Looking for a *reliable* CAD$1750 (~USD$1300) max laptop, for engineering work & hopefully gaming

[ddk2561]

Hello folks, first time posting here in five years, I need a laptop suggestion but the relevant subreddits are filled with promoters, so please excuse me for copy-pasting the r/SuggestALaptop format below since I poured a lot of time in the original post. I'm in BC Canada which means limited varieties and everything comes with a markup compared to the US plus 12% tax. It's hard to find good bargains.

 

Background-wise, I'm a senior engineering student and have been using a ThinkPad T430 that had been gradually upgraded for the last seven years. Although the weak GPU killed any possibility of gaming past 2014 for me, I still loved the machine for its beastly reliability, fool-proof upgradability, and many IO ports. But still, it's a seven-year old machine and now I need something that can run professional software for work. So I'm looking for a laptop that can last me five years and easily upgradable.

 

• Total budget

  • CAD$1750 sticker price not including taxes, which means CAD$2000 including taxes.

• Are you open to refurbs/used?

  • No. Not unless there's some magical brand with certified refurbs that have ThinkPad level rep.

• How would you prioritize form factor (ultrabook, 2-in-1, etc.), build quality, performance, and battery life?

  • Build quality, performance, form factor (tbh as long as it's not thicker and heavier than a ThinkPad workstation, such as msi or Alienware, I'm okay), battery life

• How important is weight and thinness to you?

  • Like previously mentioned, ThinkPad level good, MSI/Alienware gamer brick bad.

• Screen preference?

  • 14-inch 1080p 60 Hz is good enough, but I don't mind larger screens. If everything else is perfect I can tolerate 13-inch.

• Are you doing any CAD/video editing/photo editing/gaming? List which programs/games you desire to run.

  • AutoCAD Civil 3D, Revit and perhaps SolidWorks need to run smoothly. Gaming-wise I'd love to be able to play Cyberpunk and Red Dead 2 and not burn the street down, but I understand that's a luxury and not a must.

• If you're gaming, do you have certain games you want to play? At what settings and FPS do you want?

  • Like mentioned above, the upcoming Cyberpunk, Red Dead 2, Ace Combat 7 at 60 or 30 fps on medium or low settings. But just being able to play some MP games with friends like Civ6 would already be a luxury for me. If that's too much, gaming can be abandoned in favor of other factors.

• Any specific requirements such as good keyboard, reliable build quality, touch-screen, finger-print reader, optical drive or good input devices (keyboard/touchpad)?

  • Reliable build quality is a must, I don't want to buy an expensive piece of hardware that costs thousands and get major headaches from it in two years. IO connectivity is also very important, I want either at least three USB ports plus HDMI/DP or two ThunderBolts so I can use a dock. SSD and RAM slots need to be accessible, ideally two RAM slots. Fingerprint reader would also be great (ThinkPad habit), but not a must.

• So just to reiterate the core needs:

  • Runs Revit/AutoCAD Civil 3D/engineering spreadsheets

  • Excellent reliability (~5 years)

  • Easily upgradable (SSD & RAM)

  • Good IOs

  • Gaming, please?

Thanks in advance!

Edited August 3, 2020 by ddk2561
Added USD equivalence to the title.

[panzersharkcat]

If you don't mind the weight, a ThinkPad P53 with a Quadro T2000. Slight more in price but lighter would be the ThinkPad X1 Extreme/P1. If you want to stick with a 14" display, then I'd say the Asus Zephyrus G14. Don't know about prices in Canada but it's $1450 US for the configuration with Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16 GB RAM, and 2060 Max-Q. Unfortunately, one RAM slot is soldered on that one. If you don't feel like you'll need more than 16 GB of RAM, that one's the best bang for your buck in performance and it's a lot lighter than the other options. There are lower priced configurations if all you need is a 1650.

[ddk2561]

38 minutes ago, panzersharkcat said:

If you don't mind the weight, a ThinkPad P53 with a Quadro T2000. Slight more in price but lighter would be the ThinkPad X1 Extreme/P1. If you want to stick with a 14" display, then I'd say the Asus Zephyrus G14. Don't know about prices in Canada but it's $1450 US for the configuration with Ryzen 9 4900HS, 16 GB RAM, and 2060 Max-Q. Unfortunately, one RAM slot is soldered on that one. If you don't feel like you'll need more than 16 GB of RAM, that one's the best bang for your buck in performance and it's a lot lighter than the other options. There are lower priced configurations if all you need is a 1650.

Thanks, I'll look into the P53 as it's currently on sale. Would you say the Quadro T2000 is gaming capable?

 

As for the Zephyrus G14, it's all I've been getting spammed about on reddit, but unfortunately it's being sold at a huge markup in Canada. The 2060 Max-Q version is being sold at the equivalence of USD$1870 without the 12% tax on top. Even with that aside, both the 1660 Ti and 2060 variants have been completely sold out.

 

Also how does Asus fare in terms of reliability? I have two friends with Strix and both had their hard drives fail within a year. Another friend had the previous gen Zephyrus and it would shut down randomly.

 

I don't care about sticking to 14', that's just a minimum need but thanks for the suggestion.

 

Edit: the Quadro T2000 variant is over CAD$2500 after tax, rip.

Edited August 3, 2020 by ddk2561
Additional info

[panzersharkcat]

2 hours ago, ddk2561 said:

Thanks, I'll look into the P53 as it's currently on sale. Would you say the Quadro T2000 is gaming capable?

 

As for the Zephyrus G14, it's all I've been getting spammed about on reddit, but unfortunately it's being sold at a huge markup in Canada. The 2060 Max-Q version is being sold at the equivalence of USD$1870 without the 12% tax on top. Even with that aside, both the 1660 Ti and 2060 variants have been completely sold out.

 

Also how does Asus fare in terms of reliability? I have two friends with Strix and both had their hard drives fail within a year. Another friend had the previous gen Zephyrus and it would shut down randomly.

 

I don't care about sticking to 14', that's just a minimum need but thanks for the suggestion.

 

Edit: the Quadro T2000 variant is over CAD$2500 after tax, rip.

It's roughly in between a 1650 and 1650 Ti, from what I remember. Can you try eBay?

 

Never had Asus, so can't say, unfortunately. I'm mostly a ThinkPad user.

 

EDIT: This listing is one with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD for $1380 USD. This listing is $5 less but it's used, not refurbished, and the warranty expires in less than two weeks. For both of them, you need to add another stick of RAM for dual channel memory.

Edited August 3, 2020 by panzersharkcat

[panzersharkcat]

Hmm, actually, if Passmark's site is anything to go by, their benchmark says the Quadro T2000 is a little bit below the 1650 in performance. It does outperform a 1050 Ti Max-Q, which was alright in Civ V and Civ IV, and I could play Fallout 4 at 60 FPS on medium settings with the 1050 Ti Max-Q on my X1 Extreme.

[5x5]

11 hours ago, ddk2561 said:

Thanks, I'll look into the P53 as it's currently on sale. Would you say the Quadro T2000 is gaming capable?

 

As for the Zephyrus G14, it's all I've been getting spammed about on reddit, but unfortunately it's being sold at a huge markup in Canada. The 2060 Max-Q version is being sold at the equivalence of USD$1870 without the 12% tax on top. Even with that aside, both the 1660 Ti and 2060 variants have been completely sold out.

 

Also how does Asus fare in terms of reliability? I have two friends with Strix and both had their hard drives fail within a year. Another friend had the previous gen Zephyrus and it would shut down randomly.

 

I don't care about sticking to 14', that's just a minimum need but thanks for the suggestion.

 

Edit: the Quadro T2000 variant is over CAD$2500 after tax, rip.

Get a Lenovo Legion 5 with a 4800H and 1650 Ti. The cooling on it is impeccable and the performance superb.

[panzersharkcat]

9 hours ago, 5x5 said:

Get a Lenovo Legion 5 with a 4800H and 1650 Ti. The cooling on it is impeccable and the performance superb.

Yeah, it's a good choice. For CPU-intensive tasks, it will kick the ass of the P53 as well, even the one specced with an i9-9880H.