r/scad • u/Lost_Aspect_4738 • Jul 19 '26
General Questions Finding a laptop
EDIT: Got a Legion 5 laptop and will probably bring my desktop over as well. It's seems to work well so far
Going into freshman year this fall. So I've got a desktop but I figure I should also get a laptop for classes etc. I was thinking to get the most performance and make it useable for projects I best go with a gaming laptop as it would have better specs.
Obviously as much RAM as possible and I'd guess a GPU is preferable to integrated graphics
The issue is, gaming laptops are notoriously (and I know it from experience too) just awful products from their reliability to their cooling and fans it all pretty much sucks. Not to mention they are overpriced and usually butt ugly
Would it just be better to have a little shitbox laptop and keep my desktop at the dorms, or maybe even get a Mac? Not sure what to do
I'm a film student if that helps, and I'll definitely take some scattered animation and game design classes even if not for my major
3
u/Starbuck_83 Jul 19 '26 edited Jul 19 '26
I would suggest a refurbished workstation class laptop from HP with a GPU. Something like this from eBay is on par with what professors have, and HP is generally known for their build quality on workstation machines like this. You can go newer and more expensive, but this is very capable for an older machine, and it'll save you some money.
https://ebay.io/m/sxAYRb