Whats a good All rounder Laptop for Engineering, Design and Gaming

[keoni6]

So i have started looking for a new Laptop to use for work while traveling, primarily Autocad, Blender, Adobe In-design and Photoshop, But also capable for gaming. I have more permanent desktop set up with a Ryzen 1700, 16Gb of ram and a GTX 1080 for doing all my work while at home, but I often have to travel for anywhere between 1-3 months at a time and need to have something capable of doing this work with me. I currently have laptop that can handle opening and viewing files and some minor tweeks but not any major work, and a ITX PC I then bring with me to do all the major work and changes needed. 

The laptop is a Lenovo Yoga 14, with an i5-6200u 8Gb of ram and a GT 940M, while the ITX PC is a Silverstone Node 202 with an i5-6500, 16Gb of ram and either a GTX 970 or GTX 1070 ( which ever is in an easy position to swap around). 

 

But I have started looking for a more compact setup as airlines are making it harder and harder to travel with anything more than a laptop, denying my checked bags because i have a desktop PC in them and having to completed take apart my carry on and then open the cover on the PC for TSA. So i am trying to find a decent laptop now that could do all his but have been increasing disappointing in what i have found so far, and whated to see if anyone had any recommendations. 

 

What i am looking for:

I need a smallish- light laptop, that can handle working with autocad files that often exceed 1Gb in size, running blender and doing high detail Photoshop, but can also do some gaming ( doesn't have to be ultra settings but would like to be comfortably in the High range). I also have grown really fond of using my lenovo like a tablet and being able to do a rough sketch of what i am doing before using it as a template in Cad or Photoshop, so 2in1 usability would be big plus, I would need the option for multiple storage locations, one for a 1tb m.2 and then a 2tb hybrid 2.5" to hold all the files and reduce load time on assets and work files. 16Gb or more for ram as i often have to set 2-3 Gb off to the side to store a large file while working on it to reduce load and stress. and Lastly a decent GPU, at minimum a GTX 1060 6Gb or RX 580, even with one of these i would have to then leave my computer running overnight to do major processing but these would be the minimum to start. Also using an external GPU has crossed my mind, but i would figure that TSA would be just as much of a nightmare with this as a normal desktop, as it seems to be the PSU that looks weird in the xray. 

 

I have already looked through the main line of Lenovos offering as i do like there designs, upgrade ability and fix ability, but non of their 2in1 come with a GTX 1060 or higher. Razor is overblown in price for what i am looking for and dont offer anything in decent price or versatility, HP and Dell are kind of a joke, charging nearly $400 for a 1tb m.2. Microsoft has their surface book which comes close, but has other issues with reliability, and versatility especially when you start modifying widows, Microsoft will start locking down/disabling some key features. 

 

If possible I would love to buy a bare bones laptop and just add my own RAM and Drives, as i would also be replacing the Thermal paste, but without a good contact within a company this is nearly impossible. 

 

So what do people think is it unreasonable for me to expect to find a laptop that I can, design, draw, game and work on? Where are all the good laptops, it's nearly 2019 and Most professional style laptops don't even have a chance with competing with a desktop a fourth of their price. 

 

P.S. this would make for a fantastic laptop round up episode for Linus guys, being able to review and compare a much wider and different range of laptop 

 

P.ss a few months back i had heard about lenovo potentially having a new variant of there FLEX series releasing in early 2019, which would have have a GTX 1060, 2 ddr4 sodimm slots, 2 M.2 slots and a 2.5" slot but i haven't heard or seen anything else yet, all i ever saw was a photo of the motherboard and a few potential specs. Has anyone heard anything about this?

[AlexTheGreatish]

The Gigabyte Aero 15X might be a good option.  It has a i7-8750H (6 core), 1070 Max-Q, huge 94.24Wh battery and a colour calibrated IPS display.  To get everything you're looking for a Clevo barebones might be the best option, but the build quality of the 15X is way better.

[LukeSavenije]

1 minute ago, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Gigabyte Aero 15X might be a good option.  It has a i7-8750H (6 core), 1070 Max-Q, huge 94.24Wh battery and a colour calibrated IPS display.  To get everything you're looking for a Clevo barebones might be the best option, but the build quality of the 15X is way better.

I found a random staff member. Hi Alex

[JammyCreedog]

What about the Razer Blade 15? Razer Blade 15

[genexis_x]

On 12/18/2018 at 5:25 AM, keoni6 said:

snip

Location? Budget? Preferred max weight in kg and min battery life in hours?

On 12/18/2018 at 5:25 AM, keoni6 said:

P.ss a few months back i had heard about lenovo potentially having a new variant of there FLEX series releasing in early 2019, which would have have a GTX 1060, 2 ddr4 sodimm slots, 2 M.2 slots and a 2.5" slot but i haven't heard or seen anything else yet, all i ever saw was a photo of the motherboard and a few potential specs. Has anyone heard anything about this?

Never heard

On 12/18/2018 at 5:57 AM, JammyCreedog said:

What about the Razer Blade 15? Razer Blade 15

Terrible QA+QC and support

[keoni6]

Sorry haven't had good internet for the last few days so haven't been able to do get on and see what people have posted. 

 

I have considered the Razor blade series but would rather avoid them, I have dealt with trying to get one of them repaired in the past and it was a nightmare, I ended up direct ordering the parts from manufacture in korea as customer support just jumped us around and wasted time for a little more than a week. They are fairly upgrade able but the support is terrible, better than Dell but worse than HP. 

 

As for a weight and size, i would prefer something that is more convenient and portable around a 15" while still being sturdy nad  robust, so as long as this is met i would even prefer a laptop around the 3-5 kg range.

 

For a budget area, i would prefer to go cheaper so that i could get a few accessories, but my upper area would be around the $1500 mark, if it was less, i could pick up a decent external GPU enclosure and not have to rely on he Jerry-rigged setup i use to test GPU's for functionality. My work is willing to let me order this with my own money under there business account so i would be able to get a decent discount from, Lenovo, HP, or Microsoft, so i would prefer something from one of these distributes. 

 

I have done some more research into other options and have warmed upto the option of an external GPU somewhat, but it is a very confusing topic as Thunderbolt 3 is trick to find and even if a laptop has it, the bios can block the use of PCIE connect through it? and not all thunderbolt 3 plugs can actually support a GPU as powerful as a GTX 1070 or 80. 

 

Does anyone have any experience with the Lenovo 720s, these look to be able to support an external GPU as lenovo is selling a docking station for it that has a gtx1050? but are seriously lack IO and look very flimsy 

 

If i get something with the intentions of using an external docked GPU then a computer with a GTX 1050 or equivalent would work well for me, as this would still let me open and do minor adjustments to files and some gaming on those long flights, but once set up would allow for a heavier work load and better gaming performance. I would also really like to keep the versatility of a 2 in 1 laptop as these are way more convenient to game on with a controller while on an airplane.

 

Anyone know of any 2 in 1 that support external GPU and can come with 16gb of ram, an i5 or i7, and have a non integrated internal GPU? 

[reubenahmed]

On 12/17/2018 at 4:38 PM, AlexTheGreatish said:

The Gigabyte Aero 15X might be a good option.  It has a i7-8750H (6 core), 1070 Max-Q, huge 94.24Wh battery and a colour calibrated IPS display.  To get everything you're looking for a Clevo barebones might be the best option, but the build quality of the 15X is way better.

I've read you better dual channel the aero 15x (8x2), it underperforms with a single chip (regardless if that's an 8GB or 16GB single chip?).

It's been tough for me to decide between aero 15x, razer blade 15, alienware m15, etc. They all are suffering from thermal issues that you need to undervolt. I feel like this "1st generation" of thin and light gaming laptops is not the right time, but some of us need a laptop like this ASAP. Unfortunate. Looks like you can get out of the thin and light range and probably get better cooling laptops.

[AlexTheGreatish]

1 minute ago, reubenahmed said:

I've read you better dual channel the aero 15x (8x2), it underperforms with a single chip (regardless if that's an 8GB or 16GB single chip?).

It's been tough for me to decide between aero 15x, razer blade 15, alienware m15, etc. They all are suffering from thermal issues that you need to undervolt. I feel like this "1st generation" of thin and light gaming laptops is not the right time, but some of us need a laptop like this ASAP. Unfortunate. Looks like you can get out of the thin and light range and probably get better cooling laptops.

If your biggest concern is thermals then the Asus Zephyrus is the best laptop for that, they have really killed it from that standpoint., although the small battery kills it for me.  Imo you're still getting heaps of processing power in any of those laptops and even if the clocks do drop a bit during say a render it still will crush anything 7th gen.  Also if you're really about thermals you could always liquid metal it.

[genexis_x]

9 hours ago, keoni6 said:

snip

So you want eGPU setup? Keep in mind that TB3 port limits performance to slightly better than GTX1060 level even with highest end card

 

Also, you haven't answer:

On 12/18/2018 at 2:17 PM, GeneXiS_X said:

Location? Budget? Preferred max weight in kg and min battery life in hours?