Desktop or Laptop?

[mjtelfor]

Hey everyone!

 

I am tossing up between buying a Dell XPS 15 or keeping my small Macbook Air mid 2013 and building a desktop PC.

I am an Engineering and computer science student and will be running some Neural Networks on the machine (being the laptop or desktop, the mac doesnt have a chance!)

I also need a CAD capable machine.

I am also a moderate gamer playing games such as dwarf fortress and Civ 6 but would like to possibility to buy into VR later.

Storage is going to be mainly cloud storage except for games so compatibility isn't a huge concern.

 

The mac would be taken to university to take notes as well as do some programming.

 

my main concern is about the life of the laptop if I have to run a Neural network for an extended amount of time does the life of a laptop shorten due to the stress put on the processors? 

 

The budget for the model of XPS is around $2000 AUD but i will probably spend a bit over that.

The budget for the Desktop would be $1500 AUD since I wouldn't sell my Macbook air.

 

I am stuck on what path to choose because they both have benefits to each. I really want to know if Ive missed anything that would effect my decision.

 

I am open to any other suggestions about which laptops i could use as well as the GPU and CPU choices for the Desktop.

(I have not looked at the market for a couple of years now and dont know the best value for money components anymore)

[Electronics Wizardy]

3 minutes ago, mjtelfor said:

my main concern is about the life of the laptop if I have to run a Neural network for an extended amount of time does the life of a laptop shorten due to the stress put on the processors

It will last a while. I have ran laptops very hard(100% cpu for weeks, core at 100c and there fine 5 years later). These are nice laptops though(macbooks, dell precision/latitude and thinkpads.

 

Id probably get a seprate desktop if you have space.

[The Sloth]

3 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

It will last a while. I have ran laptops very hard(100% cpu for weeks, core at 100c and there fine 5 years later). These are nice laptops though(macbooks, dell precision/latitude and thinkpads.

 

Id probably get a seprate desktop if you have space.

 

fyi if you have a MacBook pro 15 inch retina late 2013, i have the i7 with 16 GB ram 750m gpu and a 512 gb SSD, you need to redo your thermal paste every 2 years. 

[Squibbies18]

10 minutes ago, mjtelfor said:

Hey everyone!

 

I am tossing up between buying a Dell XPS 15 or keeping my small Macbook Air mid 2013 and building a desktop PC.

I am an Engineering and computer science student and will be running some Neural Networks on the machine (being the laptop or desktop, the mac doesnt have a chance!)

I also need a CAD capable machine.

I am also a moderate gamer playing games such as dwarf fortress and Civ 6 but would like to possibility to buy into VR later.

Storage is going to be mainly cloud storage except for games so compatibility isn't a huge concern.

 

The mac would be taken to university to take notes as well as do some programming.

 

my main concern is about the life of the laptop if I have to run a Neural network for an extended amount of time does the life of a laptop shorten due to the stress put on the processors? 

 

The budget for the model of XPS is around $2000 AUD but i will probably spend a bit over that.

The budget for the Desktop would be $1500 AUD since I wouldn't sell my Macbook air.

 

I am stuck on what path to choose because they both have benefits to each. I really want to know if Ive missed anything that would effect my decision.

 

I am open to any other suggestions about which laptops i could use as well as the GPU and CPU choices for the Desktop.

(I have not looked at the market for a couple of years now and dont know the best value for money components anymore)

ehh i'd wait for AMD to come out with the rest of the ryzen range before building a PC and the current 8 core cpus seem to be a bit out of your price range. depends how soon you need a system 

[Brooksie359]

I'm not use what your university is like but as a an engineering student i found that i don't use my laptop all that much and end up using either a school desktop or my desktop. 

[mjtelfor]

4 minutes ago, Squibbies18 said:

ehh i'd wait for AMD to come out with the rest of the ryzen range before building a PC and the current cpu seem to be a bit out of your price range. depends how soon you need a system 

Do you mean my price range for the XPS? I have been looking at the intel I7, GTX 960m, 8GB RAM

Edited February 24, 2017 by mjtelfor
Mispelt word

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

If my sibling can get through his Mechanical Engineering degree with a lousy Acer Aspire with a Core i3 and a Radeon HD 5450, you'll be fine running CAD on either of those. It wouldn't be the best, but it'll get the job done.

[JoostinOnline]

The Dell XPS line is basically the Windows equivalent of Macs. They cost at least twice what they're worth. Don't waste your money on them. 

[Squibbies18]

14 minutes ago, mjtelfor said:

Do you mean my price range for the XPS? I have been looking at the intel I7, GTX 960m, 8GB RAM

https://au.pcpartpicker.com/list/DHZVZ8 decent build for you  i'd still wait to see what the other ryzen CPUs are gonna be like, tbh i wouldn't buy a laptop to game on you can build a PC to outperform it for less pretty much all the time and since you already have a laptop then it would be the better bet