laptop for chessbase

I do not have a recommendation for a cheap PC laptop offhand without research, but I do know, Black Friday is historically an incredibly great time for deals on flat-screen TVs, PC laptops, Instapots and air fryers. Not in that order. LOL. 3 weeks to go! 

Can anyone tell what is chess base?

Do you have a budget you're working with, or just looking for the minimally viable laptop that would run the software?  Obviously the higher performance laptop you get, the faster things will run, like searches, reports, and other cpu intensive activities.

If you have an intel based Mac you can use a virtual machine running windows and install Chessbase.  This is what I used to do until I purchased the M1 Mac.

The thing with Chessbase and the engines is that it's bottleneck is GPU.  You'll use for it is that it will need a very good graphics card. I would recommend using a rig with at least an RTX2060. 

Synology NAS here with Windows VM running Fritz 17 and Chessbase Databases fine, still need a computer to access it with Microsoft Remote Desktop though, but absolutely love the experience. Just another thing to consider.

Chessbase is a chess database and User interface.  Usually paired up with Chessbase are different engines (chess programs) that you can use in conjunction with chessbase to organize and analyze chess games.  Chessbase itself does a horrible job at distinguishing its products but that's basically it.  There are also Improvement videos that have been made and optimized for use with chessbase. These are purchased separately from chessbase. You can get a free chessbase reader to use said videos. Chessbase reader is a stripped down version of chessbase

Here's my advice, as an IT manager who just retired after 37 years.  Any decent laptop will run you over $1000.  Anything under that will be underpowered and good only for basic email, web browsing, etc.  I'm most familiar with Dell as it was the only brand we used at work for the last 11 years.  You want one from their pro line, not consumer line.  Consumer line computers are pretty crappy.  For a laptop, consider a Dell Latitude.  It was our standard laptop at work.  I have a Dell G5 laptop, but it's a gaming computer and probably more than you need.  Do not get an Inspiron or Vostro.  For desktop, if you go non-gaming line, go with an Optiplex.  Do not get a Dimension.  I recommend the 3 year warranty, and prefer the Pro Support warranty.  You get a higher level of help when you call the helpline.  They also do online support for hardware repairs, replacement, etc.  Go with a dedicated graphics card if you can, either Nvidia or Radeon.  Most laptops come with SSD hard drives, meaning no moving parts and they are fast.  Just smaller than a traditional hard drive unless you pay more for larger volume one.  You'll also need to purchase an external DVD drive as most laptops now don't have them built in (everyone wants to be as thin as the Mac Air it seems).  

Thanks so much Valiarde!!!

ChessElk, the XPS line has changed over the years.  It was originally Dell's gaming line, but they started changing it once Dell acquired Alienware.  For a while it was their specialty laptops, such as armored cases that were milspec.  It looks like they're going ultralight with the line now.  Be aware that all of these are using integrated graphics, meaning they use part of your main RAM for video use, as opposed to a dedicated video card that has it's own RAM built-in.  Chessbase isn't all that graphics heavy, so that might not affect things that much.  It's not a good gaming laptop, but Chessbase doesn't come near gaming hardware needs.  I suggest you go with 16 GB RAM rather than 8, so it can process huge datasets better, and go with the 512 GB SSD.  I see they all have Windows 11.  I'm not familiar with that as we weren't planning on trying to deploy Win 11 until 2022 sometime (we have to test OS upgrades against the major software packages our people used).  I don't have any experience with DGT chessboards.  checking specs, it appears DGT boards use USB-C cables to connect to a computer.  The XPS line seems to have Thunderbolt 4.  These are totally compatible with USC-C, but you don't get the extra speed Thunderbolt 4 is capable of when plugging in a USB-C device.  So bottom line, they should connect. 

@Valiarde Thank you so much for sharing all of your helpful guidance.

I'm looking for a windows laptop for my son who loves chess and is getting serious about his training.  Do you know if an integrated graphics card would be good enough to run chessbase? I'm looking at this one:

https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/asus-vivobook-s-15-6-oled-laptop-indie-black-intel-evo-i7-12700h-1tb-ssd-16gb-ram-windows-11/16283560

Key specs: 

2.3GHz Intel Core i7-12700HEvo platform CPU with 16GB DDR4 RAM (8GB DDR4 on-board and 8GB DDR4 SO-DIMM)

Intel Iris Xe Graphics with integrated video memory configuration

1TB M.2 NVMe PCIe 4.0 solid state drive

I want to be sure the system can run chessbase before buying it, and I have very little computer knowledge. 

Thanks so much!