Laptop within 80k - Should Handle Large Datasets

[mohityadavx]

1) What is your budget? (INR or USD) - 80K

2) What size & weight consideration (if any) would you prefer?

• Thin and Light; 12" - 14" screen. Willing to take 15" as long it's not too bulky.

3) What are the primary tasks you will be performing with this notebook?
Casual Usage mostly. I need to handle large dataset in CSV/JSON. By large I mean few MB large which is usually too much for my current 6-year-old XPS 15 [i7 2630 QM, 8 GB RAM, Nvidia GTS-250, WD Black 1 TB (7200 rpm)]. Also, need to handle large PDF files which again either crash the PDF viewer or system becomes too slow to operate.

I store a lot of data so need to have at least 1TB storage. I know its unlikely but if a SSD+HDD combo comes in this budget that would be nice.

5) Any typical configuration in your mind you're eying for?
I don't want touchscreen interface. I don't game but I would prefer that it has a decent GPU. Must have great speakers (XPS 15 has JBL speakers with subwoofer). I hate using headphones.

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
Any brand with great after sale service would do. On-site service is preferable. Must offer warranty extension.

6) Anything else you would like to say?

• Screen resolution - Preferably Full HD with Anti Glare (Emphasis on Anti Glare)
• Battery back up - Preferable Extended (5-7hrs)
• Purchase place - Online (eg - Amazon,Flipkart etc) / Local (Delhi NCR)

Won't be going for any exchange offer.

 

[omega44-xt]

Acer Nitro 5 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/128 GB SSD/Windows 10 Home/2 GB Graphics) AN515-51 Gaming Laptop Rs.62990 Price in India - Buy Acer Nitro 5 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/128 GB SSD/Windows 10 Home/2 GB Graphics) AN515-51 Gaming Laptop Black Online - Acer : Flipkart.com

Dell 5000 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/Windows 10 Home/4 GB Graphics) 5577 Gaming Laptop Rs.69990 Price in India - Buy Dell 5000 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/Windows 10 Home/4 GB Graphics) 5577 Gaming Laptop Black Online - Dell : Flipkart.com

Both are good choices, get Dell for great after sales. Acer one is cheaper & has SSD factory installed. Dell one has an empty slot though. But both of them have a 5400RPM HDD. If your current HDD is in good health, use it in new one. Add additional RAM in future or when buying, at least 8GB, preferrably a stick 16GB stick just to be futureproof. If you are buying Dell, do get an SSD for OS & other apps (128GB is enough).

 

[mohityadavx]

Acer Nitro 5 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/128 GB SSD/Windows 10 Home/2 GB Graphics) AN515-51 Gaming Laptop Rs.62990 Price in India - Buy Acer Nitro 5 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/128 GB SSD/Windows 10 Home/2 GB Graphics) AN515-51 Gaming Laptop Black Online - Acer : Flipkart.com

Dell 5000 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/Windows 10 Home/4 GB Graphics) 5577 Gaming Laptop Rs.69990 Price in India - Buy Dell 5000 Core i5 7th Gen - (8 GB/1 TB HDD/Windows 10 Home/4 GB Graphics) 5577 Gaming Laptop Black Online - Dell : Flipkart.com

Both are good choices, get Dell for great after sales. Acer one is cheaper & has SSD factory installed. Dell one has an empty slot though. But both of them have a 5400RPM HDD. If your current HDD is in good health, use it in new one. Add additional RAM in future or when buying, at least 8GB, preferrably a stick 16GB stick just to be futureproof. If you are buying Dell, do get an SSD for OS & other apps (128GB is enough).

Thank you. I think I will stick with Dell instead of trying Acer. My sister has Acer 5830 TG. After sales service is terrible.
Would this variant of the Dell Laptop you suggested worth the price difference? It has SSD preinstalled and a different processor.

 

[whitestar_999]

Do note that installing meltdown patch for intel processors has a significant impact on server like work environment,more specifically processes making lots of syscalls(aka operations on large data sets).I am not familiar with your data set operations but if it is anything like database operations usually done on servers then be ready to expect 20-30% slowdown on such operations when using intel processors with meltdown patch on win 10(earlier windows are even worse at this) compared to normal operations.

 

[gta5]

first you need to find out what is bottlenecking your system when you are running those datasheets and experiencing slowdown , open task manager when that happens and see which amongst CPU/Ram/HDD is near 85-90% usage..

because your processor doesn't seem bad if your programme takes full advantage of multi thread/Cores

and if it is RAM or HDD , replacing with SSD or adding more Ram will solve the problem if supported

 

[omega44-xt]

Thank you. I think I will stick with Dell instead of trying Acer. My sister has Acer 5830 TG. After sales service is terrible.
Would this variant of the Dell Laptop you suggested worth the price difference? It has SSD preinstalled and a different processor.

For 77k, its a decent choice considering it has an i7 too.

I personally don't think you need an i7. As others said, your current laptop is powerful enough but maybe it isn't functioning properly just because its old (maybe, just speculating). In many cases a fresh OS install solves most of the issues in Windows. Windows is buggy & don't expect it to be bug free anytime soon as there's competition against it. Try a reinstall of OS & check the health of HDD (use crystaldisk info).

 

[mohityadavx]

Thank you, both of you for your inputs.

The thing is that the second laptop is more of a business requirement.

This laptop has few issues (Needs new WiFi dongle, Subwoofer is faulty, touchpad goes haywire occasionally, Charging Port is faulty) in addition to its inability to open large files without hanging. Since I carry these laptops to client meetings, it becomes sort of a liability when something like this happens. Even the charger is sort of a patchwork. Repair quotes are ridiculous. The damn charger itself cost around 5k and rest of the staff also aren't cheap.

I will check out the usage. Currently, most of these intensive operations are going through some large sized PDF. These PDF are sort of container files designed with Adobe Lifecycle which store data including other PDF files. For this shifting from Foxit to Adobe Viewer has helped a lot but Foxit has its own advantages which used to save a lot of time.

Second is working with large data files in JSON (I use Notepad++) and CSV (MS Office / Libre Office) and current alternatives that I use usually crash or really slow.

I am a bit concerned about this Intel patch thing. So, in essence, all Intel processors are faulty? Are there good AMD based laptops in this bracket? Also, I was planning to use Windows 7 on the new laptop but this thing about the drop in efficiency concerns me. I don't want to waste time using Windows 10 for many reasons but primarily not sure if everything I use currently would be compatible and also I am trying to avoid the hassle of initiation of a new OS.

 

[mohityadavx]

Thank you, both of you for your inputs.

The thing is that the second laptop is more of a business requirement.

This laptop has few issues (Needs new WiFi dongle, Subwoofer is faulty, touchpad goes haywire occasionally, Charging Port is faulty) in addition to its inability to open large files without hanging. Since I carry these laptops to client meetings, it becomes sort of a liability when something like this happens. Even the charger is sort of a patchwork. Repair quotes are ridiculous. The damn charger itself cost around 5k and rest of the staff also aren't cheap.

I will check out the usage. Currently, most of these intensive operations are going through some large sized PDF. These PDF are sort of container files designed with Adobe Lifecycle which store data including other PDF files. For this shifting from Foxit to Adobe Viewer has helped a lot but Foxit has its own advantages which used to save a lot of time.

Second is working with large data files in JSON (I use Notepad++) and CSV (MS Office / Libre Office) and current alternatives that I use usually crash or really slow.

Reinstalling OS is not something that helps. I reinstalled Win 7 about 3 months back while there is an overall improvement for few days, I don't see any specific improvement in this regard.

I am a bit concerned about this Intel patch thing. So, in essence, all Intel processors are faulty? Are there good AMD based laptops in this bracket? Also, I was planning to use Windows 7 on the new laptop but this thing about the drop in efficiency concerns me. I don't want to waste time using Windows 10 for many reasons but primarily not sure if everything I use currently would be compatible and also I am trying to avoid the hassle of initiation of a new OS.

 

[omega44-xt]

There's only 1 good AMD laptop in whole world which is good but that doesn't sell in India. It costs $1500 in US, has Ryzen 7 1700 + RX580. Don't worry much about that Intel issue. In reality you won't observe a noticeable difference in majority of tasks.

Going by the list of problems in current laptop, just buy a new one. That Dell one at 77k is good, grab it before the deal ends. It even has a good battery life for gaming laptop. I own Dell 7559 on which the 5577 is based on, both are almost identical except for the CPU & GPU. My laptop easily gives 4-5 hrs on normal usage on wifi (i don't use it in most battery efficient mode & it is almost 2 years old now). Mine is an i5 model, so i7 would have bit less battery life but anything more than 4 hours can be considered good for a gaming laptop.

 

[mohityadavx]

There's only 1 good AMD laptop in whole world which is good but that doesn't sell in India. It costs $1500 in US, has Ryzen 7 1700 + RX580. Don't worry much about that Intel issue. In reality you won't observe a noticeable difference in majority of tasks.

Going by the list of problems in current laptop, just buy a new one. That Dell one at 77k is good, grab it before the deal ends. It even has a good battery life for gaming laptop. I own Dell 7559 on which the 5577 is based on, both are almost identical except for the CPU & GPU. My laptop easily gives 4-5 hrs on normal usage on wifi (i don't use it in most battery efficient mode & it is almost 2 years old now). Mine is an i5 model, so i7 would have a bit less battery life but anything more than 4 hours can be considered good for a gaming laptop.

Thank you for all your help. I would be making the purchase pretty soon then.

 

[mohityadavx]

The laptop just arrived. Looks fantastic.
Thank you whitestat_999, gta5, and anupam_pb for your suggestions.
For anyone else looking to buy it. Buy it from PaytmMall. They are offering 9k cashback making it a great deal.

 

[whitestar_999]

Good to know!Do post a small review along with paytmmall link if you get some free time.

 

[omega44-xt]

The laptop just arrived. Looks fantastic.
Thank you whitestat_999, gta5, and anupam_pb for your suggestions.
For anyone else looking to buy it. Buy it from PaytmMall. They are offering 9k cashback making it a great deal.

Even I bought my current laptop from paytm, got 10k cashback. People aren't comfortable buying from paytm, except for shipping time & packaging I didn't find any problem. Transferring money to my bank account was easy as well.

Anyways congrats. Which one did you buy, Dell 5577?

 

[mohityadavx]

I bought Dell 5577. Haven't got cashback yet but should get it soon. Delivery in my case took place within a day. Apparently, the fulfilment centre is like half an hour drive from my place.

Paytm listing is here.

Too much work this week. I haven't got a chance to use it yet. Its lying idle at my desk. Will boot it up on Holi/Sunday and post a review then.

A word of caution for anyone intending to make a purchase it via Paytm. The site has a glitch i.e. if you apply the code once and then for some reason decide to buy it later and cancel the order it won't let you use the coupon again even though you never made the transaction. The only way out is to use another Paytm account to make the transaction.

 

[whitestar_999]

Did you but it from a "brand authorized seller" as there are 5 sellers out of which only 1 is brand authorized seller?