Laptop computer for X-8

[capitaldesigns]

I'm planning on getting a laptop computer that I can run X-8 on. This would be used to take with me when going over clients plans at their house.

Also I plan on attending the upcoming intermediate training for X-8 in Coeur d' Alene. They said that I will need to bring a laptop computer with me.

 

Does anyone have a suggestion on a good laptop computers for X-8. A few months ago someone at Chief suggested the Microsoft Surfaces laptop.

Does anyone have any experience with the Microsoft Surfaces laptop.

 

Thanks,

 

Mike

[chief58]

I have an ASUS try this site

http://www.amazon.com/G751JY-DH72X-17-3-inch-GeForce-Graphics-i7-4860HQ/dp/B00NWE9SBS/ref=sr_1_10?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1426360838&sr=1-10&keywords=asus+rog

[English]

I just got an Acer Predator for gaming (I use Macs) and it is very powerful.  Has a 240GB SSD drive for Windows 10 and a 1TB drive for programs and such Intel i7 CPU and a nVidia GeForce GTX 980M.  Comes in a 15" and 17"

Alan

 

http://www.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/predator-17-series

[MarkMc]

If you search back a little you will find a few people using the Surface pro fir what you are considering. There are other options for light and thin available. Should be more over the next couple months with new GPUs coming. The first ones are expected to be in gaming machines.

I only use a laptop, needs are different, so I decided against thin and light for now. Found some useful information wading through the forums at notebook review.com (lot of gamers but others mixed in). Xoticpc.com carries several brands of gaming machines, good place to compare. (there's a 3-1/2 lb Asus that looks sweet. Razor has a few nice light and thin machines.

[michaelgia]

I recently bought a second-hand late 2013 MacBook Pro. The one with the dual video card in it. It has a solid state hard drive and 16gig of ram. I know it doesn't sound like a screaming spec monster that other guys are referencing but I experience no lag whatsoever and can do 10 pass ray traces in under a minute. Time machine backs it all up and I keep all my plans and layout files on iCloud so that it's all accessible from my phone or iPad.

I am constantly on the road and I need to be able to pick up where I left off at the office on my desktop (Imac)

Too many buggy and bloatware infested apps flying around windows these days. I kicked and screamed the first few months on Mac OS (certain things still piss me off) but the positives far outweigh the negatives.

[Digital_design]

I know for a fact you can find models that (as of this writing) would work perfectly for under $2000.

 

Look for:

 

I7-6820HK or I7-6700K or even I7-4790K CPU.  Specifically, the "K" is of importance here.  It means it has raw horsepower at the expense of power consumption, essentially.  The 6700K would be preferable, IMHO, as it is truly a powerhouse CPU.  It's base config is 4.0 Ghz, turbo up to 4.2 Ghz, and overclocked all the way up to 4.6ghz safely.  If battery life is a priority, though, then a HQ designation would be more efficient, albeit with less power and no ability to overclock it (locked)

 

16GB DDR4 ram, a motherboard that is upgradeable would be great.  2133 ghz or 2400 ghz,speed RAM are both fine and don't get hung up on the 2400 ghz stuff because I highly doubt you'll ever utilize that extra speed.  Make sure that your I7-XXXX architecture allows DDR4, else you'll be with DDR3.  The I7-4790K will use DDR3 and will max out at 32gb on the system, whereas the other two CPU chips I mentioned can go up to 64gb.  

 

Nvidia GTX980m video card, with 8gb VRAM if you're with a UHD monitor or plan on connecting to a monitor sometimes.  4gb version will likely work just fine, but I'd want something just a tad more "future proof", and very soon 4k displays will be commonplace.  The 970m falls off mightily in performance from the 980m, and with a 4+ghz CPU I'd assume the graphics card would become the bottleneck in the system if you didn't have enough GPU power.  Upwards of the 980m the law of diminishing returns really starts to bite back hard.  Visit gpuboss.com to illustrate what I am talking about.

 

Most configurations will come with a 120-240gb SSD "boot" disk and a 1 terabyte conventional mechanical drive.  Some will have RAID configs and have spots for expansion of another drive, especially if you get a 17" monitor as the chassis simply allows more room.

 

There are a number of different brands that will have those three important features under the hood, and most will look like "gaming" laptops.  Of this writing (4/14/2016) you can find one with all those for $1600-$2000,  I have an affinity for ASUS brands (and especially motherboards), although MSI is fine as well.  Other brands like Alienware (Dell) and Sager are good too, it just depends on what they have available at that point and at what price.....

 

....and what style you want the rig.    Some of these cases can get pretty "gamer" looking, and it may not be the most professional thing in some people's opinion.