Looking for opinions on laptop models - our team uses a number of extremely large excel models that require significant computing power and our current standard HP Probook’s are unable to keep up. If anyone has suggestions for high powered, fast laptops that can handle extremely large excel models and layered PowerPoints, please share!
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Lot's of good forums on here already about this topic. In my opinion ThinkPads are the way to go. the X1 Carbon is really nice. I have the L13 Yoga ThinkPad and it works great
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I ended up buying an external keyboard, the mac layout is just too annoying when using windows
which one did you buy? Also got a mac at my current job (brutal), and am running Parallels to use windows. Looking at some hybrid keyboards that have both mac and windows buttons..
Don’t think it’s possible to use Alt Commands with Bootcamp.
imo not necessary, not even convinient to use bootcamp, use parallels, i'm pretty sure that you can have a free license from your firm, or worst case scenario you can buy it and it makes your life a lot easier, i model with it and having windows running at the same time with MacOs is very efficient
Second this, as with Parallels you can access your files on the Mac and Windows side since you don’t have to create a partition. However it’s gonna take serious processing power, so don’t do this on a MacBook Air imo
100% any of the Thinkpad X1 models, and remember to switch the control and function keys in your BIOS since they're flipped on Lenovos for some reason...
Dell XPS are also solid and I like the PGUP/PGDN/HOME button locations better for navigating workbooks, but not as stable as Lenovo.
Sometimes laptops shitting themselves can be a result of excessive use of volatile functions in excel, worth reviewing if your problem still persists after getting something higher spec.
X1 Carbon should be fine but I'd wait for Gen 10 with new Alder Lake Intel chips to give you guys some breathing room (or just make sure to get Gen 9s with i7s) and 16+ RAM
make sure you have a 15 inch or 17 inch screen on the laptop. And a full keyboard with numberpad.
Other than that, dedicated graphics card, not integrated. 16 GB or RAM, Intel i5 9th gen or newer(or i7) and you should be more than fine.
Get a lenovo and actually pay for things like CPU power and RAM.
A lot of companies buy the absolute cheapest pieces of shit with outdated tech that you would never buy if you were buying a PC on your own.
So, first, OP..... I find your user name both brilliant and hysterical.... seriously one of the best I've seen on the WSO real estate forum.. kudos!
To your question... I have a Lenovo X1 carbon, and it works well. Still if your really working on big excel files, and power point decks... get a mega huge monitor, I have this giant thing from Samsung, it's awesome (like the size of two monitors but only one so better/easier to use).
In general... excel type calculations are done in the CPU, so getting a laptop with a powerful (ideally desktop level) CPU is critical, try and avoid the "laptop versions" where possible. BTW if you try and use those on battery, the performance sucks, be plugged in if you want to have any luck in getting shit done efficiently.
Also, and this really important if you want to use a massive monitor setup... get a laptop with an actual discrete graphics card (like something legit from Nvida), makes a huge difference especially if you are doing video calls simultaneously ever.
Let us know what you pick!
Favorite laptop used has been the HP Elitebook.
For those who use a mac, and want the same windows experience, i advise using parallels, i model on a MacBook Air M1 through it and i never had a problem. the major issue people usually have with parallels is the keys that do not correspond exactly to those of windows, well in order to fix this go to parallels settings -> shortcuts -> personalized profile and make a profile with these shortcuts (image) and you'll not notice the difference from a windows laptop
High powered laptop computer - have a post on this somewhere - just bought via necessity to not only do finance work but Adobe apps, video editing (any lesser laptop will crash immediately. I'll edit post but let's talk specs. Long story short is get a graphics chip targeting 8GB RAM in addition to all the usual stuff.
i7 or i9
1TB SSD
16-32GB RAM
8-12GB RAM Graphics chip
I’m forgetting some other stuff but get the high RAM + graphics chip..Copy n pasting below. Bare in mine my original post was formatted nicely so if u can find it - probably better.
I can't click on link bc WSO sucks and the pic I attached is covering the link.
loanboy043
Nov 2021
Lev Fin guy here - NEED 32GB + GET A GRAPHICS CHIPcan def weigh in on key risks if you don't get top specs. You need to set yourself up for 2-3 years into the future, including watching 4K video. Otherwise there will be a lag, you'l be forced to uninstall any downloads of any Adobe products beyond PDF, etc.Laptop purchased this week vs. after coping with painful issues/frustrations with previous top-notch Dell laptop. Purpose/Incremental Need - do video editing
2021:
$3,400 MSI 15.6 Gaming Laptop:
I9, 2TB SSD, 32GB RAM, ~10GB Graphics chip, 4K resolution, Refresh rate - high)Very heavy - but very cool. No worriies downloading Adobe Products
2017:
2,100 Dell XPS '13 2-in-1 Touch [light, for commuting NJ/NYC] -->
i7, 1 TB SSD. 16GB RAM, 0 graphics chip [pain point], 2 USB-C ports [fickle charging - pain point].lag / slow in converting to 27 inch monitors/docking station - vs. gaming laptop no issues
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/msi-ge66-raider-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-c…MSI
MSI - GE66 Raider 15.6" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i9 - 32 GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 - 2 TB SSD - Titanium Blue / Model:GE6611227 / SKU:6467437
Conclusion - gaming laptop has been a dream come true, solved all my problems, sets me up for the future, and looks cool as hell (Purple and blue light show when you power on
XPS 13 9305bestbuy.com/site/msi-ge66-raider-15-6-gaming-laptop-intel-core-i9-32-gb-memory-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-2-tb-ssd-titanium-blue/6467437.p?skuId=6467437
Shocking how bad this app is at attaching a photo - it attaches a portion of a photo so u can barely see..
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