', and I would probably budget around 600$ for a laptop that was good for web browsing, watching videos etc.

I'm planning on using 3dsmax, zbrush, quite possibly substance. The situation im in is that I've already been abroad for 4 months after quitting my job, discovered while away what career path I'd like, but have to go abroad again due to a commitment made to someone, and so I desperately want to be able to learn while I'm away. I'm using a mid range laptop right now till I get home but would like a better one meant for high performance for my next trip.

yukonwanderer · Jul 2016

@ZacD. Which one of those is best for modeling in your opinion? And processor minimum? i7...? Ram? In your opinion is 8gigs enough for heavy duty modeling?

I'm on mobile and can't escape the quote box....

kanga · Jul 2016

Beeldschermdiagonaal (cm/inch):43.9 cm / 17.3 inch
Resolutie:1920 x 1080
Led-backlight:ja
Touchscreen:nee
Beeldresolutie:Full HD
Beeldschermdiagonaal (cm):43.9 cm
Beeldschermdiagonaal (inch):17.3 inch
Beeldverhouding:16:9
Schermtype:TFT-LCD

WERKGEHEUGEN

RAM type:DDR3L
Werkgeheugen:12 GB
Geheugenssnelheid:1600 MHz
Aantal slots:2

PROCESSOR

Processor:Intel Core i5-6200U
Processorsnelheid:2,3 GHz
Aantal processorkernen:2
Processorsnelheid met turbo:2,8 GHz

GRAFISCHE KAART

Grafische kaart:GeForce GTX 950M
Fabrikant grafische kaart:NVIDIA
Type grafisch geheugen:DDR3
Grafisch geheugen:4 GB

HARDE SCHIJF

Solid State Drive (SSD):ja
Aantal geïnstalleerde harde schijven:2
Totale opslagruimte:128 GB SSD + 1.5 TB HDD
Opslag:SSD , 128 GB , M.2
Opslag 2:HDD , 1.5 TB , 5400 rpm , SATA
Type opslag:SSD
Capaciteit opslag:128 GB
Interface opslag:M.2
Type opslag 2:HDD
Capaciteit opslag 2:1.5 TB
Rotatiesnelheid harde schijf 2:5400 rpm
Interface opslag 2:SATA

OPTISCH LOOPWERK

Optische drive:DVD Brander

CONNECTIVITEIT

Aansluitingen:HDMI , VGA , LAN (RJ-45) , 1x USB 3.1 (Type-C) , 1x USB 3.0 , 2x USB 2.0 , hoofdtelefoon/microfoon combo
Wifi:ja
Wifi (standaarden):802.11ac
Bluetooth:ja
Ethernetsnelheid:1000Mbps (Gigabit Ethernet)

UITVOERING

Besturingssysteem:Windows 10 Home
Touchpad:ja
Luidspreker:Stereo
Kaartlezer:ja
Geïntegreerde microfoon:ja
Aantal luidsprekers:2
Type toetsenbord:Qwerty
Geïntegreerd nummeriek toetsenbord:ja

CAMERA

Geïntegreerde webcam:ja
Camera resolutie:2 megapixel

ENERGIEVOORZIENING

Capaciteit batterij:3000 mAh
Aantal accucellen:4-cellen
Vermogen netadapter:90 W

ALGEMENE EIGENSCHAPPEN

Afmetingen (B/H/D):42 cm x 2.8 cm x 28.9 cm / 2.4 kg
Type apparaat:Notebook
Kleur:Zwart
Breedte:42 cm
Hoogte:2.8 cm
Diepte:28.9 cm
Gewicht:2.4 kg
Fabrieksgarantie:2 jaar

I just got this one for Unreal engine instruction. I have to give a course on site so I needed a decent laptop and this notebook was in my price range. I reckon it depends on what you need the notebook to do. I needed a 17 inch screen, nvidia card and the i5 processor will do for now. I needed the notebook to fit in my laptop backpack, and it does, just

. The notebook has 2 video outs and when I work at home I have it connected to an el cheapo Acer lcd monitor which is great for menues and the internet plus it works really well when connected to the big lcd tv at work for instruction. So far the Eazer is the most swanky portable I have had the pleasure to use. I have only been using it for a couple of days but the display is super and the machine seems pretty quick. Downside is the gpu has no vertex buffering and the 128 Gig SSD is a limitation for heavier software.

If you are just doing 3d this one should work just fine. I bought it at a local shop for 949 euros (including sales tax) but I see now that Medion offers this model for 899 euros direct from their site. The specs above are in Dutch and I don't have time to translate them but you get the idea I think. Because of the limited size of the SSD I would suggest using gimp and inkscape for image editing as the software is very light and takes up a fraction of the room that Adobe does. Likewise I would use Blender in place of Autodesk products, but I have to have Max and it seems to fit ok.

The notebook I have my eye on is the

ASUS ROG G752VT-GC042T
But it will be a while before I can get my hands on it as it is going for 2000 euros atm.

Anyhow good luck with your search,
hope this helps.
Cheerio

yukonwanderer · Jul 2016

Thanks @kanga I'd love to have that Asus too!

Guys I was looking at ASUS ROG GL552VW-DH71 15.6" IPS FHD Gaming Laptop, Intel Core i7-6700HQ 2.6GHz (Turbo up to 3.5GHz) Skylake, 16GB DDR4 (2133MHZ), 1TB 7200RPM, NVIDIA GTX960M 2GB GDDR5, DL DVDRW/CD-RW, 802.11AC, Bluetooth 4.0, Windows 10 (bit).

Is that 2GB DDR5 gonna be sufficient? Any red flags otherwise?

marrakech · Jul 2016

http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-6700HQ-vs-Intel-Core-i7-4720HQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nioslT0hzZU

Shyralon · Jul 2016

I can't really tell anything about what laptop to buy at the moment, but I made some experiences with using a laptop for 3d stuff over the last year.
I bought a gaming laptop at about the same price range as yours (acer, 16gb ram, i7-4710, gtx 860m) at the start of my studies about a year ago and I am really happy with it, actually it completly replaced my desktop at the moment.
Mainly I have been doing 3d stuff (zbrush, maya, quixel suite) and Unreal scenes, which are sometimes quite heavy - all works great and I am rarely limited by performance for what I usually do (zbrush starts lagging at about 25 million polygons for me, which I rarely have).
All in all I would not want to miss the flexibility it gives me right now even though it is slightly more expensive than a good desktop pc.