Do you have shopping anxiety?

@SunshineGirl I don't read too many reviews (at most technical ones, not people buying it and saying essentially just that the shipment arrived in time lol), but still, I will compare anything I need to buy with at least another 20 products even when it's something very basic like a pair of sandals

@Elessar It's difficult coping with so much choice and I sympathise. Focus on what is truly of value to you (quality, aesthetic, ethics, etc) and block out other less important factors - hopefully then you can see the wood from the trees!

@CrazyMusicLover First of all, premise: are you 100% sure you want a laptop, and not a desktop? Because with graphic requirements it's generally cheaper (and way better upgradable, without throwing away everything and starting from scratch every time you need a newer gen of things).

Assuming you want to go for a laptop, the brand doesn't make a huge difference, what matters the most is the components, in particular CPU and GPU (that are generally soldered, i.e. forget changing them in future). RAM and SSD matter as well but less, since in general (but not always, 🍏) you can upgrade them later. With your use case it would be ideal a Quadro card (or AMD equivalent, which I don't know), but good luck finding one in anything sold below €2k 😅 then of course the complexity of what you load in 3ds makes a difference as well - anything not too complex would run even on a mid/high-range gaming GPU I assume (3060 or better), but the higher the complexity the higher get the requirements, of course.

There are also high end barebone laptops that you can configure with high end components, sometimes even desktop components. There are several assemblers across Europe, the most famous one being XMG (🇩🇪). I've got my current one from a similar assembler.

What's your budget?

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Audio cards are all sh*t if built-in. Go for a USB one, with around €50 I've resolved all my shitty audio issues and I've had it since one or two laptops ago, it's basically a buy once (nearly) for life kind of thing.

@Elessar Thanks. I'll...get to it later 😅

Yeah, I already have a decent desktop but need something portable. I think a gamer laptop should do. If they manage the crazy graphics of the newest games, they should manage the 3D software as well.

I don't know what audio card I have in my old HP but the sound is...omg. Amazing. At least music I play on it sounds richer. I must look into it better.

@CrazyMusicLover Gamer laptops with a 3060, maybe even a 3050 if you don't plan to stress it too much, should do the job, especially if it'll be a secondary machine.

It's a lottery. On mine just by plugging the laptop to the charger you'll hear some static noise in the headphones/stereo. 😐 I was to the point of literally unplugging the laptop any time I wanted to listen to some music with it, then had the realization that a USB card could've fixed it, and went for it. In any case audio is thankfully much easier to fix/upgrade than graphic processing 😅 if only we had USB GPUs (possibly not requiring to sell one kidney to purchase, as well)

@SW-User Hope you buy mainly/only from places that will let you return stuff for free 😅

Or just repurpose things. Sometimes I manage to find good use also for the (rare) times I buy stuff that don't fit my initial needs, which gives an oddly good feel 😌

@SW-User
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YOU GET:
- 50% of my paranoia when buying stuff
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