Help me pick a (moderately) high-performance laptop?
November 1, 2016 8:30 AM Subscribe
I am looking for a new personal computer which I would run Dragon NaturallySpeaking voice recognition software on. Other than that I am a light computer user. One recommendation I got for laptop specs to run Dragon 15 is 16GB RAM, 2.6GHz i7 processor with a 6MB L3 cache (example i7-6700HQ) and a solid state drive. What laptop should I get which has those specs (or other specs which would suite my needs), is a good reliable machine, and is a good price?
I would mainly use the computer to browse the web, stream Netflix, and use iTunes for podcasts. Also, I plan to go back to school within the next few years so I would be doing more word processing, Excel, and likely some computer programming. I'm not a gamer but it seems like the computers with those specs are gaming computers.
I can spend up to say $1500 on the laptop but of course I would prefer not to spend more than I need to in order to get the features I need. I am looking at a few computers with a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB HDD:
Acer Aspire V Nitro $1070
Lenovo IdeaPad 700 $900
Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 $1050
Do any of those seem like good picks? Some reviewers said these were cheap computers and it showed. If I spend a little more would I get a more durable solid computer? Possibly one with a 512GB solid state hard drive? If so what models should I be looking at?
I would mainly use the computer to browse the web, stream Netflix, and use iTunes for podcasts. Also, I plan to go back to school within the next few years so I would be doing more word processing, Excel, and likely some computer programming. I'm not a gamer but it seems like the computers with those specs are gaming computers.
I can spend up to say $1500 on the laptop but of course I would prefer not to spend more than I need to in order to get the features I need. I am looking at a few computers with a 256GB solid state drive and a 1TB HDD:
Acer Aspire V Nitro $1070
Lenovo IdeaPad 700 $900
Lenovo IdeaPad Y700 $1050
Do any of those seem like good picks? Some reviewers said these were cheap computers and it showed. If I spend a little more would I get a more durable solid computer? Possibly one with a 512GB solid state hard drive? If so what models should I be looking at?
An i7 with 16GB sounds like way overkill to me. According to this the minimum spec basically amounts to "any non-terrible computer", and voice recognition is not a very demanding application (Dragon NaturallySpeaking is almost 20 years old).
A midrange laptop (maybe an i5 with 8GB) ought to work fine. You'd pay a good premium for the i7 bump, at least. You're also going to pay extra for more than one drive bay (the combo SSD and HDD ones). A 512GB SSD would be better value. HDDs are kind of obsolete now for anything other than storing enormous files like HD videos or games.
You could also probably save a few bucks by doing the SSD upgrade yourself, since laptop makers charge a premium for those. Worthwhile upgrade (a better perf boost overall than a CPU or RAM upgrade), but you'd have to reinstall Windows in that case, or clone the drive.
posted by neckro23 at 9:33 AM on November 1, 2016
A midrange laptop (maybe an i5 with 8GB) ought to work fine. You'd pay a good premium for the i7 bump, at least. You're also going to pay extra for more than one drive bay (the combo SSD and HDD ones). A 512GB SSD would be better value. HDDs are kind of obsolete now for anything other than storing enormous files like HD videos or games.
You could also probably save a few bucks by doing the SSD upgrade yourself, since laptop makers charge a premium for those. Worthwhile upgrade (a better perf boost overall than a CPU or RAM upgrade), but you'd have to reinstall Windows in that case, or clone the drive.
posted by neckro23 at 9:33 AM on November 1, 2016
With Lenovo you really want to be in the ThinkPad series (or maybe the Yoga). The other laptops that Lenovo sells will tend to feel cheap.
Do you currently use Dragon? Do you have problems with accuracy or speed of recognition? Do you need a laptop?
posted by gregr at 10:09 AM on November 1, 2016
Do you currently use Dragon? Do you have problems with accuracy or speed of recognition? Do you need a laptop?
posted by gregr at 10:09 AM on November 1, 2016
I wouldn't be surprised if 16GB were a good idea with Dragon. I don't have any experience with Dragon recently, but when I used it six or more years ago was that it a resource hog out of proportion to what I expected. That could be a combination of legitimate (apparently voice recognition needs lots of memory to be able to use your usage history to improve accuracy) and illegitimate causes (Nuance is or at least was a company fond of larding its offerings with bloatware and--the reason I left them behind--non-removeable adware).
On the other hand, this site that sells laptops for use with Dragon and advises 32 (!) or 64 (!!) GB of RAM smells of hard-sell desperation. Still, maybe worth checking out for you?
My solution for getting lots of memory in a laptop was to by a Lenovo Thinkpad x230 with 8GB of RAM and add in 8GB that I purchased from Crucial. I also ordered with the cheapest hard drive option and swapped in an SSD myself. The RAM swap was totally trivial. The SSD swap is a little trickier, but not much.
A Lenovo x260 with the specs you want out of the box (big SSD, 16GB RAM, i7) ran me $1700, $1500 after some sort of "instant rebate." I think Thinkpads in the non-X lines would run cheaper, but larger and heavier. You could probably knock a couple hundred off that if you did the RAM and SSD upgrades yourself, but double check online that these swaps are still easy. You'll probably find youtube tutorials.
posted by col_pogo at 10:22 AM on November 1, 2016
On the other hand, this site that sells laptops for use with Dragon and advises 32 (!) or 64 (!!) GB of RAM smells of hard-sell desperation. Still, maybe worth checking out for you?
My solution for getting lots of memory in a laptop was to by a Lenovo Thinkpad x230 with 8GB of RAM and add in 8GB that I purchased from Crucial. I also ordered with the cheapest hard drive option and swapped in an SSD myself. The RAM swap was totally trivial. The SSD swap is a little trickier, but not much.
A Lenovo x260 with the specs you want out of the box (big SSD, 16GB RAM, i7) ran me $1700, $1500 after some sort of "instant rebate." I think Thinkpads in the non-X lines would run cheaper, but larger and heavier. You could probably knock a couple hundred off that if you did the RAM and SSD upgrades yourself, but double check online that these swaps are still easy. You'll probably find youtube tutorials.
posted by col_pogo at 10:22 AM on November 1, 2016
Take a look at the Dell XPS 13 and XPS 15. I haven't seen any 13s, but the 15s are in use by a sister company and their fit & finish and options are really strong (and are getting excellent reviews).
posted by uberchet at 10:24 AM on November 1, 2016
posted by uberchet at 10:24 AM on November 1, 2016
Response by poster: Thanks for the input so far!
I used Dragon with my old computer at home, and I use Dragon at work. Delays in speech recognition or executing my commands are really annoying to me so I would like to minimize them. On my previous home computer trying to use Dragon to navigate iTunes was insanely slow, and even web browsing was slower than at work. I tried to upgrade the RAM from I think 6GB to 8GB but I broke the computer in the process. So I'm shying away from upgrading RAM/hard drive on a computer myself, although I might be able to take it to a computer shop to get it done, or maybe as my computer geek roommate to do it.
I am open to a desktop but I have trouble carrying heavy things so I'm leaning towards a laptop. I don't really plan on moving it that much but if I ever needed to it would be nice if it was light. If a desktop was tons cheaper though I could make it work.
To clarify I don't mind of the computer has a cheap 'feel', but I want to avoid cheapness which is reflected in slowness or the computer wearing out too soon.
I looked at M-Tech laptops but they are kind of expensive and I can't find any professional independent reviews of them.
posted by catquas at 10:43 AM on November 1, 2016
I used Dragon with my old computer at home, and I use Dragon at work. Delays in speech recognition or executing my commands are really annoying to me so I would like to minimize them. On my previous home computer trying to use Dragon to navigate iTunes was insanely slow, and even web browsing was slower than at work. I tried to upgrade the RAM from I think 6GB to 8GB but I broke the computer in the process. So I'm shying away from upgrading RAM/hard drive on a computer myself, although I might be able to take it to a computer shop to get it done, or maybe as my computer geek roommate to do it.
I am open to a desktop but I have trouble carrying heavy things so I'm leaning towards a laptop. I don't really plan on moving it that much but if I ever needed to it would be nice if it was light. If a desktop was tons cheaper though I could make it work.
To clarify I don't mind of the computer has a cheap 'feel', but I want to avoid cheapness which is reflected in slowness or the computer wearing out too soon.
I looked at M-Tech laptops but they are kind of expensive and I can't find any professional independent reviews of them.
posted by catquas at 10:43 AM on November 1, 2016
Lenovo has been involved in some shady nonsense and their build quality can be plasticy. Avoid!
I know you're not looking for a gaming laptop, but I'd order a custom NP3245 from Sager. Configured with an i7-7500u, 16GB ram, 500GB Samsung Evo SSD and a bonus IPS matte screen it'd clock in at $1100. Everything you need, nothing you don't (ie, no discrete video card killing your battery life/portability) and sold build quality.
posted by givennamesurname at 11:43 AM on November 1, 2016
I know you're not looking for a gaming laptop, but I'd order a custom NP3245 from Sager. Configured with an i7-7500u, 16GB ram, 500GB Samsung Evo SSD and a bonus IPS matte screen it'd clock in at $1100. Everything you need, nothing you don't (ie, no discrete video card killing your battery life/portability) and sold build quality.
posted by givennamesurname at 11:43 AM on November 1, 2016
Desktops are always going to have a better price to performance ratio. Lenovo and Dell both sell some tiny desktops.
These Lenovos weigh a couple pounds. For ~$850 (not including a monitor) you can get an i7 @ 2.8Ghz with four cores, 16gb of ram, and a 256gb solid state drive.
These Lenovos weigh about twenty pounds. For ~$1050 (not including a monitor) you can get an i7 @ 3.4Ghz with four cores, 32gb of ram, and a 256gb solid state drive.
Add in a 23" 1080p monitor for ~$140 and you'd be set.
posted by gregr at 12:16 PM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
These Lenovos weigh a couple pounds. For ~$850 (not including a monitor) you can get an i7 @ 2.8Ghz with four cores, 16gb of ram, and a 256gb solid state drive.
These Lenovos weigh about twenty pounds. For ~$1050 (not including a monitor) you can get an i7 @ 3.4Ghz with four cores, 32gb of ram, and a 256gb solid state drive.
Add in a 23" 1080p monitor for ~$140 and you'd be set.
posted by gregr at 12:16 PM on November 1, 2016 [1 favorite]
I recently bought the new Dell XPS 13 and absolutely love it. Mine was the core i7 with 16GB which is absolute overkill for what you need.
A core i5 with QHD+ screen, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD would fit your needs nicely and not break the bank. You can always upgrade the SSD in the future.
posted by mr_silver at 3:17 PM on November 1, 2016
A core i5 with QHD+ screen, 8GB RAM and 256GB SSD would fit your needs nicely and not break the bank. You can always upgrade the SSD in the future.
posted by mr_silver at 3:17 PM on November 1, 2016
Delays in speech recognition or executing my commands are really annoying
How much memory did your old system have? A system a bit short on memory can swap out memory that an application needs and cause pauses for the fastest processor. I'd clarify if this is the issue, the answer could be max out memory. Adding memory is usually pretty easy so sometimes it'll be cheaper to buy a lower memory laptop and add the memory yourself but check.
posted by sammyo at 6:17 PM on November 1, 2016
How much memory did your old system have? A system a bit short on memory can swap out memory that an application needs and cause pauses for the fastest processor. I'd clarify if this is the issue, the answer could be max out memory. Adding memory is usually pretty easy so sometimes it'll be cheaper to buy a lower memory laptop and add the memory yourself but check.
posted by sammyo at 6:17 PM on November 1, 2016
Dragon user here. I use 15 pro now on an old i5, firstly (earlier versions) with 8gig, now 16. 14 worked fine with 8gig. I only upgraded to 16gig for image processing, Nuance says 15 pro only needs a minimum of 4gig, but more is usually better up to a point anyway.
posted by GeeEmm at 3:06 AM on November 2, 2016
posted by GeeEmm at 3:06 AM on November 2, 2016
Response by poster: My old computer had 6GB of RAM. I was trying to upgrade it to 8GB (the max possible) when I broke the computer.
posted by catquas at 11:41 AM on November 2, 2016
posted by catquas at 11:41 AM on November 2, 2016
Dragon is not a crazy-mad memory eater or CPU hog. It does like a reasonable processor (modern i5 should be all it needs) and a reasonable amount of memory - I'll bet 8gig would be enough for 15pro, but 16 would be nicer but not necessary. All this assumes you are using basic WP or similar applications, and not simultaneously running some other memory/CPU hogs - that would change things.
Get on one of the Dragon forums, they should have good info but I have lost touch with them in recent years.
posted by GeeEmm at 3:45 AM on November 3, 2016
Get on one of the Dragon forums, they should have good info but I have lost touch with them in recent years.
posted by GeeEmm at 3:45 AM on November 3, 2016
T460 Intel® Core™ i7-6600U Processor(4M Cache, up to 3.40 GHz) 8 GB PC3-12800 DDR3L SDRAM 1600MHz SODIMM Memory 256GB Solid State Drive, Serial ATA3
$844.59
if 8gb turns out not to be enough, ask your room mate upgrade it to 16gb. buy the memory and buy your room mate a beer.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:41 PM on November 3, 2016
$844.59
if 8gb turns out not to be enough, ask your room mate upgrade it to 16gb. buy the memory and buy your room mate a beer.
posted by ennui.bz at 7:41 PM on November 3, 2016
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by demiurge at 9:06 AM on November 1, 2016