Which of these two laptops

[Alistair79]

Evening, I'm looking for a new laptop that I'll predominately be using for database work (SQL Server, PowerBi, Excel) using large data sets for big data analysis

I have set myself a budget of £800 but this is kind of arbitary - I could spend a bit more for the right machine or happily spend a bit less!

I want a minimum 15" screen:

I have shortlisted two machines:

1) Dell Inspiron 7506 2-in-1 i7 1165G7 11th Gen 16GB 500GB SSD FHD Touchscreen Laptop - It is a reconditioned laptop from Dell with a 1 year guarentee for £755 (inc vat and delivery

2) Dell XPS 9575 2-in-1 i7-8705G 512Gb 15.6" FHD IPS 16GB RAM VEGA WIFI W/PRO- Again reconditioned (returned to Dell). This is on ebay with a buy it now of £855 but it has a best offer option.

Which of these would you go for? Would they meet my data processing requirements? I imagine they would.

The XPS is clearly a much higher spec machine but is 8th generation compared with the Inspiron which is 11th - how much differece does this make?

Any other laptop options that would be better?

Many thanks for any help you can give

 

[Carbon 60]

Hi,

It would help if you could analyse how your database work is affecting the system resources.

Open Task Manager then click on the Performance tab then click the Resource Monitor button. The Overview tab will tell you the hard fault page rate and Disk usage, the CPU tab will tell you how many cores are in use, the Memory tab will show you how much memory is in use and how much is in reserve.

Is there any reason you are looking at 2-in-1 machines? Is it more important to spend your money on the performance or more important to compromise on the performance to have a 2-in-1? Do you only want a refurb? Any reason you want a touchscreen?

From reading up about what is best I think you should buy a desktop replacement/workstation type laptop with a 10th/11th gen Intel Core i7 CPU. The more cores and threads the better (unless your system analysis shows one or only a few cores in use). Alternatively the faster AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with better integrated graphics.

A H (demanding usage) suffix CPU rather than U/G/G7 suffix, so Intel 10th gen Core i7-10750H with 6 cores and 12 threads (possibly 9th gen i7-9750H if the budget is tight), or faster AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with 8 cores and 16 threads.

Plus 16GB DDR4 high frequency RAM, preferably 3200MHz or better. Look for 2 sticks of 8GB RAM rather than 1 stick of 16GB as 2 sticks allow faster dual-channel processing.

A Full HD IPS screen and as you say 15 inch or perhaps 17 inch would be more easy on the eye than 15.

NVMe M.2 SSD.

I'll see what others think before looking for laptops for you, in case I've got it wrong.

 

[Alistair79]

Hi,

It would help if you could analyse how your database work is affecting the system resources.

Open Task Manager then click on the Performance tab then click the Resource Monitor button. The Overview tab will tell you the hard fault page rate and Disk usage, the CPU tab will tell you how many cores are in use, the Memory tab will show you how much memory is in use and how much is in reserve.

Is there any reason you are looking at 2-in-1 machines? Is it more important to spend your money on the performance or more important to compromise on the performance to have a 2-in-1? Do you only want a refurb? Any reason you want a touchscreen?

From reading up about what is best I think you should buy a desktop replacement/workstation type laptop with a 10th/11th gen Intel Core i7 CPU. The more cores and threads the better (unless your system analysis shows one or only a few cores in use). Alternatively the faster AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with better integrated graphics.

A H (demanding usage) suffix CPU rather than U/G/G7 suffix, so Intel 10th gen Core i7-10750H with 6 cores and 12 threads (possibly 9th gen i7-9750H if the budget is tight), or faster AMD Ryzen 7 4800H with 8 cores and 16 threads.

Plus 16GB DDR4 high frequency RAM, preferably 3200MHz or better. Look for 2 sticks of 8GB RAM rather than 1 stick of 16GB as 2 sticks allow faster dual-channel processing.

A Full HD IPS screen and as you say 15 inch or perhaps 17 inch would be more easy on the eye than 15.

NVMe M.2 SSD.

I'll see what others think before looking for laptops for you, in case I've got it wrong.

Many thanks for the reply, full of some really helpful detail and good questioning of my requirements.

The 2 in 1 style and touchscreen aspects are of no actual requirement at all other than I like the idea! But more than happy to sacrifice that over a better performance machine. I have never considered AMD purely on the basis that they are a bit of an unknown to me. I'm very happy to pull them into the equation.

As I work today I'll monitor how my laptop is performing. I'm currently using a 6th generation i5 HP Probook with 8Gb RAM and it does seem to fall down quite often particularly with heavy excel documents. Though I'm never fully sure if that's an Excel or laptop problem?

I'm happier to consider any screen size bigger than 15". Reconditioned isn't a prerequisite, only that it seems to make my money to further!

I hope that clarifies some things that my first post didn't. I'll let you know later how my computer usage was today.

Once again, many thanks for your great post

 

[oneman]

I don't know how the datasets you are using but my users doing similar analysis I would say probably go the Ryzen, 32GB of ram and 500GB NVMe (make sure it has DRAM). Beyond that, I wouldn't pay extra for 2 in 1 or touch screen unless you are going to use the features.

 

[Luter]

Evening, I'm looking for a new laptop that I'll predominately be using for database work (SQL Server, PowerBi, Excel) using large data sets for big data analysis

I have set myself a budget of £800 but this is kind of arbitary - I could spend a bit more for the right machine or happily spend a bit less!

I want a minimum 15" screen:

I have shortlisted two machines:

1) Dell Inspiron 7506 2-in-1 i7 1165G7 11th Gen 16GB 500GB SSD FHD Touchscreen Laptop - It is a reconditioned laptop from Dell with a 1 year guarentee for £755 (inc vat and delivery

2) Dell XPS 9575 2-in-1 i7-8705G 512Gb 15.6" FHD IPS 16GB RAM VEGA WIFI W/PRO- Again reconditioned (returned to Dell). This is on ebay with a buy it now of £855 but it has a best offer option.

Which of these would you go for? Would they meet my data processing requirements? I imagine they would.

The XPS is clearly a much higher spec machine but is 8th generation compared with the Inspiron which is 11th - how much differece does this make?

Any other laptop options that would be better?

Many thanks for any help you can give

Those are already good options, the difference is minimal, but for that budget maybe lap top Dell lap top Laptop Dell G15 5515, Win10Pro/15,6" FHD/Ryzen 7 5800H/16 GB/1 TB SSD/RTX 3060 - Laptop računari - Laptop i tablet računari - Mobilni uređaji with Ryzen 7 or Gaming Lap top 3 ? I checked in my country and the price converted to euro is 1600e, but again the 2 options you presented are totally fine.