What specs do i need for a budget laptop capable of using blender

[normanator2001]

So im about to go into my second year of college and will be doing a graphic design course where blender will be used heavily. I need to get my hands on a laptop capable of being able to run blender while im creating 3d models and animations.

I was looking at a laptop with the 7th gen i5 (7200u) with 8gbs of ram. Is this good enough as im on a pretty tight budget. I wont be rendering on the laptop as i have a more than capable pc for that. My issue is for 10 hours of the day i will be in college and not at home.

Dedicated graphics are obviously going to help with blender but would i be able to get away with just the 7th gen i5. Leave any suggestions below and thanks for your time

Aaron

 

[camieabz]

A (hopefully helpful) link:

https://shopineer.com/blog/best-laptops-for-blender


Perhaps also consider the new Ryzen 2500U / 2700U laptops:

https://techreport.com/review/32877/amd-ryzen-5-2500u-apu-reviewed

https://www.pcworld.com/article/3234649/laptop-computers/amd-mobile-ryzen-7-and-ryzen-5-with-vega.html

Not sure if the newer Ryzen laptops are way out of your budget though, versus Intel solutions.

 

[normanator2001]

Yeah my budget is pretty limited, i was looking into getting the acer aspire in the first link you sent with the MX 150. Since posting this thread i found a laptop with a i5 5200u and 940m graphics for little over £360. Its a pretty tempting price. where as the acer aspire with the mx150 is around £550 in the uk which isnt ideally within my budget. Would it be better to just bite the bullet and go for the more expensive option. Im aware that the 8th gen cpu will offer so much more in performance due to it having quad core. Btw thanks for the response

 

[camieabz]

See the difference - http://gpu.userbenchmark.com/Compare/Nvidia-MX150-0-vs-Nvidia-GTX-940M/m332822vsm28796

The MX150 is the mobile version of the GT 1030, which is a step down from the GTX 1050.

Be aware of the variants of the MX150 - https://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-MX150-Benchmark-and-Specs-of-the-GT-1030-for-Laptops.223530.0.html

Currently there are two variants of the MX150, a "normal" N17S-G1-A1 with 1468 - 1531 MHz and 25 Watt TDP and a power efficient variant named N17S-LG-A1 with 936 - 1037 MHz (-32%) and 10 Watt TDP (-60%) for thin and light laptops.

Not sure which variant I linked to in the comparison (probably the 25W TDP), but both are better than the 940M. If the only difference between the two laptops is the gfx, at £190 more it's definitely not worth imo. For that price difference, I would expect better spec, such as SSD or faster CPU.

 

[normanator2001]

The cheaper ebay option does definitely have a slower cpu as its a 6th gen i5 over the new 8th gen laptop with mx150. But i will probably go with the ebay laptop just because of my budget, Even tho the other laptop is wayyy better for performance. It should be able to get the job done and for £350ish its not too bad for the money. Thanks for the help, cleared alot of stuff up )))