Help choosing laptop for heavy computing

[ibjoh]

Hi! I am looking for a laptop that would fulfill the following requirements:

1. High performance. I run heavy simulations in Matlab (on my current MacBook Pro from 2010, 4gb ram 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, NVIDIA GeForce 320M 256 MB they sometimes take more than 1 week).


2. Not too heavy (max 5-6 lbs). I understand that this limits the possible performance but I rather have a lighter laptop and run heavier stuff on a different computer than have a laptop I won't want to carry around.

3. SSD

4. Preferably an exchangeable graphics card to be able to upgrade in the future.

5. I do care about the design, I don't want it to be bulky, look like a typical gaming laptop etc.

6. Runs well with Linux (I will get rid of Windows and install Ubuntu)

Some of the options I have looked at are Sony Vaio Fit 15, Razerblade 14, HP Envy 15

Since Matlab runs on the graphics card, as far as I understand that's one of the most important components I should look at.

Should I definitely get a computer that fits 16gb RAM?

I am willing to pay up to ca. $2000.

I will be very thankful for any advice!

 

[g-unit1111]

If you want a laptop to run simulation software, you're honestly probably better off building a desktop with an i7-4930K and 32GB of RAM. That's just my two cents. If you want a laptop for that purpose, you won't find one under $2K, you're looking more toward $3K - $4K and with laptops the more expensive you get, the more likely your system is to depreciate in value faster.

 

[ibjoh]

If you want a laptop to run simulation software, you're honestly probably better off building a desktop with an i7-4930K and 32GB of RAM. That's just my two cents. If you want a laptop for that purpose, you won't find one under $2K, you're looking more toward $3K - $4K and with laptops the more expensive you get, the more likely your system is to depreciate in value faster.

Thank you. An what are your recommendations in terms of a graphics card?

My problem with a desktop is that I travel a lot so I need something portable with computing power. I understand that I won't be able to get a laptop as powerful as a desktop but given my limited student budget I rather go with the most powerful laptop I can get for $2000 and run the stuff that my laptop won't handle using my university's computing center.

 

[g-unit1111]

If you want a laptop to run simulation software, you're honestly probably better off building a desktop with an i7-4930K and 32GB of RAM. That's just my two cents. If you want a laptop for that purpose, you won't find one under $2K, you're looking more toward $3K - $4K and with laptops the more expensive you get, the more likely your system is to depreciate in value faster.

Thank you. An what are your recommendations in terms of a graphics card?

My problem with a desktop is that I travel a lot so I need something portable with computing power. I understand that I won't be able to get a laptop as powerful as a desktop but given my limited student budget I rather go with the most powerful laptop I can get for $2000 and run the stuff that my laptop won't handle using my university's computing center.

Well mobile graphics cards are not the same as their desktop counterparts, same as the GPUs, especially since they are made for low power consumption. That's why I recommend building a desktop because you don't have that to worry about. You could always go mITX and build around a i7-4770K. But for mobile graphics cards you are probably looking at minimum a GTX 770M or a Radeon 87XXM.