What brands have good build quality?

[BlargKing]

1 hour ago, D2ultima said:

Price range?

 

Your best bet will likely be a cheap enterprise-tier laptop, like a HP Zbook or Lenovo W-series. But then you're venturing into refurbished or second hand territory, really.

800-1000$ CAD. Could stretch to 1200$ if its really good. 

[D2ultima]

Just now, BlargKing said:

800-1000$ CAD.

Yeah, your best bet is some refurbished W-series Lenovos or thinkpads or something.

[Pendragon]

41 minutes ago, D2ultima said:

Yeah, your best bet is some refurbished W-series Lenovos or thinkpads or something.

): it's really really hard to get decent refurb things in Canada. Can't get it from US cause import tax kills the value. ):

[Pendragon]

Something like this is nice:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZBook-15-i7-4800MQ-2-7GHz-16GB-500GB-32GB-SSD-Msata-NVIDIA-K2100M-2GB-1080P-/322216600288?hash=item4b059b22e0:g:~tMAAOSwARZXo4lF

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-ZBook-15-i7-4900MQ-2-8GHz-15-6-16GB-RAM-250GB-SSD-Blu-Ray-Windows-10-/282132410058?hash=item41b066eeca:g:NgQAAOSwHoFXrPGR#viTabs_0

[BlargKing]

I dont really want to buy used. To me workstation computers are the same as Macs, overpriced under spec machines sold to people who dont know better. 

[BlargKing]

2 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

 

 

[Pendragon]

1 hour ago, BlargKing said:

I dont really want to buy used. To me workstation computers are the same as Macs, overpriced under spec machines sold to people who dont know better. 

Wtf did I just read. Okaaay. 

 

1st: The two things I linked you are on par if not better than a i7 6700HQ. Skylake was engineered for efficiency not power. 

2nd: Workstations are exactly what you pay for, excellent 24/7 service with whatever specs you want it to have. New those Zbooks would cost $3500 easy. There is a reason why workstations and enterprise sales make up alot of the revenue for a company like Dell, HP, Lenovo, Nvidia, Intel etc. 

3rd: You asked for the best build quality, workstations have the best build quality. 0 disputes here, they're are just facts. Most of them are Mil-Speced with spill resistant keyboards and shock and humidity tested. 

4th: If you don't want to buy used, that's completely understandable. You'll have to settle for a ULV i5 chip then. 

5th: I don't mean to come off aggressive, but workstations are the cream of the crop in the laptop industry. People who buy these things generally know exactly what they want, and need something that will never fail.

6th: Zbooks are the cream of the cream of the crop. They are generally priced several thousand dollars more than competing solutions such as the Lenovo P/W series and the Dell Precision series. 

 

tl;dr, workstations are the best but not for everyone. If you don't buy used, a 1000 cad will honestly get you around a i5/i7 ulv laptop. 

[Dackzy]

12 hours ago, Pendragon said:

Something like this is nice:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ZBook-15-i7-4800MQ-2-7GHz-16GB-500GB-32GB-SSD-Msata-NVIDIA-K2100M-2GB-1080P-/322216600288?hash=item4b059b22e0:g:~tMAAOSwARZXo4lF

I want that and I want it really badly and if I could get if for that price here in Denmark I would buy it as fast as i could, I can only get a used W540 here with close to the same specs, just with a 512gb ssd for much much more (1390 USD),

That laptop is close to my dream laptop.

 

Also OP what the F is wrong with you? You pay extra for the quality and support. Business laptops are made for 24/7 operation.

How expensive do you think it would be if a top engineers laptop dies with all of his work on it?Just the down time alone would cost the company a lot.

 

For 1k CAD you can get a new i5 ULV laptop, if you want something that is really well build or you can go out a do the smart thing and get a used one.

 

A bonus of buying business class laptops is that there will be parts for it, for a very long time.

 

2 hours ago, Pendragon said:

tl;dr, workstations are the best but not for everyone. If you don't buy used, a 1000 cad will honestly get you around a i5/i7 ulv laptop. 

Business class*

Workstations are only Zbooks, W series, P series and such, while Business class laptops includes laptops like T460s, elitebook 745 G3 and such, while still having Zbooks there.

 

He is fairly lucky if he can get a i7 ULV business class laptop for 1k CAD

[Pendragon]

30 minutes ago, Dackzy said:

I want that and I want it really badly and if I could get if for that price here in Denmark I would buy it as fast as i could, I can only get a used W540 here with close to the same specs, just with a 512gb ssd for much much more (1390 USD),

Yo my dream workstation is a HP Zbook 15 Decked Out Xeon and M2000m. Comes in at about 4k USD ):

[Dackzy]

Just now, Pendragon said:

Yo my dream workstation is a HP Zbook 15 Decked Out Xeon and M2000m. Comes in at about 4k USD ):

well I only dream about the PCs I can afford

[tim81517lh]

Dell XPS line is decent, their Precision laptops are also pretty good but are slightly pricier as it is meant for professional users. Their 3000 series is within 1000 dollars.

 

Also, I know you've had a bad experience with ASUS, but I just want to put it out there that ASUS builds some of the best laptops out there. Also Pegatron Corp builds a lot of the laptops you see (Dell, Asus, MSI, and in the past, Apple MacBooks), so in terms of manufacturing quality control it will be roughly the same across many these brands, if it's flimsy it's most likely due to bad design inherent in specific models and not a brand-wide issue.

 

Also, Lenovo builds good laptops as well, but their ThinkPad line will air on the more expensive side as it is also meant for professional users.

[Pendragon]

12 minutes ago, tim81517lh said:

Also, Lenovo builds good laptops as well, but their ThinkPad line will air on the more expensive side as it is also meant for professional users.

Unless you get it refurb/ebay. Then those deals are sick.

[Hamako]

ThinkPad P50 is also a good option. Lower end specs are quite affordable. Not everyone needs a mobile Xeon after all.

[Pendragon]

7 hours ago, Hamako said:

Not everyone needs a mobile Xeon after all.

Nobody recommended Xeons.

[BlargKing]

I don't like workstations because I look at them online and they want 2000$ for a machine with a Core i5, a 500 GB HDD, and a measly 4GB of RAM. Not to mention a baseline Quadro which besides being nearly snake oil at this point give me less GPU power than the 960M that most the models Im looking at.

 

Regardless, a spot opened up in a Digital Media course at the college so I'll be needing a more powerful machine. I've been able to up my budget to 1600$ max. I was looking at one of the 15" ASUS ROG laptops with the full metal lid. They seem sturdy and have powerful CPU's and decent GPUs. 

 

Just to prove my point:

Dell Precision 15 3000 1892$ CAD

2.3Ghz Core i5 Quad Core

4GB DDR4 Non-Ecc

500GB HDD

AMD FirePro W5130M 2GB (Immediate fail because I refuse to buy AMD hardware)

Possibly the worst offender is the POS display. 1366X768 on a 2000$ laptop? Are you fucking high? 1080p LCDs are cheap as chips these days and your going to put that shit in a 2K$ laptop?

[Pendragon]

6 hours ago, BlargKing said:

snip

Nobody is recommending to buying them new. It is overpriced in terms of performance per dollar only when new. You asked for the good build quality and second hand workstations are generally the recommendations.

 

The full mental lid Asus with a 960m is a decent machine. If your definition of good build quality means that, that are EASILY alot more options open. I'm quite busy atm so I'll refer you to @D2ultima @don_svetlio @Dackzy

[Dackzy]

46 minutes ago, Pendragon said:

Nobody is recommending to buying them new. It is overpriced in terms of performance per dollar only when new. You asked for the good build quality and second hand workstations are generally the recommendations.

 

The full mental lid Asus with a 960m is a decent machine. If your definition of good build quality means that, that are EASILY alot more options open. I'm quite busy atm so I'll refer you to @D2ultima @don_svetlio @Dackzy

well so am I, I am at a big conference and will be there for the next 3 hours

[kelvinhall05]

dell's higher end notebooks, asus (both my asus laptops are full metal construction) and lenovo, though ive only heard and seen there build quality in reviews on youtube. apple has exelent build quality tho (duh)

[Dackzy]

10 hours ago, BlargKing said:

SNIP

1. Never recommended new

2. They are made to be able to run 24/7, so there has gone a LOT more engineering into them.

3. For a company it is 100% worth it.

[Pendragon]

13 hours ago, BlargKing said:

snip

Back. For 1600 CAD you can go 1 of 4 routes. It will be listed in order of highest cost to lowest

 

Personal Recommendation:

P650RS

- Wait for it to be released over at Eurocom as you wouldn't have to pay import taxes from other Clevo retailers

- 10% student discount

- Ask for a barebones quote (no ram, no storage, no os, wireless lan card is price fine) cause Eurocom overprices the FUUUUUUUCK out of ram and storage. Literally like 200cad for 8gb to 16gb ram. 

- Ask for it to be shipped to like 5% tax regions AND then get it reshipped from there to wherever you are, cause FUCK paying 13-15% tax in ON, NB, NF, NS. #propurchasingtips

- Purchase ram, storage, (pirate os LOL)

- GTX1060

 

Size to Performance King

http://www.eurocom.com/ec/configure(2,350,0)ec

- P640RE

- Will not be updated to Pascal due to thermal design

- Currently on sale

- 10% student discount

- Same barebones and shipping tips from above

- 970m

 

Best Premium Look/Build + Performance:

XPS15 

- Get it off ebay or kjijiji or refurb

- Getting it new is okay too but kills the dollar per value

 

Budget Performance

Y700

- Best budget 960m laptop 

- Better than Asus by miles

 

 

[BlargKing]

Im not buying used. I've had far too many poor experiences with ebay and spending 1600$ on there is asking for trouble. Not to mention, pretty much every workstation laptop I've looked at on ebay has dings and scratches all over it. Plus if I buy a new non-workstation then theres no issue with any warranty/ 

[Pendragon]

9 minutes ago, BlargKing said:

Im not buying used. I've had far too many poor experiences with ebay and spending 1600$ on there is asking for trouble. Not to mention, pretty much every workstation laptop I've looked at on ebay has dings and scratches all over it. Plus if I buy a new non-workstation then theres no issue with any warranty/ 

There's a suggestion to look for used. The laptop suggestions remain. 

[BlargKing]

I've decided to go with the Lenovo Y700. I can get one with an i7, 16GB of ram, the 960M 4GB, a 256GB SDD and 1TB HDD for 1400$ on Newegg right now. I can use the rest of my budget towards a decent mouse and a portable external hard disk. 

[Ryujin2003]

This post was all over the place. For someone asking for help, you really seemed very ungrateful of everyone else's time. A Lenovo Y700? 960M? I could have sworn you stated you DID NOT WANT gaming. But here we are. Enjoy your purchase. I would recommend a really great mouse, but I would assume you'd argue about it for no reason.

 

Next time you ask for help, think and out the time these posters spent giving you advice. No one had to spend any time on this.

[BlargKing]

1 hour ago, Ryujin2003 said:

This post was all over the place. For someone asking for help, you really seemed very ungrateful of everyone else's time. A Lenovo Y700? 960M? I could have sworn you stated you DID NOT WANT gaming. But here we are. Enjoy your purchase. I would recommend a really great mouse, but I would assume you'd argue about it for no reason.

 

Next time you ask for help, think and out the time these posters spent giving you advice. No one had to spend any time on this.

Salty much? If you scroll up half a page you'll see that I mention I changed what course I'm taking in college and that I'll need a more powerful computer than what I originally intended. If I seem ungrateful its merely because I've grown tired of the suggestion that I buy a used workstation when I feel I made it clear that I didn't desire or need a workstation and that I dislike buying used hardware. As for mice, I already know which one I want and don't need assistance.