$400 Workstation Laptop

[Francis MacDonald]

I'm looking for a Workstation Laptop for university around $400US, will probably mostly see use with Solidworks or Solidedge, and a bit of rendering, perhaps CFD.

I was wondering if anyone has a suggestion for a decent used laptop at this price-point. 

Currently, I'm leaning towards a Lenovo W530, but I feel as if I'm over valuing the worth of a Quadro/Firepro Graphics card (not a lot of experience with this) in light of more modern general purpose GPU's, or even just more raw CPU power.

Thanks in advance, and I apologise if this has already been covered.

[Droidbot]

w530 or zbook 15 g1 is your best bet

[Aereldor]

34 minutes ago, Droidbot said:

w530 or zbook 15 g1 is your best bet

Is he really going to be able to get one of those for just $400?

[Francis MacDonald]

1 minute ago, Aereldor said:

Is he really going to be able to get one of those for just $400?

I've found a couple w530s within the price, though I can't find a zbook anywhere near that price.

[Droidbot]

3 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Is he really going to be able to get one of those for just $400?

zbook g1 (or just zbook as it was known then) hovers around $500 but is a better value than w530 even if it is more expensive due to the haswell CPU and better k1100m GPU

 

[Aereldor]

Just now, Droidbot said:

zbook g1 (or just zbook as it was known then) hovers around $500 but is a better value than w530 even if it is more expensive due to the haswell CPU and better k1100m GPU

 

Huh. I might just look into one for college. I was trying to get my hands on a secondhand Macbook because of their stellar rendering performance in iMovie and Final Cut Pro X, but this might provide a cheaper alternative and allow me to keep using HitFilm and Sony Movie Studio.

[Droidbot]

19 minutes ago, Aereldor said:

Huh. I might just look into one for college. I was trying to get my hands on a secondhand Macbook because of their stellar rendering performance in iMovie and Final Cut Pro X, but this might provide a cheaper alternative and allow me to keep using HitFilm and Sony Movie Studio.

Alternatively pick up an Elitebook and hackintosh that shit
 

It's cheap, and OSX is very, very well supported on the Elitebooks. 

 

I can't say much more here, but PM me if you want, and look up 'Clover hotpatch Elitebook Hackintosh'

 

 

 

 

 

[Pendragon]

2 hours ago, Francis MacDonald said:

but I feel as if I'm over valuing the worth of a Quadro/Firepro Graphics card (not a lot of experience with this)

https://www.pugetsystems.com/labs/articles/Why-you-should-use-a-Quadro-video-card-in-Solidworks-2016-751/

 

yes if you can get a quadro go for one. and w530. and then swap for a w520 keyboard. best machine.

[CooperY]

Serious? $400?

[Francis MacDonald]

10 hours ago, CooperY said:

Serious? $400?

At around $400 I'm looking at a k1000m and 4-8gb of RAM, which is a little lacking, but nothing too serious (at least you can upgrade RAM)

[TheDankKoosh]

1 hour ago, Francis MacDonald said:

At around $400 I'm looking at a k1000m and 4-8gb of RAM, which is a little lacking, but nothing too serious (at least you can upgrade RAM)

You can get one with a k2000m for $350. Take the extra $50 and get a 1tb 7200 rpm drive and migrate the OS to it.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/15-6-Lenovo-ThinkPad-W530-QCore-i7-3720QM-2-60GHz-8GB-Ram-320GB-HDD-w-Win7-Pro-/391624086920?hash=item5b2e9d5588:g:sXUAAOSw4shX6A0u