Laptop for a student


Sabine77
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Hi all,

I am an interior design student. I just send it my application for the Academic X9 software license. I want to purchase a laptop to run the program so that I can take it with me to school, etc.

The problem is I am on a major budget. Costco has a deal right now on an HP Envy 17T - Will this work and perform well? Even though it is a deal at only $800, that is a big chunk of change for me. Here are the specs according to the Costco website-

 

Processor & Memory:

  • Intel® Core™ i7-7500U Processor at 2.7GHz
  • 16GB DDR3 (2-DIMM) RAM

     

Drives:

  • 1TB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
  • SuperMulti DVD Burner

     

Operating System:

  • Microsoft® Windows 10

     

Communications:

  • Intel® Wireless-AC WLAN + Bluetooth®
  • HP TrueVision HD Webcam + Integrated Digital Microphones

     

Graphics & Video:

  • 17.3" WLED-backlit FHD IPS (1920 x 1080) Display
  • 4GB NVIDIA GeForce 940MX Graphics

 

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specs look decent

 

if you drop to the $500 range you will probably regret it later

 

a PC should last about 5 years or so

 

put the $$$ into items that can't be upgraded later

more ram and storage can usually be added later

 

concentrate on the hardware that can't be upgraded

 

Lew

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Thank you. I looked up the reviews on this paticular model and they are horrible... Lots of problems. I am now looking at the Dell Inspition 7559.

I noticed most laptops in my price range come with the i7 dual core processor. Is that sufficient? Or do I need a quad core?

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Processor clock speed seems to be more important than the number of cores with Chief until it comes to Ray tracing an then you can't have enough cores.  You have to have a high budget or lots of patience when it comes to Ray tracing in Chief.

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Thanks for all the help! I found this one at Walmart.com... at $750  it seems to be a really good value.  Do you all approve of this one??? I am about to buy it!

Dell Inspiron 15 Gaming Edition

 

Intel Core i7-6700HQ quad-core processor

 

2.60GHz
 

 

16GB SDRAM system memory

 

Gives you the power to handle most power-hungry applications and tons of multimedia work
 

 

1TB SATA hybrid hard drive and 8GB Cache storage

 

Store 666,000 photos, 285,000 songs or 526 hours of HD video and more
 

 

NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M Graphics

 

With 4GB GDDR5 of dedicated graphics memory
 

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You are on a budget, I get that. Just be advised that performance, professional grade performance costs at least twice that price. Just do not expect $2,000+ performance from something that costs half that. Your Dell should get you through your student days. When  you really master the software you then want Speed and snappiness and budget stuff does NOT deliver those things.

 

DJP

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