Laptop Suggestion

Mohammed Adel · February 7, 2024

I want to buy a laptop for engineering use only. I don't need it for gaming. I want it for engineering aspects like programming, automation and so on.

My current goal to use it is TIA Portal. I read its recommended specifications here:
Siemens TIA Portal V18 Which laptop I need ? - automation fair (automation-fair.com)

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-8400H (2.5 up to 4.2 GHz)
RAM memory: 16 GB (min. 8 GB, 32 GB for large projects)
Hard drive: SSD with 50 GB free storage space
Ethernet network: 1 Gbit (for multi-user)
15.6″ Full HD display monitor (1920 x 1080 or greater)

So, I guess I need a good CPU and RAM. And Single Core performance is important. Like threads here will not be important If I am right. I tried to search for a laptop with these specifications, but I didn't find a new one because it is old. So, which of the new intel generations will be a good match to these requirements or better I don't mind. I don't want to buy a new one for some period of time like 5 years or something.
Thank you in advance.

Agall · February 7, 2024

17 minutes ago, Mohammed Adel said:

I want to buy a laptop for engineering use only. I don't need it for gaming. I want it for engineering aspects like programming, automation and so on.

My current goal to use it is TIA Portal. I read its recommended specifications here:
Siemens TIA Portal V18 Which laptop I need ? - automation fair (automation-fair.com)

Processor: Intel® Core™ i5-8400H (2.5 up to 4.2 GHz)

RAM memory: 16 GB (min. 8 GB, 32 GB for large projects)

Hard drive: SSD with 50 GB free storage space

Ethernet network: 1 Gbit (for multi-user)

15.6″ Full HD display monitor (1920 x 1080 or greater)

So, I guess I need a good CPU and RAM. And Single Core performance is important. Like threads here will not be important If I am right. I tried to search for a laptop with these specifications, but I didn't find a new one because it is old. So, which of the new intel generations will be a good match to these requirements or better I don't mind. I don't want to buy a new one for some period of time like 5 years or something.
Thank you in advance.

Pretty much any H, HS, HX series AMD or Intel newer generation, so 5th AMD or 12th Intel and later. Most models come with dGPUs but some that don't, finding ones that don't is difficult, so in general, the budget tier 'gaming' laptops are usually the best value productivity laptops.

I personally outrun U series laptops, aka ultrabooks, so even for work, I run a gaming laptop for this reason. If you look for 'last gen' model gaming laptops with RTX xx50/xx60 series dGPUs like the RTX 3050/4050, it'll usually come with a relatively powerful R5/i5 or R7/i7 CPU to meet productivity needs.

A lot of the prices/deals are region specific, so you may need to specify so someone with knowledge of that local market can give the best recommendation they can find.

Mohammed Adel · February 8, 2024

9 hours ago, Agall said:

Pretty much any H, HS, HX series AMD or Intel newer generation, so 5th AMD or 12th Intel and later. Most models come with dGPUs but some that don't, finding ones that don't is difficult, so in general, the budget tier 'gaming' laptops are usually the best value productivity laptops.

I personally outrun U series laptops, aka ultrabooks, so even for work, I run a gaming laptop for this reason. If you look for 'last gen' model gaming laptops with RTX xx50/xx60 series dGPUs like the RTX 3050/4050, it'll usually come with a relatively powerful R5/i5 or R7/i7 CPU to meet productivity needs.

A lot of the prices/deals are region specific, so you may need to specify so someone with knowledge of that local market can give the best recommendation they can find.

Thank you
Problem is I am from Egypt and the prices here are so high, So I have no luxury to buy dGPU laptop.

Agall · February 8, 2024

9 hours ago, Mohammed Adel said:

Thank you
Problem is I am from Egypt and the prices here are so high, So I have no luxury to buy dGPU laptop.

19 hours ago, Agall said:

Pretty much any H, HS, HX series AMD or Intel newer generation, so 5th AMD or 12th Intel and later.

I'll leave it at that then, since I'm woefully unfamiliar with the market in your region. If you're looking for maximum value, I would follow this recommendation above. If you're looking for minimum cost, then at least meeting your application's minimum spec would be a lot easier.

Noting the laptops that meet the above criteria of 5th or 12th gen being a couple years old at this point, so its not necessary the latest and greatest, but has a significant advantage over the previous generations. 5th AMD and 12th Intel saw massive increases in performance, likely because of AMD's previous generation, Ryzen 3000, that forced Intel to actually start innovating to keep up, rather than what they did from 4th through 11th generation and just ride easy profits.