Thoughts on suitable laptop

halesowenmum

Hi. I have an Asus ZenBook at the moment, purchased probably about 4 years ago. Lovely touchscreen, fairly decent / good visual quality, great to use most of the time.

However, it tends to run its fan(s) to such an extent that (when it does this) I get lag with the movement of my mouse, the noise absolutely drives me nuts as it's quite loud and can go on for great long durations. Literally just sitting typing - it sounds like it's wanting to be cleared for take off. 

My requirements I guess are as follows:

• It's got to have excellent performance - uploading large videos, working with images, without lagging or it sitting chuntering - just doing it nice and fast. What that means in terms of specs I'm not sure I can but whatever combination of hard drive/graphics driver/RAM that will give me fast, non-laggy performance, that's what's needed
• Portability isn't a key issure - I will 99% of the time only ever use it at home so it doesn't need to be light and doesn't need super long battery life (so long as it's not going into a low battery state and that sets off the fans (can you see, I've been scarred by this ZenBook!!)). Having said that, it will still, at the same time, make me feel better about my purchase if it's not an ugly brick
• I do want Windows Hello
• I would like a 17" inch screen with really decent quality as my eyesight's getting worse as the years go on! A really clear display does help. I also like to be able to get my display nice and bright (the ZenBook gets to about probably 70% of the brightness I'd like but then I am a bit picky on that probably)
• Connectivity. I'll mostly be using for recording videos using a Logitech Streamcam and a Blue Yet external mic (both have small USB connectors), and on many times when using the laptop the device will be connected to my large monitor. I also am a mouse user* as I don't like using a touchpad
• Budget? Up to £1800 really 
• Available to be delivered to home

*On the subject of mice. I use a wireless optical mouse on a desk and I find accuracy of lining up the mouse pointer with the exact part of a dialogue box or check box or whatever that I want to click, is really tricky a lot of the time. I recall (we are going WAY back now) when I worked at a local authority that had something that was very new at the time, a system called Kodak Keeps. The person who used that system had a mouse that came with some kind of 'metallic' (?) mouse pad - I'm just wondering if the fake wood grain of my desk whilst v minimal 'grain', isn't the best for supporting highly accurate and precise movement of the mouse so I'd take any suggestions for a mouse mat of this type (if there even is such a thing). I already have multiple mice (I have to use the upright ones due to forearm nerve pain) so don't really want to buy a new mouse unless I really have to, I'd just like to find a pad that allows the ones I've got to maybe work a bit better?

Thank you!  Let me know if there's anything glaring I've left out

Neil_Jones

This sort of situation with noisy fans on most laptops is almost always caused by a blocked cooling fan - dust bunnies and what not.  If you provide the exact model number of the laptop the fan issue may be fixable by just taking the bottom off and clearing it out.

[Deleted User]

Absolute beast for a bit below your budget:

https://outlet.euro.dell.com/Online/SecondaryInventorySearch.aspx?c=uk&cs=ukdfh1&l=en&s=dfh&sign=PXhcOSHtr1T4IOw/PR7UdR8xJ8L23iNotT6kwaPoccDYLtVBjboLRNnNKbZcIgKG4P+Z4xOVYaYxQYK+mzwGGTQiydetkgQXhS0REnGIEDP62CXVF/Z1ggE9iNI4OrXP+MUxIlE3g2U6LRHVtaRDJHrU4pMdYVYifaAbhRpSGImOtNgqUrPLPicgwrqlVrCG13bZ5oXT15Kg7Yfm/qub6Er7nH+blzHgvBOp6uB6scst8gkh4tUNLut1/4bbdUxvP/I9DR6tJkI=

£1377 with the 14% discount applied.

halesowenmum

Neil_Jones said:

This sort of situation with noisy fans on most laptops is almost always caused by a blocked cooling fan - dust bunnies and what not.  If you provide the exact model number of the laptop the fan issue may be fixable by just taking the bottom off and clearing it out.

Thank you - it's: "ZenBook Notebook UX362FA_UX362FA  x64-based PC". Says intel Core i5 8th gen for the chip.

400ixl

Looking at what you say you need and the budget, given the high graphics and video work, a Macbook Pro 16 would probably be the most suitable.

Although you are currently Windows based and want Windows Hello (presumably for the biometrics), is there any specific software you use which is windows only? Normally I wouldn't suggest a Macbook for many people but it does seem to match your needs better than a Windows Laptop.

Agree though that if your current laptop does perform OK until the fans kick in then it is worth cleaning out the fans and airways first.

halesowenmum

Thanks to all for all the advice and thoughts. I have gone ahead and purchased the most up to date version of the Dell 17 (!) - it's for the business I'm running so I think it's a good investment and I wanted Windows 11 (yeah, Neil_Jones, I'm a Windows person I'm afraid! Just from familiarity etc I'd want to carry on with that as the OS but thank you so much for your advice). And yes, tallmansix, I upped the budget (by a fair bit it has to be said, not least since I went for the better video option and 64 MB RAM...) but, I think it's a worthwhile investment actually. And I absolutely will be seeing if I can do a fan de-fluff in the slightly tired Asus ZenBook! An improvement to that certainly wouldn't go amiss so thank you kindly for that suggestion Neil_Jones. Purchase made, looking forward to spending the day with it when it arrives (how sad am I?!! ).   

Bonhomie

halesowenmum said:

Thanks to all for all the advice and thoughts. I have gone ahead and purchased the most up to date version of the Dell 17 (!) - it's for the business I'm running so I think it's a good investment and I wanted Windows 11 (yeah, Neil_Jones, I'm a Windows person I'm afraid! Just from familiarity etc I'd want to carry on with that as the OS but thank you so much for your advice). And yes, tallmansix, I upped the budget (by a fair bit it has to be said, not least since I went for the better video option and 64 MB RAM...) but, I think it's a worthwhile investment actually. And I absolutely will be seeing if I can do a fan de-fluff in the slightly tired Asus ZenBook! An improvement to that certainly wouldn't go amiss so thank you kindly for that suggestion Neil_Jones. Purchase made, looking forward to spending the day with it when it arrives (how sad am I?!! ).   

I take it that you mean 64 GB of RAM. 

Dell XPS 17 9720?
12th Gen Intel Core i7-12700H (24 MB cache, 14 cores, 20 threads, up to 4.70 GHz Turbo)17.0" UHD+ (3840 x 2400) InfinityEdge Touch Anti-Reflective 500-Nit DisplayNVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6 [60W]

Windows 11 Home edition  

64GB, 2 x 32 GB, DDR5, 4800 MHz, dual-channel512GB M.2 PCIe NVMe Solid State DriveIntel Killer Wi-Fi 6 1675 (AX211) 2x2 + Bluetooth 5.2 Wireless CardIntegrated Fingerprint ReaderInternal UK/Irish Qwerty backlit Keyboard6-Cell Battery, 97WHr (Integrated)User-facing camera 720p 30 fps HD RGBIr camera 
Digital-array microphonesStereo woofer 2 W x 2 and stereo tweeter 2.5 W x 2 = 5 W total peakDells Black 130W Type-C Power Adapter
or something else? How much did it cost?

wangshi

The 17-inch Dell XPS 17 or LG Gram 17 laptop  can meet your needs.

pctechtest.com/best-laptops-for-graphic-design/