I need a work laptop (new). Help me out

[davsel]

keep buying Microshit Winblows based garbage pc's and you'll keep getting junk that slows down and has issues.


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This, coming from one who struggles to connect a TV to an AV receiver.

[JohnnyEgo]

We run XM27, and it is an insane memory hog. It's not really designed to take advantage of a dedicated GPU, so it needs a fair amount of RAM to push those big cad files. I don't know if you are on a more current flavor that sorted those issues out. I'd mostly make sure it has a fast SSD and a large quantity of RAM. I'd also really watch the temp specs if you are going to use it for work. We field tested some Ipads and Surface Pros, and had real trouble with the Ipads out of their low temp range. Bad screen lag, miserable battery life, app failure, etc. We were running them in 19-27° weather, so typical winter freeze situation, and our techs had to leave them in their vans to warm up. Neither platform really liked ambient temperatures above 95° either.

The old classic Panasonic Toughbook is probably best of breed for field use, but it's built like a brick and traditionally has lagged behind in terms of graphic-intensive application performance. I really liked the Surface Pro, personally, temperature extremes aside. Can run either the tablet or laptop-based flavors of XM with no lag or processor issues, pretty light weight, and the monkeys haven't smashed one yet.

[CoGirl303]

This, coming from one who struggles to connect a TV to an AV receiver.

Apples to oranges. I know more about computers than I do about home audio/video and I knew next to nothing about older receivers not being compatible with newer tv's.

My 27" iMac has been going strong for 7 years. The only issue it has given me was the hard drive failing a year and a half ago. My 2012 macbook pro is 6 years old and still in mint condition working great.

I've never had any issues with updating, no grey screens of death, no component failure, no slowing down.


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[davsel]

Apples to oranges. I know more about computers than I do about home audio/video and I knew next to nothing about older receivers not being compatible with newer tv's.

My 27" iMac has been going strong for 7 years. The only issue it has given me was the hard drive failing a year and a half ago. My 2012 macbook pro is 6 years old and still in mint condition working great.

I've never had any issues with updating, no grey screens of death, no component failure, no slowing down.


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Apples to Apples when considering general lack of subject knowledge.

The OP said he needs to run Xactimate and provided a link to the requirements of said software.
First sentence of second paragraph in link states:

Xactimate and other Xactware products are not supported on Mac Operating Systems

Had you bothered to educate yourself on what the OP needed before spitting out your comment, you may have considered otherwise.

[TheGrey]

I went with a "low end" gaming laptop for my work laptop- it's very fast. Be aware that most laptops have a bunch of crap program apps pre-loaded on them. It's annoying!

[thedave1164]

These threads always go the same way LOL

[CoGirl303]

Apples to Apples when considering general lack of subject knowledge.

Had you bothered to...blah...blah...blah

I know what the OP said.

you can run bootcamp and do a dual os setup and run windows and mac os x or you can get VMWare Fusion and run Windows from a virtual environment and run Xactimate either way.


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[thedave1164]

I know what the OP said.

you can run bootcamp and do a dual os setup and run windows and mac os x or you can get VMWare Fusion and run Windows from a virtual environment and run Xactimate either way.


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ROFLMAO

[Irving]

I'm currently running XM 28, but thinking of switching to XM One or whatever their newest version is. Allows both on and offline work, which I couldn't do with XM 27 when I was corporate.

I don't need something as rugged as Ray would, I'm really just moving from house to vehicle to house to bathroom. I like the idea of SSD hard drive for sure. I'll look at those Dells tonight. I really appreciate the input so far. As far as budget, I don't want to say that I don't have one, but I was anticipating having to spend well over $500. If I don't have to, that's okay to.

[iego]

Your W520 was pretty much a beast back in the day, and if you are willing to jack it up a bit and put a fresh load of windows on there, it may be able to perform with xactimate again. To replace it today, that class of computer (Mobile Workstations) generally start about $1300 or so and go up from there.

You could consider adding a lot of RAM, 16GB or more, and it looks like the 8GB sticks are about $63 ea for $126 to go to 16GB.
https://www.amazon.com/Crucial-Singl...al+ddr3+sodimm

Then add an SSD to rejuvenate your storage. $125 for the 500GB, $75 for the 256GB, look at how much you are using now to estimate your needs.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0784SLQM6...ing=UTF8&psc=1

Then with a fresh load of Windows, you should be back to rocking and rolling again (for a top of the line 7 year old mobile workstation.)

I can help you with installing/the fresh windows load/moving your data and applications back if you need it.

Just another option for your consideration...

The below is an example base W520... if you give me your model number I can find the exact specs of yours.



-John