As the title suggests, I need your help oh great and knowledgeable LebGeeks in deciding which laptop is better. An architect has asked me to help him buy a laptop which he'll be using as his mobile rendering station. Now the budget is 1500$ but can be increased if worth it. For that the best two options I found were the Y50 and Qosmio but I can't seem to know which one would be the better choice.
I'm also open to any other suggestions you might have although a desktop is out of the question.
My take on Toshiba:
I honestly cannot recommend Toshiba's Qosimo Gaming Laptops; Not only are they not reliable, cheap in design and are littered with hardware problems, but they lack the support of their own company.
Toshiba doesn't even stand by it's Qosmio laptops. I bought one back in ~2006 from the company itself for $1,600 and it came with hardware problems. The motherboard melted within the first 3 weeks of using it and Toshiba refused to compensate me.

A whole forum was dedicated to solving this specific model's problems because apparently the whole line of this specific model had this melting board/overheating issue.
What did Toshiba do? It deleted the product from their website and 1000s of customers were left with a $1,600 half melted laptop.
Don't believe me? Feel free to google it: Qosmio X305-Q701

Also, I've been reading, and their brand new X70 laptops also have more and more problems with clunky audio, blurry screens and overheating issues.
In all honesty; Qosmio is the worst quality of high end laptops you can get; from my own experience

My take on Lenovo Y50:
The Y50 looks like a good laptop; but not good enough for a serious architect, in my opinion. Can you please provide us with the specifications? As they may differ from the Website.

Suggestions:
Honestly, for hardcore rendering, you're gonna need a desktop. Does it strictly need to be a local purchase? Or can he ship one from the US?
It's a bit dissapointing to hear that from the Qosmio, a lot of people in lebanon seem to like them for some reason. The Y50 is the same as the one on their official website, and yes the specs are not the best for a high end laptop but it was the best I could find. Shipping from the US is possible given it is worth the trouble. The real problem is he insists on a laptop and won't seem to budge, budget has gone up to 1700$.
I think the lenovo y50 isn't bad . But it is more a gaming laptop, not really made for business. If you want the most reliabilty &good performance , you should take a look at lenovo thinkpad series. They're among the best business laptops available( since ibm), but i think it's a little difficult to find a thinkpad with more than 2gb vga, because it isn't a gaming laptop
Elied wroteIt's a bit dissapointing to hear that from the Qosmio, a lot of people in lebanon seem to like them for some reason. The Y50 is the same as the one on their official website, and yes the specs are not the best for a high end laptop but it was the best I could find. Shipping from the US is possible given it is worth the trouble. The real problem is he insists on a laptop and won't seem to budge, budget has gone up to 1700$.
The Lenovo comes with different options of CPUs and GPUs. So I don't know which one. If he wants to ship from abroad, then that greatly increases his options. Browse websites and see what you can find.
I recommend:
- Lenovo
- Asus
- Acer (No experience. So I can't really give this one my blessing)
- Dell
- Alienware (a bit expensive, but have good prices on their R2 models with the new SkyLake cores)
- Razer (a bit expensive and more dedicated towards gaming than anything else)
- MSI (they have some models with removable/upgradable Graphics Cards)
- Sager (not very well known and cheaper than competitors. But I haven't heard bad news about them yet)
- Origin

Good luck. You can start looking at: www.xoticpc.com or any other website of your choice.
Techlover wroteI think the lenovo y50 isn't bad . But it is more a gaming laptop, not really made for business. If you want the most reliabilty &good performance , you should take a look at lenovo thinkpad series. They're among the best business laptops available( since ibm), but i think it's a little difficult to find a thinkpad with more than 2gb vga, because it isn't a gaming laptop
Well he's gonna need the rendering power so... Gaming Laptops is the optimal solution.
Asus and dell laptops are also worth looking into
Brownies wrote
Techlover wroteI think the lenovo y50 isn't bad . But it is more a gaming laptop, not really made for business. If you want the most reliabilty &good performance , you should take a look at lenovo thinkpad series. They're among the best business laptops available( since ibm), but i think it's a little difficult to find a thinkpad with more than 2gb vga, because it isn't a gaming laptop
Well he's gonna need the rendering power so... Gaming Laptops is the optimal solution.
Yes maybe. But he also needs a very reliable laptop. But it doesn't mean the ideapad y50 isn't good, it's just not the perfect business laptop to have around, but despite that it may be one of the best gaming laptops in this price range
The most important thing is to have mainly these :
12 or 16 gb ram( or at least make sure it supports a big ram amount( at least 16 gb if you want to add later)
an Ssd drive
a minimum of 2 gb gpu ( a decent one )
a quad core cpu ( preferrably a 5th generation i7 processor ).
a full hd display
And you should be good to go with any of these brands: dell,lenovo,asus ( these 3 preferrably )or another reliable brand if these aren"t available with the specs needed in this price range
Yep I have actually a 5 years old Toshiba but I hate it (battery and slow downs), if I have to buy a new laptop it will be either Asus,Lenovo or MSI.
Too bad Sony stopped Vaio, it was the most premium and good looking laptops
Neither.
Y50: Heard that it has a bad screen and color optimization (even with the new IPS model), which is a real negative for an architect.
Qosmio: .... Stay away from those.

Like Brownies said, get something from Xoticpc.com, cheaper and more variety of well trusted laptop brand. Recently I ordered an MSI GE62 from them, and it cost me about 1200$ including shipping+taxes, with specs similar/better than the y50.
vegetaleb wroteToo bad Sony stopped Vaio, it was the most premium and good looking laptops
YES! VAIOs were such high quality laptops (but also very expensive). I have a Vaio that came with WIN98 in 2000. It still turns works fine and I play old school games on it <3
MrClass wroteGet MSI or Asus; nothing else. Even Razer and Alienware are crap.

Check this list: https://www.ple.com.au/FeatureCategory.aspx?CategoryId=421
I unfortunately do not agree with you. Razer does make some pretty quality Laptops. And Alienware is known for their classy and quality design but come with a hefty price tag. I'm assuming that you have experience with both... ?
Brownies wrote
vegetaleb wroteToo bad Sony stopped Vaio, it was the most premium and good looking laptops
YES! VAIOs were such high quality laptops (but also very expensive). I have a Vaio that came with WIN98 in 2000. It still turns works fine and I play old school games on it <3
MrClass wroteGet MSI or Asus; nothing else. Even Razer and Alienware are crap.

Check this list: https://www.ple.com.au/FeatureCategory.aspx?CategoryId=421
I unfortunately do not agree with you. Razor does make some pretty quality Laptops. And Alienware is known for their classy and quality design but come with a hefty price tag. I'm assuming that you have experience with both... ?
Razer notebooks are overpriced, nobody should pay $2200 for a 970M and a 128GB SSD no matter how good the screen is. As for Alienware, they have shitty cooling and tend to overheat a lot, stay away unless your room is air-conditioned.
Brownies wrote
I unfortunately do not agree with you. Razor does make some pretty quality Laptops. And Alienware is known for their classy and quality design but come with a hefty price tag. I'm assuming that you have experience with both... ?
Yes I have experienced both. Build quality is crap. Support is crap. Poorly designed and focuses on the looks rather than the needed performance. For this cost the laptop better be working properly; but no. Alienware has a history of their laptops BSODing all the time. Razer can't be serious with their plasticy laptop feel.

Not saying MSI and Asus are better, but they suck less.

A true gaming laptop manufacturer delivers reliable laptops to its customers; VoodooPC why did you go to HP? Just why?
Die_Kapitan wroteRazer notebooks are overpriced, nobody should pay $2200 for a 970M and a 128GB SSD no matter how good the screen is. As for Alienware, they have shitty cooling and tend to overheat a lot, stay away unless your room is air-conditioned.
I did admit in a previous post, in this thread, that Razers are overpriced.
As for the Alienware, I'm about to order another one very soon. They have louder fans than their competitors but don't necessarily overheat. What's the model you were experiencing the overheating with?
MrClass wroteYes I have experienced both. Build quality is crap. Support is crap. Poorly designed and focuses on the looks rather than the needed performance. For this cost the laptop better be working properly; but no. Alienware has a history of their laptops BSODing all the time. Razer can't be serious with their plasticy laptop feel.

Not saying MSI and Asus are better, but they suck less.

A true gaming laptop manufacturer delivers reliable laptops to its customers; VoodooPC why did you go to HP? Just why?
Weird... I've never experienced BSoD on my Alienware. And the Alienware tech support is pretty amazing actually. Their respond rate is pretty quick, and they won't hesitate to guide you step-by-step.
As for the Razer, the new models come with an aluminum back (as I've read). I don't know about the old ones.
I'm not an Alienware or Razer fanboy or anything. If MSI comes out with a better and cheaper laptop, I'd get it in a heart beat.
I'm just giving out facts. Anyways, the list I provided above is still a good list, with all of it's models. And I still recommend that you start looking at www.xoticpc.com for what suits you, for your budget.

PS: I was looking through the MSI laptops and prices (the heavy duty ones), and they're pretty expensive... At least on Amazon. Why did I look through Amazon? Because MSI doesn't provide you with prices, as all their laptops are sold with retailers / distributors.

PSS: I'm quite surprised, yet somewhat please, that no one said "Macbook" yet.
I am a notebook TCE ( Toshiba certified engineer ) and I F**king hate Toshiba laptops ..
try an acer or a dell ... Lenovo is not bad as well .. anything with a new cpu , fast SSD and big chunky ram should be ok ..
Stygmata wroteI am a notebook TCE ( Toshiba certified engineer ) and I F**king hate Toshiba laptops ..
try an acer or a dell ... Lenovo is not bad as well .. anything with a new cpu , fast SSD and big chunky ram should be ok ..
Made my day.
I use the Acer Aspire Vnitro black edition ..17 inch ..i7 , gtx 960M , M2 ssd with another sata 2.5 disk ...backlit keyboard ..it boots in 3 seconds with windows 10 .. I used the CPU and the GPU to brute force some passwords and it was flawless .. .. the only con is a mediocre battery life and maybe the weight ( around 2.5 kg )
state your budget ..I am sure there is something that suits you
I like the customizability of XoticPC Force laptops. Decent prices too. Do they ship outside USA?