Looking at a new laptop...

[Music Guy123]

Happy New Year everyone, hope you're all well!

Been a fair while since I've properly contributed on here, life has got in the way unfortunately so have become rather out of date with the hardware knowledge! Anyway, my old laptop sadly passed away the other day so looking for a laptop to be portable something with a decent battery life when word processing (happy to limit the cpu to save battery) but also looking for something that can keep up with a basic amount of CAD and heavy multitasking when I need it to. I have a desktop to do the complex CAD models and to run tough simulations on so don't mind a slightly less powerful laptop if it'll mean a much better battery life. So far, I've been looking at the two specs below but if anyone can recommend anything different, I'm all ears! I've specifically looked at 6th gen CPUs for the better battery life. Also, I'm not in a rush to buy this laptop so if it's worth waiting for something, I'm happy to do so. Budget wise, my original budget was £450, can possibly stretch to £500 for the right spec, if it's worth it (this then turned into £550 as per usual but it can't go any higher unfortunately!). Oh and I can get hold of my own version of windows and have a HDD so just looking for an SSD.

The two specs:

The slightly cheaper and lowered power one:

Chassis & Display
Genesis Series: 15.6" Matte HD LED 16:9 Widescreen (1366x768)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Dual Core Processor i5-6200U (2.30GHz, 2.8GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
Integrated Intel® HD Graphics
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (9.5mm)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
3 x USB 2.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 3.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Genesis Series 32WH Battery (Up to 9.5 Hour Battery Life)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 40W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
GENESIS SERIES INTEGRATED UK KEYBOARD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 1MP HD WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £455.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/genesisV-15/P8q7BI0pTA/

And the higher powered one, I am quite tempted by this as the chassis seems to have a lot more features. But how much worse is the battery life going to be, even if I cap the CPU usage?

Chassis & Display
Cosmos Series: 15.6" Matte Full HD IPS LED Widescreen (1920x1080)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor 6300HQ (2.3GHz, 3.2GHz Turbo)
Memory (RAM)
8GB Kingston SODIMM DDR3 1600MHz (1 x 8GB)
Graphics Card
NVIDIA® GeForce® GT 940M - 2.0GB DDR3 Video RAM - DirectX® 12
Memory - Hard Disk
250GB Samsung 850 2.5" EVO SSD, SATA 6Gb/s (upto 540MB/sR | 520MB/sW)
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
2nd/3rd HDD HARD DRIVE OPTICAL BAY CADDY (12.7mm)
Memory Card Reader
Internal 9 in 1 Card Reader (MMC/RSMMC/SD: Mini, XC & HC/MS: Pro & Duo)
Thermal Paste
STANDARD THERMAL PASTE FOR SUFFICIENT COOLING
Sound Card
Intel 2 Channel High Definition Audio + MIC/Headphone Jack
Bluetooth & Wireless
GIGABIT LAN & WIRELESS INTEL® AC-8260 M.2 (867Mbps, 802.11AC) +BT 4.0, vPRO
USB Options
3 x USB 3.0 PORTS + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT AS STANDARD
Battery
Cosmos Series 6 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (48.84WH)
Power Lead & Adaptor
1 x UK Power Lead & 90W AC Adaptor
Keyboard Language
COSMOS SERIES UK KEYBOARD WITH NUMBER PAD
Operating System
NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
Office Software
NO OFFICE SOFTWARE
Anti-Virus
NO ANTI-VIRUS SOFTWARE
Notebook Mouse
INTEGRATED 2 BUTTON TOUCHPAD MOUSE
Webcam
INTEGRATED 2.0 MEGAPIXEL WEBCAM
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Insurance
1 Month Free Laptop Insurance inc. Accidental Damage & Theft
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 11 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £565.00 including VAT and delivery.

Unique URL to re-configure: http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/quotes/cosmosIV-15/4MecNUH2WO/

Slightly over budget but I have a feeling it might be worth it, especially with the GPU helping the CAD.

All the best.

 

[Frank100]

Welcome back to the forums. I'm a recent returnee from a couple of year's absence.

I think the second, more expensive build does offer a much better machine for your intended use. I think you'd get frustrated with the first one. I don't do CAD work but I have used performance testing tools that run CAD tests and I think the extra processing power of the second laptop is going to be utilised. It depends on how much CAD work you did do on the laptop. I suppose if you had the capability on the laptop you'd be happy to use it, whereas the cheaper option might just end up being for Internet and other non-intensive things but would you regret not having the option of using it more? I don't know.

As for future capability USB 3.1 is a revelation but perhaps not significant for you and the next generation of Nvidia cards are going to blow us away but again not relevant to your needs and in this case price.

Frank100