Hi all,
Thought I would update with where I am at (for anyone who is in the same boat).
I have to have a Dell for work, so currently whittled down to the following:
- XPS 15 9560
- Inspiron 15 7000 (Gaming)
Both the same processor (note we looked at Precision but spec is not ideal for Sketchup)…
So the Inspiron has a slightly better spec graphics card but the XPS has a nicer package (read issues with the Inspiron screen).
However, to chuck spanner in the works, we have just been offered the following deal:
Alienware 15 - R3
• Processor: Intel® Core™ i7-6820HK (4 Core, Dynamically Overclocked up to 4.1GHz,8M Cache, 45W)
• Windows 10 Home (64bit)
• 16GB (2x8GB) 2667MHz DDR4 Memory Non-ECC
• 1 TB SATA Hard Drive (7200 RPM)
• 256GB PCIe M.2 SATA3 Solid State Drive
• No Optical Device
• NVIDIA GTX 1070 8GB
• Software
• Killer 1435 802.11ac 2x2 WiFi and Bluetooth 4.1
• LCD Cover Assembly
• Power Cord : 250V
• Primary 6-cell 99W/HR Battery
• 15.6 inch UHD (3840 x 2160) IGZO IPS Anti-Glare 300-nits Display
• Office 2016 H&B
£1650 + VAT
Although the CPU not as good (though it does have more cache), rest of spec is excellent and looks like a good deal to me…
the GTX 1070 will need more cooling if stretched and might be therefore louder… but obvioulsy depends on the cooling system.
The UHD resolution at 15" can lead to tiny objects of the SU GUI as e.g. all HTML based dialogs… typically without scroll bars and the need for zooming similar as in a browser… but maybe better with the recent SU v2017 using (partly) another browser engine… would check this if possible before buying.
My own preference for such a high-end video card (as the 1050/1070) would be a 17" notebook, which comes with a full keyboard that has a numeric keypad. The 15" machines do not have the full AT keyboard.
To wrap it up, we actually ended up ordering the following:
http://www.dell.com/uk/p/xps-15-9560-laptop/pd?oc=cnx95603&model_id=xps-15-9560-laptop
XPS 15 9560
Processor - 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7700HQ Quad Core Processor (6M cache, up to 3.8 GHz)
Operating Systems - Windows 10 Home 64bit English, Dutch, French, German, Italian
Memory1 - 16GB DDR4-2400MHz; up to 32GB (additional memory sold separately)
Hard Drive - 512GB PCIe Solid State Drive
Video Card - NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1050 with 4GB GDDR5
Display - 15.6" FHD (1920 x 1080) InfinityEdge display
Decided the Alienware, although it had a great spec, was not right as it came with Win 10 Home and really wasn’t comfortable with the design for use as a work laptop (customer facing etc)…
The Dell has a better processor and overall the package is reviewed very well…
I look forward to testing it out when we get it!
Thank you all for your invaluable help with this…
