I’m looking to spend around 2,000 on a laptop that I can run blender on. I’m just a beginner at this point and I plan on getting a desktop when I’m more advanced so my renders aren’t going to be ridiculously detailed or anything yet, but I still want a somewhat substantial computer since I also want to house my adobe suite on it to. Any specific computer suggestions? What do you guys use?
2000 what ?
If you have a limit of 2000 euros or 2000 won you’d get very different systems !!
You are a future Mac user my friend …
You’ll get more Mhz, more RAM and maybe more Cores. What you won’t get is a better laptop. Nobody builds Laptops as well-made as Apple. Now, I’m not a big fan of the company and it’s policies, I would love for the situation to be different, but it isn’t. No other manufacturer comes even close in build quality, especially when considering prices.
Unfortunately, for 2000$ you do not get a Macbook with a good graphics-chip and a high-resolution display (company policies…)
If you’re already up to 2000, you might as well go up to 2200 and get the best laptop in the world.
That is an utter lie based on nothing more than opinion.
Apple laptops are not top of the line when it comes to hardware much less build quality. What they have is brand ID and a strong marketing team, nothing more.
@Jdeamici, ask yourself what you want to use Blender for. Are you going to be rendering out fully animated movies? Are you just going to model or rig? Maybe render stills?
You really dont need a beast of a machine to use Blender. There is absolutely no need to spend even $2000 on a laptop. In fact nows the worst time to do that, since tech keeps coming out so fast and Intel’s Haswell CPU is just right around the corner. The direction PC use is going is towards ultrabooks and tablets, outside of desktop PCs for power use.
If you could wait a few months, The Razer Edge with the dock and possibly an external monitor would be a good choice. I know a few artist who are set up to purchase the Microsoft Surface pro for $899, it comes with a built in wacom digitizer. When working with larger screens they will just hook it up to a larger monitor. I could pull out my old Sager which only has a gig of ram and an old nvidia card and still manage to work with blender. Sculpting probably not, but thats cpu based and you can find plenty of intel i5/i7 ultrabooks and tablet pc’s to choose from.
You shouldnt really have to break a $1000 if you were smart with your spending. I built a 6 core desktop computer with 16 gigs of ram for less than a grand, I easily push around 18-20 million polygons in zbrush.
Both sony and samsung offer good options for high powered ultrabooks.
add 200 dollars for 8 more gb of ram on that macbook pro, that’s just… face palm
- 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM
- 16GB 1600MHz DDR3L SDRAM [Add $200.00]
The difference between the two of us is, I can accept the truth no matter how much I dislike Apple. Sure, you can point to better specs on cheaper Laptops. I guess it depends on how much that matters to you.
I can just point you at the touchpad (no such thing exists for Windows), the case (nobody else makes something like that) and the high-resolution display (no other manufacturer has them - yet). These things make all the difference in the world on a laptop.
It is quite likely that the lack of good touchpads and highres displays is a consequence of the bad support of Windows for such things, but it doesn’t change the fact.
Both sony and samsung offer good options for high powered ultrabooks.
Not even close. And certainly not for a particularly better price.
I will make it abundantly clear: I hate their policies. This is one of the reasons.
I also wouldn’t recommend their Mac Pro line, where indeed you can build an enormously more powerful PC workstation for the same price. However, if you again look at the workstation pricing of IBM or Dell, Apple starts to not look so expensive anymore.
that’s really true story… overall PC laptops are going to cath apple… but still the screen on PClaptops is some disaster… without external screen you can stop thinking about true colors…
for 2200$ you got… really good laptop, a laptop with comes with anti glare screen (matte) HD resolution, screen is IPS… so you have realistic colors… from all angles… etc…
Core i7 3.6ghz
8 gig ram.
GFX 650M
And… in future… because you have thunderbold you can buy card like GTX 580 and just connect to your laptop and use for some better rendering.
No the difference between the two of is that clearly one of us knows more about hardware than the other. Hell, I build my PCs and have owned numerous laptops including but not limited to a $3000 mobile workstation by dell. If you are in certain tech circles you would know that Apple has taken a nose dive over the years, and their build quality has dropped. Are you thinking about ipods and iphones? Because I am talking strictly personal computers, mainly in the laptop arena.
All it takes a is a little search and you will find posts, even by pro apple websites complaining about the said build quality of macs. They get their parts from the same cheap sources as nearly everyone else. Apple LCDs? Uh they are purchased from LG and Samsung. The point being some of their internals are the same as everyone else. You cannot logically praise their “retina display” because its nothing more than marketing BS. The eye cant recognize anything beyond 200dpi at a certain distance, and usually manufactures keep it a little under that point for a variety of reasons…you can however find the same screens in other products.
Opening up said apple laptops reveals shoddy manufacturing, glue and thermal paste dripping all over the place. Screws missing, cheaper parts than one would think. There is a reason Apple ramped up their outsourcing. In fact did you know Samsung has more manufacturing jobs in the US than Apple which has practically none. Apple being an “american” company outsources nearly every aspect of their hardware. Nothing about this makes it “better build quality”.
And lack of good touch pads? Really? thats the basis of your laptop quality ranking? If you are working in blender or any other cg application, you would be insane to try using a touch pad. Furthermore, those “touch pads” are the same thing going to other laptop brands. These things all come from the same sources. Whats better, a touch pad or a built it wacom digitizer?
Anyways, you think Apple has better build quality. Go for it, you are entitled to your opinion. I’ll stick to mine. Thats all we can do about it.
omfg… about screens… acctualy resolutions is the last think with is important… apple laptops have IPS mate screen this is iportant and laptops with such screen i can coun’t one one hand and they cost the same and are made from plastic -,-
I am talking about their laptops, the macbook pro line in particular. Apple has certainly built their share of crappy devices (especially the old Macbook line) and I wouldn’t praise their Macbook Air, either. But still other manufacturers can maybe reach the Air, but not the Pro. And when they do, they tend to charge more.
All it takes a is a little search and you will find posts, even by pro apple websites complaining about the said build quality of macs.
You always find things to complain, but I doubt you’d find those sources prefer any PC-based laptop.
They get their parts from the same cheap sources as nearly everyone else. Apple LCDs? Uh they are purchased from LG and Samsung.
As far as the case goes, they are own the production for that and probably a bunch of patents to boot. They may get their Displays from LG or Sharp (likely not Samsung anymore), but at least in the case of the Retina MBP, they get them exclusively. It doesn’t matter where they get them when no one else has anything comparable to offer. Samsung had an Ultrabook with High-DPI on Display recently, but they haven’t brought it to market yet.
The point being some of their internals are the same as everyone else.
Except when they aren’t.
You cannot logically praise their “retina display” because its nothing more than marketing BS. The eye cant recognize anything beyond 200dpi at a certain distance, and usually manufactures keep it a little under that point for a variety of reasons…
The only thing that is marketing BS about the “retina” display on the Macbook is that the resolution is actually too low to call it “retina resolution”. If you tell me you can’t discern the difference at normal laptop viewing distance for something like text, you’re either short-sighted or in complete denial. You can claim that you don’t care, but a lot of people do care enough to spend the extra dollar.
…you can however find the same screens in other products.
No, you can’t. But if you can prove me otherwise, please tell me. I’ll gladly buy such a product.
Opening up said apple laptops reveals shoddy manufacturing, glue and thermal paste dripping all over the place. Screws missing, cheaper parts than one would think.
Do you have a source for those claims? As far as I’m concerned, I don’t care whether it is a solid block of horse glue on the inside, I only notice what is on the outside. And that’s where Apple is simply superior.
There is a reason Apple ramped up their outsourcing. In fact did you know Samsung has more manufacturing jobs in the US than Apple which has practically none. Apple being an “american” company outsources nearly every aspect of their hardware. Nothing about this makes it “better build quality”.
I don’t care. I also don’t believe employing americans magically makes your build quality better. Quality control however is easier in the US, for that reason Apple will be moving more of its production into the US in the future, as they have already with the iMac.
And lack of good touch pads? Really? thats the basis of your laptop quality ranking? If you are working in blender or any other cg application, you would be insane to try using a touch pad.
I don’t know about you, but I indeed consider the touchpad very important and Blender supports multitouch on the Apple touchpad well, probably because Ton uses a Macbook himself (I’m not sure about that, but he’s been working on these things, so that’s my assumption).
Furthermore, those “touch pads” are the same thing going to other laptop brands. These things all come from the same sources.
That may or may not be true (large, friendly touchpads on PC-laptops are rare) but the multitouch support on Mac OS is vastly superior.
Whats better, a touch pad or a built it wacom digitizer?
These are two entirely different things. Also: Wacom produces (and brands) everything from useless garbage to decent hardware, so just speaking of a “wacom digitizer” tells me nothing.
Anyways, you think Apple has better build quality. Go for it, you are entitled to your opinion. I’ll stick to mine. Thats all we can do about it.
Your opinion however seems to be partially based on being factually wrong.