which is the better deal for the same price?

[Jimphf]

Asus Vivobook Pro, N552NX-US51T i5-6300hq @ 256gb m.2 ssd/1tb hdd, 8gb ddr4, 2.3-3.2 ghz, gtx950m with a 3.1port and optical drive or...
Dell 15, 7559-5013GRY i7-6700hq @ 8gb data ssd/1tb hdd 8gb ddr3, 2.6-3.5 ghz, gtx960m without 3.1 port and no optical drive? Both are 4k touchscreen with 3-3.0 ports, Backlit with Windows 10 @ 64 bit. Having a difficult time deciding which is better for CAD/3D, animation/design, not so much for gaming...thank you!

 

[Multipack]

For 3D at 4k res you want the one with the better GPU, which in this case is the 960m. You will also benefit from the four extra logical cores in 3D animation work and you cant do much with USB 3.1 anyway unless theres something specific you want it for.

 

[hang-the-9]

THe Dell by far, faster CPU, faster video card. At some point or right way you would want to get a full solid state hard drive for the system.

 

[Jimphf]

Thank you for your responses. The Asus can use Pcie SSD and the Dell can only use the standard SSD. Does this matter when deciding or do they both have their benefits?

 

[Multipack]

No, PCIE is a faster interface, and uses NVME drives, but you wont need anything faster than a SATA SSD really, and the extra logical cores of the i7 and the better GPU will benefit you a lot more in my opinion.

 

[Jimphf]

Ok, thank you for clarifying that up for me. This will be my first laptop purchase and wanted to make sure I was getting my money's worth. Do you think I've made a good choice for $750 or do you think I can do better?

 

[Multipack]

For $750 you are getting an excellent deal and I'd snap it up now... A 4k screen with a low power 6700 and a gtx 960m for that price is a steal. I had a quick look to see if I could match it and I cant. Maybe someone else can, but either way its a great price.

Except, did you say it has an 8gb SSD? Are you sure?

 

[Jimphf]

Yes and no, 8gb ssd and 1tb hhd. Sorry about that. Thanks, I thought it was a steal. Going to pick one up today. I upgrade the 8gb with a bigger ssd. Again, thank you so much.

 

[Jimphf]

Do you know what brand of ssd I should buy...Samsung or Crucial? Any help knowing before I but would be great, thanks.

 

[Multipack]

Samsung are overpriced even if they do hve superior memory controllers. The newer Crucial MX300 is one of the best price v performance SSD's around right now.

And I guess the 8gb SSD is more of a cache drive.

 

[Jimphf]

So much research I really didn't know which way to go. I decided upon the Dell instead of the Asus. The only reason why I was thinking about the Asus was because of 3.1, the pcie SSD and the CD drive, other than that the Dell had more CPU and GPU.

 

[Multipack]

Yeah it was a case of where you put your money basically, because you were trading off CPU and GPU for PCIE SSD and USB 3.1m, but PCIE SSD's are unnecessarily fast and have serious overheating issues in laptops (which down-throttles their speeds) and USB 3.1 is still experimental and not much use compared to four extra logical cores and a better graphics chip. I'd say you made the right decision. You can always upgrade the HDD easily anyway.

 

[Jimphf]

Yeah it was a case of where you put your money basically, because you were trading off CPU and GPU for PCIE SSD and USB 3.1m, but PCIE SSD's are unnecessarily fast and have serious overheating issues in laptops (which down-throttles their speeds) and USB 3.1 is still experimental and not much use compared to four extra logical cores and a better graphics chip. I'd say you made the right decision. You can always upgrade the HDD easily anyway.

 

[Jimphf]

Hey Multipack,
Thanks again for your help and expertise. I picked up my Dell at the Microsoft Store for that amazing price. I got it home and set it up with all its updates and it's working beautifully. I'll be picking up the extra SSD as you suggested soon and I should be all set for a while. I'm very happy with the purchase and the quality of the laptop. The display, performance and build is more than I could've hoped for. Good job man, take care.

 

[Multipack]

Np at all. That's awesome news bud. Am jealous of your new laptop! 😛 Let us know if you think we can help with anything.

 

[Jimphf]

Hey Multipack,
How's it going? I'm adding the new Crucial SSD to the Dell today and wanted to know if there is anything I should know before going forward with the process? ...Set-up and Bios transfer etc.

 

[Multipack]

Hey bud. It depends how you plan on using it, and where your OS is going? How is it setup now?

 

[Jimphf]

Hey Man, I've Already received the Crucial 525gb M.2 SSD and 8gb Ram. I installed the OS onto the SSD and everything turned out ok after a few hiccups. It's booting from the SSD now and seems to be working really well and super quick as you could imagine. Just one thing though...do I have to set up the HHD as the storage drive and how do I go about doing that easily. There's a lot of info online but, seems that everyone has their preferred way of doing things? haha! I spent several hours yesterday migrating the drive for my first time. Wouldn't have been that bad if I had known some things in advance. I'm sure you know what I mean. It all worked out but, I'm sure it could've been much easier. Anyway, any advice would be appreciated. Thanks again...

 

[Multipack]

Firstly, does the SSD boot and run okay without the HDD attached? The last thing you want to do is format the HDD only to find it still has system files or a boot sector in use. If you can run everything fine without the HDD attached then it's just a case of formatting the drive and assigning it a letter, so for example your SSD will be (C and your HDD will be (D. It's really that simple. Yeah cloning is a bit confusing but you have definitely got around the most complicated part now, and you should already be seeing huge performance boosts.

Would've gladly tried to help with any questions you had. Sorry it all got a bit complicated. Let us know how it's going now.

 

[Jimphf]

Yup, the SSD is running smoothly and the HDD has been formatted and assigned a new letter. So, it seems that everything that should've been done has been done. I was also wondering about the XMP for the RAM...It seems it's not running to it's fullest potential when I did a Benchmark test? 1st, it said something about activating the XMP in BIOS but, I could not find XMP anywhere in BIOS? Although, it showed that everything was running above expectations. 2nd, read was about 475 and write was around 380...does that sound right to you?