Laptop for rendering

[maurocaruana]

Hello Everyone,

 

I have been reading a lot of posts lately regarding hardware configuration and laptops. I personally do not understand a lot but from what I read I was opting for the following laptop http://www.dell.com/uk/p/inspiron-15-7537/pd?oc=cn75317&model_id=inspiron-15-7537

 

Any suggestions for a limited budget?

 

 

Thanks

[Krisztian Gulyas]

If you REALLY need a laptop, you should buy the best you can, though those are not really made for rendering.

For that price you could buy a nice desktop workstation finish the renders maybe in half the time the laptop would need.

If you buy a laptop, I'm sure you'll have to plug it in when rendering, because it will drain the battery really fast, so you can't really move around with it that way. It's almost like having a pc but slower.

I would buy a laptop and use it for modeling (if traveling a lot), but for rendering (in that price range) a pc will be much faster.

[maurocaruana]

I am completely lost. Currently I have an old Dual Core 4GB Ram and my renderings 1600x1200 Vray max settings take roughly 5hrs to render. I am not investing a lot of money. I need a mid range good laptop or pc to be able to model comfortably and render a couple of images per project.

 

If need be I will opt for render farms for big projects. If work will start coming in than I will consider investing a good sum of money in a desktop pc. My question is what sepcs to go for and if a laptop will do the work. I will not render on in 24/7.

Edited October 14, 2014 by maurocaruana

[maurocaruana]

As my budget is limited to not more than €900 I was looking at these laptop specs too:

 

Asus X552CL-SX050H

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15.6" LED-backlit Screen

Intel Core i7 4500U 1.80GHz

nVidia Geforce GT820 2GB dedicated graphics

8GB DDR3 RAM

500GB Hard Disk Drive

DVD+/-RW Dual-layer optical drive

Genuine Windows 8 Standard 64-bit

 

ASUS N56VB-S4041H

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Asus N56VB-S4041H-12GB Laptop

Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM Quad Core (2.4 GHz, Intel Ivy Bridge Architecture, 6 MB L3 cache, Features Intel Turbo Boost up to 3.4GHz)

Display: 15.6" (ASUS, 1920x1080 Full HD Resolution)

Memory: 12GB (DDR3 1600MHZ)

Hard Disk Drive: 750GB

Graphics: Dedicated (NVIDIA GeForce GT 740M with 2GB Dedicated Memory)

Operating system: Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit

 

I was opting for a laptop as I need to be mobile as much as I can.

[notamondayfan]

The Dell you linked to first looks the best to me, as I'd always want 16gb ram. The screen is maybe a little small for me, but if your use to that size then thats fine.

 

Maybe something like this http://www.saveonlaptops.co.uk/Q2756N-V2-CF1-Gigabyte-Q2756N-V2-CF1_1672702.html might be OK? I have a similar spec'd Acer laptop, and it's more than capable.

 

Ignore people who tell you to only buy a desktop machine. As you say, being mobile is sometimes more important than shaving off 10% in render-time. I have a laptop at home for use on evenings and when out of office. OK I'm not as quick on it, but it beats working alone in an office on an evening!

 

Dean

[maurocaruana]

Thanks for your reply Dean.

 

The specs of the Gigabyte laptop are much better than the Dell. I am a bit concerned because the laptop is new on the market and haven't found detailed reviews. I would like to know regarding any heating issues.

 

 

Mauro

[notamondayfan]

To be honest I think all laptops like this will run hot, but they are designed to, and the cooling is pretty efficient. I have an Acer of similar spec, and if it's on my lap whilst rendering I can feel the heat through one of the side vents, but no where else.

 

You could also look at laptop bases to cool the machine, but I've never felt the need to be this extreme.

 

The Gigabyte also has 2 year warranty, so you're covered there too.

[erkutacar]

ram and cpu r the most im portant thing, get the laptop with the best cpu u can afford and most ram.. about 16gb will be enough for most needs. u dont andvanced hardware for the rest. a decent graphics card and standard 7200rpm hdd will be enough. and u dont need to go to high on hdd capacity. i assume u will not fill it up with music or movies. dont't get larger than 15" screen. coz u will only use it when u r mobile. at home or office u cant use an external monitor.

[maurocaruana]

Well when comparing the Dell to the Gigabyte, the later has more cores/threads. Reviews online show that the Gigabyte processor is much better although it needs more power.

[maurocaruana]

My only concern is the quality issue of Gigabyte. I'm a bit afraid from investing money into a not such High brand such as dell.

 

Dell Processor is a Core i7-4510U and the Gigabye has a i7-4710MQ Quad Core.

[Justin Hunt]

I have a gigabyte P27 and bang for your buck very happy with it. done a lot of rendering and its held up fine. The screen isn't the best but good enough for my needs. When needed I hook up to an external monitor. Its fairly quiet and has good ventilation. The fans are loud under full load but not too loud to be disturbing.

 

Its not too bad to carry around, although the power brick is heavy. Looks good with out being over the top garish.

 

Overall I am very happy with it, and would buy another one

[notamondayfan]

I have a gigabyte P27 and bang for your buck very happy with it. done a lot of rendering and its held up fine. The screen isn't the best but good enough for my needs. When needed I hook up to an external monitor. Its fairly quiet and has good ventilation. The fans are loud under full load but not too loud to be disturbing.

 

Its not too bad to carry around, although the power brick is heavy. Looks good with out being over the top garish.

 

Overall I am very happy with it, and would buy another one

 

Good point about the monitor, my Asus monitor isn't brilliant, and needed calibrating as soon as I turned it on, but I have a different monitor on my workstation for compositing final images.