Need opinions - pc hardware purchase please

May I have your opinion? This is my first time buying a pc. I plan to do architectural renderings with Rhino/Vray. I am looking at two laptops: one from Boxx technologies and the other is a Dell.

The Boxx technology specks: ConfigurationIntelfi Core i7-4710HQ Processor (2.5Ghz)16GB DDR3-1600 (2 x 8GB)NVIDIA Quadro K2100M 2GB256GB SSD (128GB SSD X 2 RAID 0)1TB 2.5 7200RPM Storage DriveMicrosoft Windows 7 Professional Edition 64-BitBOXX 1 Year Limited WarrantyModel SpecificationsIntelfi Core i7-4710HQIntelfi HM87 Chipset15.6" 3K (2880x1620) WQHDSwitchable GPU by NVIDIA Optimus TechnologyIntel GMA HD Video and NVIDIA Quadro K2100M 2GB16GB DDR3-1600MHz256GB SSD (128GB SSD x 2 RAID 0) or 1286GB SSD (128GB SSD x 2 RAID 1)1TB 2.5 7200RPM Storage Drive3 x USB 3.0 Ports1 x HDMI Port 1.41 x Mini Display Port / Thunderbolt 2 Port2 x Audio Ports, Microphone-In, and HeadphoneBlue Back lite KeyboardBuilt-In Memory Reader - (SD XC/HC)Integrated Intelfi Dual Band Wireless-AC 7260 Wireless LANBuilt-in 3.0M Digital Video Camera10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet15.35"(W) x 10.47"(D) x .78" (H) 4.36 lbs with 6 Cell Battery

and the Dell: ProcessorIntel® Core™ i7-4810MQ Processor (Quad Core 2.80GHz, 3.80GHz Turbo, 6MB 47W, w/HD Graphics 4600) Windows 7 Professional English64bit (Includes Windows 8.1 Pro license) [Included in Price] 8GB (2x4GB) 1600MHz DDR3L

LCD15.6" UltraSharp FHD(1920x1080) Wide View Anti-Glare LED-backlit with Premium Panel Guarantee
Nvidia® Quadro® K1100M w/2GB GDDR5
2.5" 500GB Solid State Hybrid Drive

I know the 8GB vs 16GB will be a deal breaker. The Boxx tech setup is $800.00 more. And I think it is lighter (commuting into nyc).
Any comments or suggestions would be very very much appreciated!
Thanking you in advance!

I can’t advise which to choose as I know nothing about Boxx. I do have quite a bit of experience using Dells and it has always been good. They offer service contracts for at least 3 years and will sometimes give them free if you are buying high performance (read: more expensive) machine. I can’t imagine that a machine suitable for Rhino wouldn’t offer memory upgrades to 16, 32 maybe even 64 GB. It’s usually a good idea to try building your own configuration on the website off the cheapest version and compare with their pre-packaged offerings to see where the deal is coming from.

I also noticed that some of their notebooks are offered with 4K (or nearly so) displays and would highly recommend considering one if your vision is normal. Get as much video card performance and memory as you can. nVidia Quadros are good.

Or,
you can buy a gaming laptop and replace the Graphic card and Rams. People sell Mobile workstation graphic card on ebay. So you can upgrade to Nvidia K3100 and above specs pretty cheap. But after you open the laptop, the warranty will be gone.

Good info here

-Kev

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I’d go for the Boxx, if it were me. Not only is it twice the RAM, but a better video card. I have that same card in my HP ZBook 15, and it’s quite nice with Rhino. I’ve been a fan of Boxx, although I haven’t been able to purchase one yet. My company buys the top of the line ZBooks for those that need a “mobile workstation”, but I’m working on trying to convert them to Boxx. The other nice thing about Boxx is that you won’t end up with all of the bloatware that Dell and other major manufacturers stick in their PCs.

Dell only puts extra stuff on their consumer machines. If you buy workstation it just has the OS and anything else you specifically order. That even applies to their “workstation” notebooks.

In looking around, I found the price of 4800 series processor seems a good linear jump over the 4700 series. After that the price curve gets steep.

If you can get a single DIM for 8GB, that will leave you room to add more without getting rid of ram.

Because you are doing a lot of raytracing, you might want to check up to these machines cool themselves.

Notbookcheck is a great, little-known site that has these benchmarks lists:
GPU: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html
CPU: http://www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Processors-Benchmarklist.2436.0.html

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Thank you everyone for your sound advise! I will be doing more research and let you know what I find out.

thanks again!

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