Laptop recommendation

[Just for fun]

My old top works for simple stuff but if I start adding more stuff to the drawing it struggles. Sometimes even to the point it stopes responding. It is several years old, it is a HP 17" ENVY, it has an Intel Core i7-4700MQ @2.40GHz with 8 GB RAM running Windows 10 Home.

Looking for recommendations for a new 17" Laptop, I'm not familiar with most of the brands out there. I never take it anywhere it resides on the dining room table for the most part, so it doesn't need to be a thin on the go Laptop. I would prefer a more solid desktop replacement unit. And I am not setup for a full-fledged desktop. I'm not a gamer, mainly just surfing the web but I want the computer to run Fusion 360 with any hang-ups.

There seems to be lots of choices, I suppose anything new with a good processor and 16GB or more of RAM should work well. So, the one thing I really don't know about is either an AMD or Intel chip?

I have only had Dell and HP laptops and they have both worked well.

I would like to keep the cost down around $1000 to $1500 dollar range, but I could go a little higher for a nice unit.

Tim

 

[wachuko]

Dell and Lenovo have been my go-to notebooks for many, many years... And now my daughter's as well for her work (character design)....

But a 17" is right there at almost 2K...

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[pdentrem]

Lenovo would be my first choice. Look for RAM and lots of it. Rendering needs RAM and a good processors. SSD drive for the system and a spin drive for your data. 1500 will get a good used unit from Lenovo. 17” screens make for a larger price unfortunately. What about going 15” and use your HDMI Tv as monitor?
Pierre

 

[woodchucker]

Lenovo would be my first choice. Look for RAM and lots of it. Rendering needs RAM and a good processors. SSD drive for the system and a spin drive for your data.
Pierre

I would not consider a hard drive for data. SSD only.
The difference is real, and I have had no issues with SSD's. As a matter of fact we started using them for Database drives on big systems. Some data on big systems multi terrabyte were still hard drives, for long term storage of non/slow changing data. But for fast changing data SSDs.. And the reason for the HDD was cost for many terrabytes.
I have a Lenovo and hate it. I don't like the bios.. I changed the drive for a SSD, as they wanted over 2k for the same system with an SSD... I just replaced it myself.. Having had all SSD drive laptops at work for years, I could not see spending that kind of change for just the SSD upgrade.

I backup to a 2 terrabyte hard drive weekly incrementals.

Memory , SSD and USB ports important.. HDMI...While many like displayport, I don't... HDMI over displayport.
If you can go for 16gb or more memory. with SSD swaping is faster but more memory means not swapping.
avoid windows 11... do not go there. I have been watching the reviews, both technical and plain user. Stay away.
Every other release of windows is a disaster... 11 seems to be that disaster. Funny how they said 10 would be permanent and not ever be replaced... they LIE.

As far as computer, I dislike HP with a passion. Their laptops are bricks. Dell is better, Asus is better, Lenovo Thinkpad is better.
SSD size... that's up to you.. I am running a 512g formatted to 462gb. It has been good for me. Lots of video, pictures/data.. I still have a big database on here for various things.


edit: one thing I forgot to mention... the old laptops allowed you to add memory. Many of the new ones DON'T. That was a rude awakening to me how my Lenovo came... find out if you can upgrade it after the fact, it's much cheaper. It's hard to find the answer, and sometimes the answer you are given is bogus.

And I find windows home meh... go for PRO.

 

[MikeInOr]

I don't like Dell Laptops, I have had too many troubles with them over the years. I have a Dell 17" work laptop currently and I am underwhelmed.

I have had much better luck with Lenovo laptops in general. Lately I have been advising family and friends to look at the ASUS laptop offerings. I have been quite impressed with their laptop / tablet engineering for quite a while. All of the feedback from family and friends has been very positive! ASUS does a really good job engineering the electronic and physical aspects of their mobile devices. I even advised my girlfriend to buy an ASUS laptop to run her business / accounting on... bad advice there is an area I would be hearing about for a VERY long time! Microsoft Surface devices also get very good reviews but I haven't spent any qualitative time on one myself.

I have been running AMD processors for quite a while now. Both Intel and AMD make some excellent processors but AMD has been better performance per buck the last few times I have upgraded (I am primarily a desktop workstation users though).

Most very high end laptops are oriented towards gamers... which is a complete waste of money for non-gamers. A fast graphics card will have no advantage for the typical user but you will spend a lot of money for the unused technology.

When was the last time you reloaded Windows 10 on your HP? The specs you list are respectable and should be capable of running Fusion 360 very smoothly. Does your HP have a SSD or a physical hard drive? If it has a physical HD upgrading it to a SSD with a new Windows install might surprise you with its potential.

In my experience processor performance jumps manifesting themselves in actual user experience gains have been very mediocre the past decade. Disk speed makes a much bigger difference for my usage (I am a software engineer and compile large apps many times a day so disk speed makes a huge difference) and a majority of the users I talk to have also found that fast storage is a much bigger improvement than a faster processor. PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD's are much faster than SATA based SSD's. Most new laptops will have some version of NVMe SSD for hard drive storage. Intel skipped the whole PCIe 4.0 x4 spec in their processors and went from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 5.0 in their very latest processors that are just being introduced currently.

My home workstation has 64Mb of memory but the majority of virtual machines I have running on it only have 8Gb of RAM allocated to them. 16Gb will only be helpful if you are generally running a lot of applications at one time.

 

[pdentrem]

All drive fail - period. Doesn’t matter SSD or spin drive. I replaced my spinner with SSD for $50 Samsung 500gb unit as the original Toshiba was slowing down badly.
As for serious work, I use a workstation loaded with RAM and multiple drives SSD and spin. The largest one for backup of the other drives.
Too bad Toshiba got out of the market, my old Satellite Pro even being 15 years old runs just fine. Replaced its hd with a SSD and it has a new life for now but being only 32 bit it is limited to legacy programs that are not currently 64 bit.
Pierre

 

[Just for fun]

I don't like Dell Laptops, I have had too many troubles with them over the years. I have a Dell 17" work laptop currently and I am underwhelmed.

I have had much better luck with Lenovo laptops in general. Lately I have been advising family and friends to look at the ASUS laptop offerings. I have been quite impressed with their laptop / tablet engineering for quite a while. All of the feedback from family and friends has been very positive! ASUS does a really good job engineering the electronic and physical aspects of their mobile devices. I even advised my girlfriend to buy an ASUS laptop to run her business / accounting on... bad advice there is an area I would be hearing about for a VERY long time! Microsoft Surface devices also get very good reviews but I haven't spent any qualitative time on one myself.

I have a small version 10" I think, I don't use it much anymore. When I was still working and having to stay out of town I would take it with me for something to do at night.

I have been running AMD processors for quite a while now. Both Intel and AMD make some excellent processors but AMD has been better performance per buck the last few times I have upgraded (I am primarily a desktop workstation users though).

Most very high end laptops are oriented towards gamers... which is a complete waste of money for non-gamers. A fast graphics card will have no advantage for the typical user but you will spend a lot of money for the unused technology.

That's what I was afraid of.

When was the last time you reloaded Windows 10 on your HP? The specs you list are respectable and should be capable of running Fusion 360 very smoothly. Does your HP have a SSD or a physical hard drive? If it has a physical HD upgrading it to a SSD with a new Windows install might surprise you with its potential.

It's been a couple years now, I think. I replaced the hard drive with an SSD and that improved things a lot.

So, maybe I have something else wrong. Even now the with Microsoft Outlook open, Microsoft Edge and Oh Geeze 12 tabs open the fan is running and it pretty warm. So, when I go to Task Manager it says there are 48 instances of Edge running and using up 61% of the memory.

Maybe I should try a different browser and/or not have so many tabs open. hum

In my experience processor performance jumps manifesting themselves in actual user experience gains have been very mediocre the past decade. Disk speed makes a much bigger difference for my usage (I am a software engineer and compile large apps many times a day so disk speed makes a huge difference) and a majority of the users I talk to have also found that fast storage is a much bigger improvement than a faster processor. PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD's are much faster than SATA based SSD's. Most new laptops will have some version of NVMe SSD for hard drive storage. Intel skipped the whole PCIe 4.0 x4 spec in their processors and went from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 5.0 in their very latest processors that are just being introduced currently.

My home workstation has 64Mb of memory but the majority of virtual machines I have running on it only have 8Gb of RAM allocated to them. 16Gb will only be helpful if you are generally running a lot of applications at one time.

 

[Forty Niner]

My old top works for simple stuff but if I start adding more stuff to the drawing it struggles. Sometimes even to the point it stopes responding. It is several years old, it is a HP 17" ENVY, it has an Intel Core i7-4700MQ @2.40GHz with 8 GB RAM running Windows 10 Home.

Looking for recommendations for a new 17" Laptop, I'm not familiar with most of the brands out there. I never take it anywhere it resides on the dining room table for the most part, so it doesn't need to be a thin on the go Laptop. I would prefer a more solid desktop replacement unit. And I am not setup for a full-fledged desktop. I'm not a gamer, mainly just surfing the web but I want the computer to run Fusion 360 with any hang-ups.

There seems to be lots of choices, I suppose anything new with a good processor and 16GB or more of RAM should work well. So, the one thing I really don't know about is either an AMD or Intel chip?

I have only had Dell and HP laptops and they have both worked well.

I would like to keep the cost down around $1000 to $1500 dollar range, but I could go a little higher for a nice unit.

Tim

Have you considered adding memory to your i7 HP and running an SSD drive (if you don't already)
These two moves can wake up a machine like yours.

I would also offer that I have had very good reliability and upgrade ability with Dell Laptops, unlike some other posters. I have had Dells for myself and family for 20 years. They all ran well until Micrdosoft windows became too bloated for them. Of course that happens with any brand, doesn't it!

 

[Just for fun]

Maybe Windows is the problem.

I already changed the hard drive out and installed an SSD. Maybe upgrading the Ram from 8 GB to somthing larger will surface for a couple more years?

 

[Firebrick43]

I don't like Dell Laptops, I have had too many troubles with them over the years. I have a Dell 17" work laptop currently and I am underwhelmed.

I have had much better luck with Lenovo laptops in general. Lately I have been advising family and friends to look at the ASUS laptop offerings. I have been quite impressed with their laptop / tablet engineering for quite a while. All of the feedback from family and friends has been very positive! ASUS does a really good job engineering the electronic and physical aspects of their mobile devices. I even advised my girlfriend to buy an ASUS laptop to run her business / accounting on... bad advice there is an area I would be hearing about for a VERY long time! Microsoft Surface devices also get very good reviews but I haven't spent any qualitative time on one myself.

I have been running AMD processors for quite a while now. Both Intel and AMD make some excellent processors but AMD has been better performance per buck the last few times I have upgraded (I am primarily a desktop workstation users though).

Most very high end laptops are oriented towards gamers... which is a complete waste of money for non-gamers. A fast graphics card will have no advantage for the typical user but you will spend a lot of money for the unused technology.

When was the last time you reloaded Windows 10 on your HP? The specs you list are respectable and should be capable of running Fusion 360 very smoothly. Does your HP have a SSD or a physical hard drive? If it has a physical HD upgrading it to a SSD with a new Windows install might surprise you with its potential.

In my experience processor performance jumps manifesting themselves in actual user experience gains have been very mediocre the past decade. Disk speed makes a much bigger difference for my usage (I am a software engineer and compile large apps many times a day so disk speed makes a huge difference) and a majority of the users I talk to have also found that fast storage is a much bigger improvement than a faster processor. PCIe 4.0 x4 NVMe SSD's are much faster than SATA based SSD's. Most new laptops will have some version of NVMe SSD for hard drive storage. Intel skipped the whole PCIe 4.0 x4 spec in their processors and went from PCIe 3.0 to PCIe 5.0 in their very latest processors that are just being introduced currently.

My home workstation has 64Mb of memory but the majority of virtual machines I have running on it only have 8Gb of RAM allocated to them. 16Gb will only be helpful if you are generally running a lot of applications at one time.

The OP is running fusion 360. If you are animating the drawing in fusion, a graphics card helps immensely .