Looking for new Laptop

[Nitro468]

Looking for a new laptop, to replace my old Dell E1705...

I want something with a graphics card, NOT built on the motherboard...

What cards should I look for nowadays... I remember back in the day certian Nvdia cards burnt up due to a bad GPU design...

NOT looking to break the bank, but in the 1K area....(17")

[dmill89]

Re: Looking for new Laptop

The Nvidia graphics issues ended years ago (~2010).

Does it have to be new or is off-lease/refurbished ok?

In general I'd stick with business grade laptops, most of the consumer-grade laptops from the last few years have been absolute junk.

If you are ok with off-lease/refurbished you can get great deals on used mobile workstations (Dell Precision/ Lenovo "W" series) that can handle just about anything (except maybe hardcore gaming, since their graphics cards while powerful generally aren't optimized for gaming). I got a off-lease Dell Precision M4600 (15.6", the M6600 would be the 17" version) with an I7-2860qm, 16GB Ram, 256GB SSD, Nvidia Quadro 1000M graphics, and 15.6" full-HD IPS display for around $500 last year (with those specs this laptop would have been around $3k new in 2012/2013), you can easily pick up an off-lease/referb M6600 or even M6700 or M6800 (note: all of these have an actual add-in card for the GPU which can be replaced/upgraded if necessary, many laptops with dedicated GPUs still have the GPU soldered to the motherboard so it can't be replaced/upgraded) for less than $1k.



If you have to have a brand new machine your options for a dedicated gpu and 17" screen for less than $1k are fairly limited ($1k is about entry level for 17" and dedicated graphics), but there are a few, I would recommend specifically avoiding Acer and HP, otherwise Lenovo, MSI, ASUS, and Dell have some options in the $1k range, here are some examples:
MSI 17.3" GL72 6QD-001 Intel Core i5 6300HQ (2.30 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 950M 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Multi-language Gaming Laptop = $850
Lenovo Laptop IdeaPad 700 80RV002TUS Intel Core i5 6300HQ (2.30 GHz) 12 GB DDR4 Memory 1 TB HDD 128 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GT 940MX 17.3" Windows 10 Home 64-Bit = $899
Lenovo Laptop IdeaPad 700 80RV002UUS Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) 16 GB DDR4 Memory 1 TB HDD 128 GB SSD NVIDIA GeForce GT 940MX 17.3" Windows 10 Home 64-Bit =$939
MSI 17.3" GL72 6QF-405 Intel Core i7 6700HQ (2.60 GHz) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD Windows 10 Home 64-Bit Multi-language Gaming Laptop = $998
DELL Laptop Inspiron i5759-9659SLV Intel Core i7 6500U (2.50 GHz) 16 GB Memory 2 TB HDD AMD Radeon R5 M335 17.3" Touchscreen Windows 10 Pro 64-Bit = $1149

While these all have fairly powerful hardware they also have the standard consumer grade cheap plastic chassis and I'd have far more faith in a 1-3 year old off-lease/referb mobile workstation (or any business grade laptop) than a brand new consumer grade model.

[Nitro468]

Re: Looking for new Laptop

Thanks for the reply. Just wanted to be sure there weren't any bad chips out there. Budget is a bit flexible AMD is coming out with their mobile GPU soon... I always avoided HP (Highly Proprietary) and Acer... HP's are a pain in the ass to work on...