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Need help finding laptop for around $650

atrash
By atrash
in Laptops and Pre-Built Systems
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Hi. I'm planning on getting a new laptop for my little brother in uni. He's currently doing his degree in civil engineering. So the laptop probably have to have decent cpu and gpu horsepower (for both productivity software and games) as well as good built quality to last for several years. I have no clue where to start as I'm using a macbook pro myself so I'm kinda out of the loop with windows based laptop.

 

I'd like to keep it within $650 budget if possible. And only new laptop, no used ones. Touchscreen is not necessary. Good battery life and display is welcomed. 

 

Feel free to ask me what other criteria I should list down and I can maybe discuss it with him.

 

Thanks!

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These are the specs you will probably need, or at least have to look for:

 

A Dual core CPU is fine if he uses AutoCAD since it is single-threaded in drawing, not rendering.  But you should be able to find quad cores in $650... maybe.

Discrete GPU is a must!

For the Best builds and Price lists here is a world where many points of the price have been predefined already for your convenience!

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 IS BETTER Than the Core i5 4690K and a Significantly better value for the non-overclockers or value shoppers.

The OS is like a kind food, Try it before saying if you like it or don't.

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http://pcpartpicker.com/product/jsX2FT/asus-laptop-a555dgehfx this is a 4 core cpu and an ok gpu. for about 100$ this will beat it easily http://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZzYWGX/dell-laptop-i55485833slv

Good luck, Have fun, Build PC, and have a last gen console for use once a year. I should answer most of the time between 9 to 3 PST

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http://pcpartpicker.com/product/jsX2FT/asus-laptop-a555dgehfx this is a 4 core cpu and an ok gpu. for about 100$ this will beat it easily http://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZzYWGX/dell-laptop-i55485833slv

Good luck, Have fun, Build PC, and have a last gen console for use once a year. I should answer most of the time between 9 to 3 PST

NightHawk 3.0: R7 5700x @, B550A vision D, H105, 2x32gb Oloy 3600, Sapphire RX 6700XT  Nitro+, Corsair RM750X, 500 gb 850 evo, 2tb rocket and 5tb Toshiba x300, 2x 6TB WD Black W10 all in a 750D airflow.
GF PC: (nighthawk 2.0): R7 2700x, B450m vision D, 4x8gb Geli 2933, Strix GTX970, CX650M RGB, Obsidian 350D

Skunkworks: R5 3500U, 16gb, 500gb Adata XPG 6000 lite, Vega 8. HP probook G455R G6 Ubuntu 20. LTS

Condor (MC server): 6600K, z170m plus, 16gb corsair vengeance LPX, samsung 750 evo, EVGA BR 450.

Spirt  (NAS) ASUS Z9PR-D12, 2x E5 2620V2, 8x4gb, 24 3tb HDD. F80 800gb cache, trueNAS, 2x12disk raid Z3 stripped

PSU Tier List      Motherboard Tier List     SSD Tier List     How to get PC parts cheap    HP probook 445R G6 review

 

"Stupidity is like trying to find a limit of a constant. You are never truly smart in something, just less stupid."

Camera Gear: X-S10, 16-80 F4, 60D, 24-105 F4, 50mm F1.4, Helios44-m, 2 Cos-11D lavs

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Austin Evans did a video on the Acer Aspire E15 titled "Is a $500 Gaming Laptop Worth It?"

 

Thought I should mention that.

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I really should write a FAQ about this, but most engineering use of computers in undergrad involves relatively trivial (by todays' standards) applications.  Word and Excel are where most time will be spent for most undergrads in engineering programs.  Maybe a little bit of CAD, but nothing that would particularly vex anything sort of laptop built in the past 10 years.

 

So if you need a GPU, it would be for gaming.  And there is little time in an engineering program to be spending time gaming.  If you're gaming in engineering, you're probably not getting homework done, or not socializing.  Which is quite important. 

 

So my recommendation -- get over to Dell Outlet, buy a 14" Dell Latitude E7450 or E7470.  Or find an E6440 with the 1080p IPS screen on eBay.  Should be do-able within range of your budget.  Don't bother with dGPU's at that price point.  Good screen, good battery life, and business class quality is important here. 

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51 minutes ago, Weak1ings said:

These are the specs you will probably need, or at least have to look for:

 

A Dual core CPU is fine if he uses AutoCAD since it is single-threaded in drawing, not rendering.  But you should be able to find quad cores in $650... maybe.

Discrete GPU is a must!

Yeah I use AutoCAD too myself but sometimes even the dgpu GT950m in my rmbp feels inadequate at times but probably because my use case is different.

51 minutes ago, GDRRiley said:

http://pcpartpicker.com/product/jsX2FT/asus-laptop-a555dgehfx this is a 4 core cpu and an ok gpu. for about 100$ this will beat it easily http://pcpartpicker.com/product/ZzYWGX/dell-laptop-i55485833slv

Apparently that Asus has 4gb ram soldered to the board and another 4gb stick..weird configuration.

49 minutes ago, ForumTryhard said:

maybe check this one out? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232764

I will check for the availability. Thanks

48 minutes ago, nelsonpong said:

Austin Evans did a video on the Acer Aspire E15 titled "Is a $500 Gaming Laptop Worth It?"

 

Thought I should mention that.

Thanks. I'm not too sure about Acer. Are they any good? Been reading some bad reviews on their built quality and support.

2 minutes ago, Mark77 said:

I really should write a FAQ about this, but most engineering use of computers in undergrad involves relatively trivial (by todays' standards) applications.  Word and Excel are where most time will be spent for most undergrads in engineering programs.  Maybe a little bit of CAD, but nothing that would particularly vex anything sort of laptop built in the past 10 years.

 

So if you need a GPU, it would be for gaming.  And there is little time in an engineering program to be spending time gaming.  If you're gaming in engineering, you're probably not getting homework done, or not socializing.  Which is quite important. 

 

So my recommendation -- get over to Dell Outlet, buy a 14" Dell Latitude E7450 or E7470.  Or find an E6440 with the 1080p IPS screen on eBay.  Should be do-able within range of your budget.  Don't bother with dGPU's at that price point.  Good screen, good battery life, and business class quality is important here. 

I have no clue what sort of software he uses btw (maybe autocad,solid work etc) so probably more ram would be the better option though my own rmbp with i7, GT750m and 16gb ram sometimes lagged a bit when working with large 2d autocad drawings. I was looking at the Dell Vostro 14 5000 Core i5 model too as I can get the backlit keyboard and maybe upgrade the ram but the display res is kinda poo. The other reason why i want to get dgpu so he can occasionally play some games too since I've been there and wished I had that extra graphics horsepower to chill back and play games after some stressful assignments. But I'll keep it lower in the spec priorities

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double post. derp forum.

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So I've narrowed down the choices to these two laptops but I still need some feedbacks or more recommendations.

 

http://www.lazada.com.my/dell-inspiron-5459-white-i7-6500u4gb1tb4gb-r5-m33514-w10notebook-11856228.html

and 

http://www.lazada.com.my/dell-inspiron-5459-white-i7-6500u4gb1tb4gb-r5-m33514-w10notebook-11856228.html

 

The first one has better cpu but the second one has better gpu. Both are priced almost the same. Any comments on those two? Are the rams upgradeable on both? hows the display quality? 

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On 8/29/2016 at 9:38 AM, atrash said:

So I've narrowed down the choices to these two laptops but I still need some feedbacks or more recommendations.

 

http://www.lazada.com.my/dell-inspiron-5459-white-i7-6500u4gb1tb4gb-r5-m33514-w10notebook-11856228.html

and 

http://www.lazada.com.my/dell-inspiron-5459-white-i7-6500u4gb1tb4gb-r5-m33514-w10notebook-11856228.html

 

The first one has better cpu but the second one has better gpu. Both are priced almost the same. Any comments on those two? Are the rams upgradeable on both? hows the display quality? 

your links failed, I can't clock on them to find the laptop.  Go for whichever one has a quad core, if they are both quad cores, then go for the best GPU.

For the Best builds and Price lists here is a world where many points of the price have been predefined already for your convenience!

The Xeon E3 1231 V3 IS BETTER Than the Core i5 4690K and a Significantly better value for the non-overclockers or value shoppers.

The OS is like a kind food, Try it before saying if you like it or don't.

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