Which laptop do you recommend?

[Prime_714]

I have several configurations that I’m looking at. All of the laptops are Dell brand (G series and Inspiron) and I will use it for 3d modeling (3Ds Max, Maya, and Blender), 3d rendering and some gaming. Which would you recommend and why? I’m trying to as much money as possible, but if the more expensive ones are worth it, then I won’t mind. And is GPU rendering much faster than CPU?

i5 8300H + gtx 1050ti 4gb + 8gb ram ($949)
i7 7700HQ + gtx 1060 6gb + 16gb ram ($1099)
i7 8750H + gtx 1050ti 4gb + 8gb ram ($1049)
i7 7700HQ + gtx 1050 4gb + 16gb ram ($899)*
i5 7300HQ + gtx 1060 6gb + 8gb ram ($749)**
i5 7300HQ + gtx 1050 4gb + 8gb ram ($599)**

*512gb SSD only
**256gb SSD only
***Everything else has 1tb + 128gb

If you have any other suggestions, please mention them.

Thanks

 

[justin.m.beauvais]

If you are gaming, the 1060 6GB is the way to go. Personally I'd go with the i7 as that is going to give you maximum performance. However, if you need to save some dollars the i5 is also a quad core and would be a good substitute. The only real difference is that the CPU doesn't have hyperthreading.

I've got an i7 7700HQ with a GTX 1060 and 16 GB or RAM from Acer, and the thing is great. I play VR games and everything on it. You'll be really satisfied with the performance. Honestly the i5 probably doesn't give up much of that performance, but the 256GB SSD is pretty limiting. If it had an open drive bay for later expansion, I'd get that one in a heartbeat. You can get a 2 TB HDD to put in there for something like $80 and be golden.

Hope that helps.

 

[Prime_714]

Thanks for the quick response. I think I’m going to go with the i5 7300HQ + gtx 1060 6gb + 8gb ram ($749) and upgrade the ram and storage.

 

[sburgett3113]

Thanks for the quick response. I think I’m going to go with the i5 7300HQ + gtx 1060 6gb + 8gb ram ($749) and upgrade the ram and storage.

Not sure how much it matters for your needs but the i5 8300h is 4 core hyperthreaded and the i7 8750h is 6 core hyperthreaded. Older gen i5’s weren’t hyperthreaded and older gen i7’s only quad cores. I’d hate to see you buy a previous gen chip if you have use for the extra threads.

 

[sburgett3113]

You should also look and see if it’s a max q 1060. Performance is a little under a regular 1060 and perhaps the 1050 ti will perform well enough in the games you play which would allow you to spend the money on a better cpu or features you care about. Like thunderbolt port for use with external gpu in the future.