Laptop for Scientific Work

[bbuncher12]

Hi! I will be starting college in the fall, and I am looking to get a new laptop. I will use the laptop for light gaming, word processing, and internet, along with other scientific programs such as Autodesk Inventor and quantum calculations (the former is very heavily graphics based and the latter uses a great deal of RAM and processing power). I would like to go no higher than $1,100. Please respond if you can help. Thank you!

 

[Horror]

well, I certainly believe, as it seems you will be doing a lot of multitasking, you definitely need at least an i5 processor - if not an i7 processor.

I suggest at least 6GB RAM.

I'm not sure about the US, but isn't 1100 dollars a lot? in the UK you can buy a good touchscreen laptop - well I got mine with an i5 processor, a touchscreen one, and 8GB RAM for 600 pounds !!

would you like a touchscreen nowadays (just to follow the new 'fashion') or is that not really your thing?? laptops without touchscreens here cost around 300-400 pounds.

 

[bbuncher12]

Thanks for your quick reply! I would prefer a laptop that is much less than 1,100, but that is my absolute limit. I am not interested in a touch screen.

I've been looking a bit into several different laptops from Toshiba, but one thing that I was unsure about was the quality of the Mobile Intel graphics card and Integrated Intel graphics card, as I couldn't find a whole lot of information about them. They seem to be in the vast majority of their laptops, most of which were otherwise very good (I7, 8G DDR3, great resolution).

 

[Yevrag35]

I'm not sure about the US, but isn't 1100 dollars a lot? in the UK you can buy a good touchscreen laptop - well I got mine with an i5 processor, a touchscreen one, and 8GB RAM for 600 pounds !!

would you like a touchscreen nowadays (just to follow the new 'fashion') or is that not really your thing?? laptops without touchscreens here cost around 300-400 pounds.

$1100 is a lot for a "consumer" grade laptop, definitely. For workstation laptops or "business" grade laptops, this isn't the cheapest, but it's certainly, by no means, expensive.

Our firm purchases Dell E6530 laptops at $1250 a pop.
They're equipped with an Intel i7-3740qm, 8GB 1600MHz RAM, Nvidia NVS 5200M 1GB GDDR5 GPU, and a modest 500GB 7200RPM HDD.

The reason they're more expensive is because they're made with higher quality parts unlike consumer grade machines.

OP, you can certainly find a consumer grade laptop that would meet your needs and budget easily. i7 laptops without a dedicated GPU run anywhere from $700-900. You could i5's for even less than that.

 

[laxer368]

I am currently looking for a similar machine although I have a grant for a laptop so I can spend a little more I would suggest getting a graphics card with it if you plan on modeling anything you make in great detail on solid works I have never used quantum but I would suggest looking at some Acer and Lenovo machines Lenovo has some big student discounts right now on some 14 and 15 inch laptops that will slide in under 1100 get you an i7 and a graphics card ( upgrade ram yourself if you want more then suggested from Lenovo they charge too much for extra ram )

 

[laxer368]

IdeaPad Y510p Laptop - 59370005

 

[steve10765]

This PC is great value, and is just what your looking for
Amazon.com: Lenovo IdeaPad Y510p 15.6-Inch Laptop (Metal - Dusk Black): Computers & Accessories

It has an Intel i7 HASWELL CPU, a 750M 2GB which can run BF3 with an average FPS of 35 on high, and 8GB RAM and 1TB storage.
INTEL HASWELL!