Best PC Notebooks for Heavy Excel Use - Could really use help with this

[goldhelmet25]

I'm needing to buy a laptop - and I'm definitely going MS Windows OS - for HEAVY, RAM intensive Excel use Should I go go with an I7 processor and pre-installed MS Windows 8.1? 16 MB RAM? 1T HD?

I'm also real leery of touch screen use - I'm not sure how that all works and I've heard many don't like Windows 8.1. But if that's what everyone is using or going to be using....and I will need to deal with it eventually, I'll get it.

I'm also going back and forth between 15.6" and 17" screen size. Portability says 17" will get in the way, but when using spreadsheets, I prefer looking at a bigger screen. I know resolution is important as well.

Budget is 1K or less.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[Kyle123]

What are you actually doing and are you planning on installing 64-bit office, most office installations are 32 bit (this is the default) and are limited to 2GB of RAM so it doesn't really matter how much you have in your laptop since it won't get used. 64 bit, therefore has obvious benefits, but isn't for everyone - there are many potential issues with is so require that you do some research.

In terms of screen size, I'd go for the highest resolution over physical size (and you can always plug a monitor in) and I'd sacrifice a large hard disk for an SSD - the reduction in load time is noticeable. Windows 8 gets a lot of bad press, but it's not that bad, it's perfectly usable; just a different way of working - though my laptop had W8 on and I ended u downgrading to win7 - though I suspect that this was down to our network config over the actual OS.

[goldhelmet25]

I don't know if I need a 64 bit office. That's part of what I'm trying to determine. What am I doing? Merchandise planning, allocation of inventory for Retail stores, forecasting, analytics - using large amounts of data for a 1.7 billion dollar global apparel and footwear company. Several spreadsheets open at the same time, databases, and other large multiphase programs, plus the internet, all simultaneously. Also, may start an online business website at home, part time, to generate passive income (to start).

[goldhelmet25]

Can anyone help with this? Thanks.