New Laptop needed

Rob_J

Rob_J

Rob_J

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Hi all,

my daughter is in need of a new laptop after her Dell inspiron 1525 died today. Max £600.

She needs it for graphics, animation, rendering, 3Ds Max, Maya, Photo Shop etc, she doesn't do gaming but sometimes watches the odd film.

Any ideas?
 
Rob_J said:
Hi all,

my daughter is in need of a new laptop after her Dell inspiron 1525 died today. Max £600.

She needs it for graphics, animation, rendering, 3Ds Max, Maya, Photo Shop etc, she doesn't do gaming but sometimes watches the odd film.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Some hefty challenges for a £600 laptop :o

maybe looking at 4/6gb RAM, and maybe an i3? and some sort of dedicated gpu ofcourse ,for rendering that is, especially with 3Ds Max :) will have a browse tomorrow morning, quite tired atm just came on for a browse, will update tomorrow :)

was this Dell laptop good enough for rendering on the jobs this new laptop will be doing, as the spec will come in handy when browsing :D
 
DefiantAsh said:
Some hefty challenges for a £600 laptop :o

maybe looking at 4/6gb RAM, and maybe an i3? and some sort of dedicated gpu ofcourse ,for rendering that is, especially with 3Ds Max :) will have a browse tomorrow morning, quite tired atm just came on for a browse, will update tomorrow :)

was this Dell laptop good enough for rendering on the jobs this new laptop will be doing, as the spec will come in handy when browsing :D
Click to expand...

I know it's a challenge, that's why I asked on here as I know these boards have some knowledgeable people reading these threads ;), so many thanks for your help/advice.

Spec of the Dell is...
c2d T5750 @ 2.0 GHz stepping D, Revision M0
3GB ram pc2-5300
Integrated graphics 965 chipset
250 gb hdd.

It was kind of ok'ish on rendering smaller files, but with the big stuff that she now has to do (final uni year), it started to struggle but did the job eventually.

Definitely a minimum 4gb ram, and m'be one that can take 8gb
i3 or i5?
Would a dedicated GC be better than integrated graphics?
250+ hdd.

The Dell was fine till the start of Dec, she was rendering when the laptop just closed down. She thought it could be heat problems so she let it cool down then carried on. During Dec the laptop has just closed down without reason, this is while she was working and also when she was just watching a dvd. It closed down yesterday while she was listening to an audio book and browsing but didn't tell me till this afternoon.

I took the plate off the bottom, cleaned it out with a tinny of compressed air when I noticed that a screw holding the heatpipe/heatsink covering the NB? was loose. I tightened it up, ran 5 passes of IBT and all was fine, I then ran Prime and it closed down again. I then ran memtest, all was fine for 40 mins when it just closed down again. I took the heatpipe/heatsink off the CPU and NB, cleaned it all and applied AS5.

Tried running IBT/Prime but it still closed down, tried removing the ram, put one in then the other but it still closed down so now she's looking for a new'un.
 
I will have a browse throughout today but would it not be more wise to spend £600 on a desktop computer for rendering? i mean dedicated graphics is a must for high level rendering compared to the integrated for the small stuff. But if portability is a must then a laptop it will be, ill be back in a few hours or so with some choices :)
 
http://www1.euro.dell.com/uk/en/home/Dell-Laptops/xps-15/pd.aspx?refid=xps-15&cs=ukdhs1&s=dhs

Dell XPS 15 (Second Option) - £649??

Specs:

i5 460m CPU @ 2.53GHz / 3MB Cache

15.6" WLED Screen - 1366x768pixel Resolution / 720p
however this screen may be restrictive because the resolution is quite small, maybe the upgrade to the 1920x1080pixel resolution for £130 extra, but thats a no go i presume.​

1GB NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 420M Graphics Card

4096MB 1333MHz Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM [2x2048] - possible to upgrade with 2x4096 DDR3 Sticks? - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-205-OC&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1264

320GB (7,200rpm) Serial ATA Hard Drive - restricting for large rendered files - consider external hard drive??

Overall this laptop is good for its price, i think, but thats a quick browse. It is Dell afterall and if you like them then its a good choice. The i5 CPU and the graphics card will be good for rendering,m a big step up from that 1525 Dell that recently broke.

I still think you should consider a desktop alternative if it will be used solely for rendering purposes as you can spend £600-£700 on a really good pc, with 6/8GB RAM and then a quad or hex core CPU at 3.2GHz with a decent graphics card which would smash any laptop is terms of rendering times.

However if portability is a must like mentioned, maybe look at some MSI Laptops i think.

Being brutally honest there are good laptops out there but with what you want there just over your budget at £700. Which again also depends on if they have the appropriate CPU, Graphics Card, RAM and storage capacity.
 
Morning DefiantAsh,

thanks for taking the time to help me out, I appreciate it.

Unfortunately portability is a must, I argued the same point about a desktop PC but apart from not having the space to put it anywhere, she really does need to take the laptop into uni for work as the uni PC's/Mac's are so slow, very slow.

The only reason she got a Dell was that the store where "every little helps" had them on offer plus my wife liked the idea of extra club card points lol.

OK, from what my daughter tells me, she does more animation than rendering (that being the last stage) and obviously any changes to the animation has to be re-rendered.

I like the look of that Dell XPS and we could possibly help her out with a little extra cash so that takes the budget up to £750 max.

I have seen an MSI CR620 Intel Core i5 640M on a competitors site, it does however only have integrated graphics but the memory can be expanded.

The last Dell did cope with rendering in an ok'ish way according to my daughter, though it did take a while to complete.

Thanks again for your help, I'm totally useless when it comes to laptops.

EDIT: Forgot to mention, 320gb HDD is ok, she has a 500gb external also 3 usb sticks each at 16gb.
 
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sounding good, maybe look at the dell xps i7's on that same link, they are a push up to around £729 i think. Also with the upped budget im sure there will be a lot more options on the horizon, will get back with another 1 or 2 options :) as for animating, Adobe Flash? so 4GB+ RAM would still carry on and a decent gpu wouldnt go a miss since rendering times will be faster than the old dell, for 3Ds Max and Maya that is.
 
Hi DefiantAsh,

I've managed to fine one on a competitors site, Sony VIAO open box

- Intel Core i5-430M 2.26GHz Processor
- Memory Size (GB): 4GB DDR3 RAM (8GB MAX)
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive
- Blu-ray Disc Player - BD ROM/ DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
- 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Graphics
- 15.5" LED Backlit 1920 x 1080
- 1 Year Warranty

All for £638.15 inc del.

The ram can be expanded to 8gb plus it has a half decent graphics card that'll help with her animation/rendering.

Many thanks again for taking the time to help me out, these forums are the best for anyone needing help and advice.
 
Rob_J said:
Hi DefiantAsh,

I've managed to fine one on a competitors site, Sony VIAO open box

- Intel Core i5-430M 2.26GHz Processor
- Memory Size (GB): 4GB DDR3 RAM (8GB MAX)
- 500GB SATA Hard Drive
- Blu-ray Disc Player - BD ROM/ DVD+-RW/+-R DL/RAM
- 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5470 Graphics
- 15.5" LED Backlit 1920 x 1080
- 1 Year Warranty

All for £638.15 inc del.

The ram can be expanded to 8gb plus it has a half decent graphics card that'll help with her animation/rendering.

Many thanks again for taking the time to help me out, these forums are the best for anyone needing help and advice.
Click to expand...

Sounds good :)

I would have posted some others but they were 15"+ Screens with 1366x768 resolution which is quite small so i didnt bother, my apologies for that :p

Seems good though, there will most probably be a significant increase in animation/rendering times and the rate the program works compared with the previous laptop, now broke i presume.

And yes, these forums are great :D
 
DefiantAsh said:
Sounds good :)

I would have posted some others but they were 15"+ Screens with 1366x768 resolution which is quite small so i didnt bother, my apologies for that :p
Click to expand...

No need to apologies, you were kind enough to help in the first place.

Seems good though, there will most probably be a significant increase in animation/rendering times and the rate the program works compared with the previous laptop, now broke i presume.

And yes, these forums are great :D
Click to expand...

Yes there should, and the bonus that I can add more Ram, should do her well for her finals.

The old Dell did well for rendering Flash/2D work, but really did struggle with 3D animation/rendering.

The Dell is now running (no idea for how long though, just hope I put enough AS5 on the chips), and if it still works ok, it'll be given to her younger sister.

As for broke, tell me about it lmao!
 
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