Please rate this laptop

[vangutendog]

Hi guys... been keeping an eye out for specials on laptops. The one I found is

 

Dell Inspiron 5737:4th Generation Intel Core i7-4500U Processor (4M Cache, up to 3.0 GHz), 17.3in FHD (1920 x 1080) Backlit Display with AG, AMD Radeon HD 8870M 2GB GDDR5, 16GB (2x8Gb) 1600MHz DDR3L, 1TB Serial ATA (5400RPM), Intel Wireless 1705 Card, Internal DVD+/-RW, Windows 8 64bit

 

Getting it for about 2 thirds of its usual price but I mainly want to know if it will do the job.

 

At the moment I'm mainly rendering stills (Blender, photoshop and 3ds max) but I should have a few animation jobs coming in towards the end of the year so it needs to work

[Dimitris Tolios]

Will it render stuff? Sure. Is it a rendering machine? No, definitely not.

 

Wherever you see a "U" designation in intel CPUs, usually it is equivalent of reading "ultra-low-voltage/consumption etc" CPU => you are looking at a mobile CPU that is "tuned" for low consumption / maximizing battery life.

 

This, can only happen if you "detune" it for absolute performance. You cannot have both.

 

In this case, you have a dual-core CPU with HT - thus it is a "i7" meant for the ultrabook world, as i5s don't do HT.

It is a fast CPU, especially for the 15W it is rater for, but when the high-end i7 4xxx mobile CPUs are @ 47W (with IGP, but so is the 4500U), you realize that something has to give.

 

Double the threads and better clocks need more than 3x the power, there is no way around that, so this will be an ok machine to model with, but pretty slow - apples to apples - for renderings vs a laptop with a fully fledged 4C/8T 4th gen i7.

[vangutendog]

Thank you for the informed feedback Dimitris. I will carry on looking based on your suggestions

 

As I'm looking to emigrate I don't have the luxury going for a desktop device so the laptop need to render as well

[Dimitris Tolios]

I kinda like the Y5xx 15" offerings from Lenovo as relatively good value laptops for the money. Think the current iteration is the "Y50".

 

Things I like in a nutshell:

 

* 15" / 1080p screen. High res, yet "usable" with windows' non-scalable UI apps. Relatively lightweight and portable.

* i7 CPUs - think the Y50 is standard with a 2.4-3.4Turboboost i7-4700HQ.

* dedicated GPU - Y50 has the latest Maxwell based GTX 860M 2GB & faster 4GB options

* 8~16GB RAM

* SSD or hybrid HDD options.

* separate optical drive (included, but no need to haul around).

* intel NIC/Wifi

* illuminated keyb

* Matte Screen

* Construction is ofc plastic with aluminum accents, but feels rigid.

 

What I don't like:

* cheesy looks / colors (gaming laptop = for 12yo apparently)

* nowhere near as thin and light as MBP or other stylish laptops (cheaper and just as fast or faster tho) - that dedicated GPU has its shortfalls, as the power brick will be bigger than average.

* nowhere near as good battery life as ultrabooks / MBP (Again the GPU takes its tall)

Edited July 15, 2014 by dtolios