Recommend suitable laptops less than 900$
This question has - surely - been asked tons of times, but the only difference in mine is that the laptop you recommend MUST be less than 900$...
I'll use SolidWorks 2016, KeyShot 8 or SimLab Composer Lite, Adobe PhotoShop, Adobe AfterEffects.
Note:
I'll buy it in 3 months' time.
Note 2:
When recommending a laptop, don't forget to mention why (specifications, personal experience, etc.).
2 Answers
Go to Ebay. Search for Dell Precision Laptops.
For $900, you'll most likely be looking at one that is years old like an M6600. But they are great computers. I use one. I tested my M6600 against a new 7730, and there were only small differences based on the SOLIDWORKS Benchmark.
Some PCs are export restricted, so that's a factor to consider.
Other vendors (HP, BOXX, Lenovo) make workstation laps tops as well, but Dell makes the most, so you'll find them more often.
You actually have a fairly decent array to pick from if you don't mind going second hand. A couple of years ago I wanted a personal laptop that could do what my workstation at work could but wasnt willing to spend the thousands my computer cost. I ended up buying a slightly older lenovo thinkpad t430 then i upgraded the hard drive, doubled the ram and overclocked the GPU chipset which has left me with a very fast laptop even in todays standard which runs solidworks 2019 and can even run photo 360 without a dedicated GPU.
The T430 is quite old now, but i would certainly recomend Lenovo and if you want to get the most bang for your buck the Lenovo ThinkPad E580 20KS Laptop can be found around the $950 mark. It offers a decent I7 processor, 8GB of DDR4 ram, a fast SSD and a 2GB dedicated GPU as standard.
Im based in England, so Lenovo (based in China) offer a better spec for less money than a Dell (based in America) but this may be different where you are. What i would say is don't be afraid to buy something with a good processor and GPU even if the RAM is lower than you would like as a RAM upgrade and a new hard drive takes little time to complete and often you can find a bargain on a laptop with less RAM as people often believe this is the sole factor of how fast a computer runs.
