Help with Laptop Suggestions Please
Charly22
Posts: 5
HP Pavilion 15-EC0074AX 15.6" Full HD Gaming Laptop (512GB SSD) (16GB Ram) cost $1700 AUD
I bought the above laptop in Feb2020 mainly for use with my Daz Studio,(latest Version) yesterday without any warning the laptop just died, Blue screen of death, i had been running Daz at the time. I tried a reboot but it is saying there is no operating system and it can't boot. I am 3 weeks out of the warranty so any help from HP is very unlikely.
Can anyone tell me what sort of laptop i need to run Daz comfortably, what brand, memory size, hard drive size, cost etc.
I am a lady OAP so money is really tight, any suggestions would be welcome, please be kind.
Daz 3D is part of 
Connect
DAZ Productions, Inc.
7533 S Center View Ct #4664
West Jordan, UT 84084
Licensing Agreement | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy | EULA
© 2025 Daz Productions Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Comments
That's easy: none.
Daz Studio is already a resource hog. Straining a laptop with Iray rendering is a good way to end up with another dead computer.
Your money would be better spent on a desktop than a "reliable" laptop that can handle Iray rendering. Desktops are cheaper, more stable, handle heat better, and you can upgrade them if need be.
I spent about $1,800 on a rendering computer, so I can't really offer any tips about being thrifty. You might be able to get a good deal on a refurbished gaming computer from Amazon.
I'll second what Margrave said. I bought an ASUS ZenBook Pro Duo with a 2060 RTX GPU - cost me £3,000 and it won't render much in Iray preferring to kick over to CPU if you put anything demanding on your figure, such as a hat. Admittedly, I didn't buy it for DAZ work (I bought it because I am stupid).
Go for a desktop instead.
"Blue Screen of death + Cannot find operating system" does not mean that the laptop died, just that the OS or maybe the disk. Could it be something worst? sure, but unlikely since you actually get a message that the laptop tried to boot. That means the mother is functional. If this was because of GPU/CPU stress on tthe mother they it would be a brick that would not turn on at all.
Try first recovery options for your model (most notebooks have some form of factory default). If there are non or does not work, send to technician to diagnose.
On another note, as someone that also got a gaming laptop for games + daz because i also needed a laptop for work (and could not afford having desk+laptop), i do agree with the other comments: If you will buy for DAZ+iray ..... go for a desktop. The temperature and noise on my laptop even with simple tasks, makes me not want to play or render for prolongued periods.
Ty for your replies, my husband looked at it for me and it turned on straight away after a 24 hour break. He put it thro HP Diagnostics on boot and everything tested and passed ok. So he suspects it may have been a thermal shutdown either the hard drive or the processor.
Thankyou for your help and advice, i will look further into a desktop computer as my husband is a big desktop fan.
Change the termal paste on your gpu and cpu and get a laptop cooler. Otherwise you do need a desktop for Iray. Otherwise use use filament or Opengl. I have a cheap laptop that works great with daz studio but it only does OpenGL renders Iray and 3Delight are too demanding on system. I do most of my renders on my desktop.
People on here bang on about how laptops are terrible for rendering in Iray, but I use an MSI laptop, and it has never BSOD on me while rendering in Iray. Yes a desktop would probably be better, but if space, or portability is an issue for you a laptop can work as long as you have good ventilation and proper air flow around it. Everybody's situation is different.
+1
I haven't rendered an image with DS on anything but a laptop in 10-12 years. If you get a laptop designed to really be used, and they will last, and not overheat (all but one of the images in my gallery here were done on a laptop). True, a good laptop for 3D work will cost you more than a desktop, and will be very limited for upgrades, but if you need the portability of a laptop, a desktop really isn't a good option. My current laptop is an MSI GT76 and it's fantastic (i9900k, RTX 2070 8Gb, 128Gb RAM, 8Tb internal disk storage)! But I do a lot of other processor and GPU intensive work with it, that's why some of the specs are a bit extreme for a laptop. During the past year I've really needed the portability even while at home. I can work in the living to spend time with my wife, and use it for work related zoom meetings in our spare bedroom.
Those are literally the only two reasons to get a laptop.
I think most of us think it's kinda counter-intuitive that you could fit the GPU power of a big desktop RTX card in a tiny laptop, and therefore we might tend to dismiss laptops as being not capable or likely to overheat. But I also think there have been huge improvements in recent years in ways to make electronics far more efficient, as well as better cooling methods. Which is probably why laptops with those powerful GPU's might cost a lot. The design and components are more specialized and customized and therefore more expensive. Probably closely related to the huge advances in smartphone designs, and the ability to do incredible electronic wizardry in tiny spaces.
But, as with anything, I think if you buy a good, brand name quality laptop, the likelihood it will damage itself is extremely low. Of course, any piece of electronic equipment can fail, but in general I think the engineers designing the laptops probably ensure that their designs include internal logic to make sure the equipment is self-protecting. Kinda like desktop GPU's have fan controls and throttling mechanisms if things start getting too hot. Yeah, it might get kinda loud and/or feel warm during a render, but that doesn't mean it's operating in the danger zone.
But when you are on tight budget like the OP, you don't have the kind of funds those laptops require...
I dunno, looks like the OP has a laptop that cost about the equivalent of $1,300 USD ($1,700 AUD), and I did a quick check on Amazon and you can get a nice laptop with an RTX 2060 or 3060 for the $1,200-$1,400 range. Selling the old one and upgrading to a laptop with an RTX card might be something to consider.
I think one of the other benefits of laptops at this particular time is you can still buy a high powered GPU in a laptop for a reasonable price, while in a desktop it costs and arm and a leg and a bunch of other stuff...
They tell that computers and parts have heavy taxes down under, so the currency exchange rate doesn't give you the price range in the states.
As for otherwise... There are people here that have been professionally involved with computers for decades, brushing them off with "matter of opinion" would require something more than "I think"...
Good point...I'm a bit of a computer newbie. My first computer was a build-it-yourself Heathkit Z89 in 1982 I think? Back when assembly language and Basic were the cool languages.
. And 640k really was enough for anybody 
Hey, wait a minute...come to think of it, I guess my first computer was actually an IBM 360 mainframe (anyone remember that?). Back in engineering school in the 70's we programmed FORTRAN using punch cards. Windows and personal computers didn't even exist. Wow, I'm getting old...
Anyway, it does seem like the right time now to be thinking about buying a high powered laptop, for me at least. I've been thinking of replacing a non-rendering, low powered laptop with something newer, and based on the crazy prices of desktop GPU's I don't feel as bad spending some $$ on what seems to be some reasonable laptop prices compared to desktop/GPU prices. Although I now have 5 GPU's located in three desktops, so it's gonna take quite a bit of handwaving to justify it.