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Laptop For 3D Modeling

I meant to look at my previous comment as i had edited and added a laptop to it
Ah! Thanks for clarifying. But it does not change my response. ALL notebooks, regardless their brand or model numbers, are inherently challenged to keep the innards adequately cooled - especially during demanding tasks. A typical mid-tower PC case will easily support 3 or more large (at least 120mm, often 140mm or even larger) case fans which can move massive amounts of cool air. A PC case can also support massive CPU heatsink fan assemblies - big heatsinks with another large fan on it. There just is no space in a notebook case for that type of cooling.

So what happens is notebooks will have extra thermal protection features built in, not only into the hardware, but extra features operating systems are designed to work with too. These thermal protection features constantly monitor heat and when certain thresholds are crossed, they "throttle" back the speed of the CPU so it is not working as hard. This significantly reduces its heat output (a very good thing) but it also can significantly lower the performance of the entire computer.

I note too, many of these throttle features are enabled whenever the notebook is running off its battery. This is not for heat but to conserve battery for longer battery run times. This is great if you need to be on battery for long periods of time. But again, this also decreases the performance of the computer.

Don't get me wrong. Notebooks are great when a mobile device is needed. But contrary to what notebook marketing weenies want us to believe, they do NOT make great "desktop replacements" or even great gaming machines. The makers can pack the horsepower in there, but not the necessary cooling to keep those ponies running at full gallop.

Another problem with notebooks is there is no ATX Form Factor standard for notebooks like there is with PCs. This means notebooks tend to be proprietary. That means upgrade options are limited, and tend to be more expensive, as are repairs. So, for example, if in two years you want to increase your RAM, upgrade your CPU or graphics, you will have limited (if any!) options.

Plus the desire to make notebooks thinner and lighter usually results in limited access to the interior of the notebook for thorough cleaning of the heat-trapping dust that will get drawn in. Most users don't have the necessary skills or tools to break open the notebook case. Where on a PC, you typically remove two thumbscrews, remove the side panel and the entire interior is exposed for easy cleaning (or upgrading or other maintenance).

But again, if you need mobility, all those are moot points.
 
Ah! Thanks for clarifying. But it does not change my response. ALL notebooks, regardless their brand or model numbers, are inherently challenged to keep the innards adequately cooled - especially during demanding tasks. A typical mid-tower PC case will easily support 3 or more large (at least 120mm, often 140mm or even larger) case fans which can move massive amounts of cool air. A PC case can also support massive CPU heatsink fan assemblies - big heatsinks with another large fan on it. There just is no space in a notebook case for that type of cooling.

So what happens is notebooks will have extra thermal protection features built in, not only into the hardware, but extra features operating systems are designed to work with too. These thermal protection features constantly monitor heat and when certain thresholds are crossed, they "throttle" back the speed of the CPU so it is not working as hard. This significantly reduces its heat output (a very good thing) but it also can significantly lower the performance of the entire computer.

I note too, many of these throttle features are enabled whenever the notebook is running off its battery. This is not for heat but to conserve battery for longer battery run times. This is great if you need to be on battery for long periods of time. But again, this also decreases the performance of the computer.

Don't get me wrong. Notebooks are great when a mobile device is needed. But contrary to what notebook marketing weenies want us to believe, they do NOT make great "desktop replacements" or even great gaming machines. The makers can pack the horsepower in there, but not the necessary cooling to keep those ponies running at full gallop.

Another problem with notebooks is there is no ATX Form Factor standard for notebooks like there is with PCs. This means notebooks tend to be proprietary. That means upgrade options are limited, and tend to be more expensive, as are repairs. So, for example, if in two years you want to increase your RAM, upgrade your CPU or graphics, you will have limited (if any!) options.

Plus the desire to make notebooks thinner and lighter usually results in limited access to the interior of the notebook for thorough cleaning of the heat-trapping dust that will get drawn in. Most users don't have the necessary skills or tools to break open the notebook case. Where on a PC, you typically remove two thumbscrews, remove the side panel and the entire interior is exposed for easy cleaning (or upgrading or other maintenance).

But again, if you need mobility, all those are moot points.
Mobility is a key player

But i ended up going with the Lenovo Ideapad 330S as reviews put the Ryzen 5 2500U square even with the i7s in multithreaded work as it has 4 Cores/8 Threads plus the Vega 8 which should offer decent benefits as well.

And based on countless searching and help from you guys i don't think I'd find anything better with the size profile I'm wanting.
 
Well, there you go. I hope it gives you years of good service. And thanks for posting your followup. :)
 
With the specs is should last atleast a few years

AMD Ryzen 5 2500U 4C/8T boost upto 3.6GHz
8GB RAM(Will upgrade to 16Gb)
AMD Vega 8 linked to 4GB onboard RAM
15" IPS 1080P Display
Samsung 256GB NVME SSD
USB C 3.1
Etc...


Well, there you go. I hope it gives you years of good service. And thanks for posting your followup. :)
 
Just an update. i got the laptop and it has been trucking along. CPU has not seen above 50% usage which is good but when slicing 3D files i am chewing through RAM. Like to the point of only having 1GB left so RAM has become the bottleneck as the GPU and CPU are doing well.
 
Like to the point of only having 1GB left so RAM has become the bottleneck
Having 1GB "left" does NOT suggest a bottleneck. 0GB does. And for that matter, 1GB is a lot!

You're fine.
 
Having 1GB "left" does NOT suggest a bottleneck. 0GB does. And for that matter, 1GB is a lot!

You're fine.
I consider it a bottleneck as at the point i can't use any other programs without causing freezing or slow downs. 8GB is just not enough
 
Well, by definition it is not really a bottleneck. Very few programs use 1GB of RAM. I currently have 27 browser tabs open and Edge just now went over 1GB. Nothing else currently running (Defender, Malwarebytes Premium, Outlook, Word, Task Manager or Windows itself) is even coming close to using that much.

I am NOT saying 8Gb is "plenty". I personally put 16GB in all our builds here now. But 8GB is still considered the sweetspot for most users. And by sweetspot, I mean less than 8GB and performance noticeably suffers. But more than 8GB and performance gains tend to be negligible, if noticeable at all (except on paper/benchmarks, or - as often happens - through the placebo affect).

This is especially true if that RAM is coupled with a SSD (which you have) and even more so if with a fast SSD (which you also have). I am assuming here you hopefully didn't dink with the default Page File settings and that you have plenty of free disk space available on this SSD. With W10, just let Windows manage the PF. If already low on free disk space, that's where your money should go first.

If me, sure! I would put 16GB in there. I just don't want you to get your expectations up too high with you expecting significant performance gains here. Not going to happen.

Some of the latest games would do better with 16GB. But you didn't mention gaming at all in this thread.
Laws of physics have nothing to do with workload and system requirements.
:( No. I didn't say they did. But the Laws of Physics do apply to heat (thermodynamics) which is what my comment referred to. You even quoted me but I will say it again - tiny notebook cases cannot provide the cooling a large PC case can. Time Lord technologies (bigger on the inside) don't exist.
 
Just an update. i got the laptop and it has been trucking along. CPU has not seen above 50% usage which is good
Not good. Why would it not use more of the CPU? It should go to 100% during heavy tasks (like slicing complex models).
Most of 3D model editing tasks can be parallelized, so you're either running software on less cores than available (because of configuration or license) or the 1st gen Zen shows why it was so rare in laptops...
but when slicing 3D files i am chewing through RAM. Like to the point of only having 1GB left so RAM has become the bottleneck as the GPU and CPU are doing well.
1GB is a lot. You're not even touching the swap on your fast SSD.
If you don't plan to work with much more complex models (or using this laptop for other tasks), there's little point in upgrading to 16GB.

Exactly. That's why I said gaming was not even mentioned by the OP.
But why would it be mentioned? He didn't mention photo editing or DNA sequencing.

Do we really have to put "won't be used for games" in every topic about choosing a PC?
 
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But why would it be mentioned? He didn't mention photo editing or DNA sequencing.

Do we really have to put "won't be used for games" in every topic about choosing a PC?
??? No. But it is important to state what a computer WILL be used for - which he did. And my point was, since apparently he will not be gaming, then increasing RAM to 16GB probably will not yield much in the way of any "noticeable" performance gains - a point you agree on.
 
So what do you guys suggest ?
 
Also looking at used Macbooks around 2012
Don't do that. You'll get much less for the money you spend.

If you are on a budget and don't mind the refurbished market(which are actually very reliable), then below are a few suggestions which meet the needs you've stated so far.
These are all 17.3" screens;
$750

$725 This one is the best 17" value, bang for buck.

$664

These are all 15.6" screens;
$580

$510 This one is the best 15" value, bang for buck.

$502

All of these have a warranty.
 
Remember, when 3D-modelling for 3D-printing, you don't use textures and there is no animation, also the CPU intensive task of rendering finished works that you do when making artwork is not performed for 3d printing either. So basically requirements for that are really low.

I have been using my old Thinkpad T480 (quadcore ULV CPU, nVidia MX150 GPU) for FreeCAD and all kinds of 3D-printing workloads. Its fine!
You can get these in used condition for around 200€
 
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