Budget Laptop for Rendering

[vincentreyes]

Hello again,

 

I am helping my cousin find a good laptop for rendering (casual renders only) and would like to again ask help and have opinions from you. It will be used for 3dsmax and vray and photoshop. His budget range is $1000-$1200. Both of us are still amateurs in architectural visualizations and are not that techy and still has a lot to learn with regards to hardware stuffs, in this case, a laptop.

 

I've used what I've learned in my last post http://forums.cgarchitect.com/74701-help-me-build-rig-1200-budget.html

and recommended him these two laptops:

 

ASUS N56VB

ASUS N56VB-S4013H | 15.6IN. (1920X1080), I7 3630QM, 8GB, 1TB, GT740 2GB, (BLURAY)

 

MSI GE60 0NC-I7387+

MSI GE60 0NC-I7387+ | *15.6-IN. HD (1366X768) LED NON-GLARE, I7-3630 2.3GHZ, 08GB, 500GB, GT650M 2GB GDDR5, DVDRW

 

We were more inclined going with asus because I've read some articles that msi has heating issues and I thought that it would be bad for rendering but what are your opinions about this? MSI seems to be a great deal because its cheaper but because of the heating issues we're having second thoughts about this.

 

I was wondering if there are any haswell laptops within the same price range that beats the two. But is it good to have a haswell laptop? Basing from what I've learned from my past post, haswell runs much hotter than its predecessor and heat is bad for a laptop right?

 

Your comments and suggestions will be highly appreciated. Thanks.

Edited October 26, 2013 by vincentreyes

[RyderSK]

I am using MSI GE70 Stealth. I never thought I would buy laptop, and if I would, that I would buy MSI (or anything from MSI at all..) but when I saw it in real, I was very quick to get one. It's 17", super slim (less then 2cm thick, literally same thickness as older MacbookPro (non-retina) ) and looks very cool, non-gamey (which would be huge, huge minus ). The TN display sucks, like all TN displays, but once you calibrate it, the colors are right and contrast is decent for even post-production (though I wouldn't do it for high-profile project).

 

It has Haswell i7 4700HQ at 2.4Ghz, and is basically the same power as my very old i7 2600k desktop at 3.4Ghz almost.

 

The heating is something I wouldn't stress, I render with it 10+ hours at time and it's just fine. Not like any laptop keeps good temperatures.

 

I am not sure if it's right to go so low in budget that you only get 8GB ram, which is just too low. Does he need the laptop so much ? I don't think it's worth getting it that cheap. Both GT650/GT740 are rather poor performers, but at that price range, there's not much to choose from and becomes luxury, same as SSD.

 

The MSI you can directly skip because of the 1366px resolution, that is not something that can be excused imho today, and definitely not for any graphic work.

[vincentreyes]

Thanks for the reply Juraj,

 

The budget is constrained because he's still a student like me and we make do of what our budget can afford. We'll leave the ram at a min of 8gig for the meantime since it can be upgraded in the future. As for the GPU, he has to suck it up, because of his budget hehehe but low end graphics cards are still useful for basic photoshoping and viewport movement right?

 

Well we hope that there would still be some suggestions and opinions around here.

 

With your reply, I am starting to consider MSI and stumbled upon this:

 

MSI GP60 20D Intel Core i7-4700MQ Quad Core Haswell 2.40Ghz Processor

Intel Core i7-4700MQ Quad Core Haswell 2.40Ghz Processor, Windows 8, 8GB DDR3 Memory, 1TB HDD, 15.6” FHD (1920x1080), NVidia Geforce GT740M 2GB DDR3 Graphics DVDRW, 802.11 b/g/n + BT 4.0, 6 Cell Li-Ion Battery, 2.4KGs. , Dimension 383X249.5X32.3~37.6mm

 

I think its better than the ASUS? What do you think?

Edited October 27, 2013 by vincentreyes

[RyderSK]

It's better. Out of those two, it's only personal preference imho.

 

Sure, low-end graphic is still manageable, it's only discomfort, so nothing big. But 8GB ram is problematic for most scenes. But if the budget is really tight, then of course, not much to do, people did great art on Pentium4 :- )

[bulenthalibram]

I have asus G75VW with 32 gigs of ram and it rocks, the overall cooling is very good.

I have used it several times for 20+ hours renderings and I never had a problems. You can find it with 16 gigs of ram for about 1200 usd.

[RyderSK]

I have asus G75VW with 32 gigs of ram and it rocks, the overall cooling is very good.

I have used it several times for 20+ hours renderings and I never had a problems. You can find it with 16 gigs of ram for about 1200 usd.

 

I liked this one a lot, and was my first option originally because I didn't wanted to compromise on 32GB ram and GTX770m, even the aesthetics were surviveable, but that size..and weight. If it was my only workstation, then I would definitely vote for this one as well. So much nicer and cheaper than their counterparts (Alienware...)

[vincentreyes]

I have asus G75VW with 32 gigs of ram and it rocks, the overall cooling is very good.

I have used it several times for 20+ hours renderings and I never had a problems. You can find it with 16 gigs of ram for about 1200 usd.

 

Thanks for the reply Bulent. We've stumbled upon this model before but quickly crossed it out our list because it sells about $1800 here in the Philippines. However, we just recently stumbled upon this:

 

ASUS X750JB-DB71 17.3" 900p i7-4700HQ 1TB 8GB GT 740M Laptop

 

Specifications:

 

 

Windows 8 (64-bit)

17.3" Glossy LED-Backlit Display

HD+ 1600 x 900 Native Resolution

2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700HQ (Haswell)

8GB of DDR3 RAM

2 x 1TB 5400rpm Hard Drives

NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics (2GB)

SuperMulti DVD Burner

802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet

Integrated Webcam, Microphone & Speakers

Global Power Adapter

 

It has the haswell processor but its HD+ thingy kinda bit sucks but they have no effect on rendering (CPU) right? Will this be a better one? Thanks.

Edited October 29, 2013 by vincentreyes

[bulenthalibram]

Windows 8 (64-bit)

17.3" Glossy LED-Backlit Display

HD+ 1600 x 900 Native Resolution

2.4GHz Intel Core i7-4700HQ (Haswell)

8GB of DDR3 RAM

2 x 1TB 5400rpm Hard Drives

NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M Graphics (2GB)

SuperMulti DVD Burner

802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet

Integrated Webcam, Microphone & Speakers

Global Power Adapter

The only concern is the 8 gigs of ram, try to buy it with 16GB of ram, also there is no reason to buy it with two slow HDDs, it will be much better to buy it with one 7200rpm HDD and you will have one empty slot for future SSD upgrade.

[AJLynn]

That just goes to show that different people have different needs. I think the greatest areas for concern are the two slow hard drives (which will use a lot of power and weigh too much), the low res, glossy screen, and the fact that the laptop costs twice as much in the Philippines as it does in the US. At $900, this is a decent cheap option.

[vincentreyes]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, the price difference is a pain because of the taxes. We planned in ordering in the US and shipping it to the Philippines but its kind a bit risky because the delivery might be held by the customs for taxes. If it is held up, the total price paid with the taxes would be almost the same as the price of it locally.

 

The ASUS G75VW with 16gb of ram, in my personal opinion, would be the best budget laptop for rendering especially if you're in a tight budget like us. But if only it would be priced the same with the US.

 

Well I haven't met my cousin yet recently and have no updates from him except that he found a better laptop than the one we recently posted (forgot to ask if he already bought it or not). I'll try to post the specs when I get the chance to ask him.

Edited November 15, 2013 by vincentreyes