I have $1000 to spend on a laptop, I need something for work so no cutesy bs. I would also be using it at home with a docking station so it would be nice to have a video card for light gaming.
So basically I am thinking Lenovo, dell, HP, stuff like that
with these business type brands is there any difference besides the specs of the parts listed?
is "buy a thinkpad" really the answer and do other business brands pale in comparison or are there just a lot of people here on this board who like them for historical reasons
what would you buy?
thanks /g/
>>53561320
OP here
actually i could go as high as 1500 if there were a real reason to that someone could tell me
i was looking at a new xps 15 on amazon not bad
just get a mbp
>>53561375
wow the 1tb hd it comes with is SSD, that's pretty nice
why is everything touchscreen now, why do people want that on a business laptop?
my real question is, let's say the specs were all the same, ram, cpu, etc.... is there any brand or line to avoid or are the major brands all pretty much the same?
there was a time when dell laptops kind of fell out of favor due to quality and support issues but i am sure that is resolved
>>53561320
A business class laptop starts at like 1200. Don't spend more than 300 or less than 1200 on a laptop, or you'll have to deal with shit build, crappy Chinese parts with only OEM drivers, badly implemented BIOS/uefi with missing features like virtualization or non-windows installation ability, etc.
Go cheap chink shit all the way so you take advantage of economies of scale and thus fantastic hardware support and effectively throw-away-able toys, or go expensive good-at-everything where hardware is selected for quality and also has wide support.
>>53561452
i actually like the PCIe SSD in the 15 MBP
but im not going to use a macbook for business, they ding up too easy and are too flashy imo, also some of the programs we use at work are still windows only
i would like to avoid win 10 if possible but i know it's not
>>53561494
Get the xps dev edition and throw a win 7 VM on it. Unless you need it for gaming
>>53561472
>A business class laptop starts at like 1200. Don't spend more than 300 or less than 1200 on a laptop, or you'll have to deal with shit build, crappy Chinese parts with only OEM drivers, badly implemented BIOS/uefi with missing features like virtualization or non-windows installation ability, etc.
i pretty much agree with you, i set a 1000 budget for myself but instantly was finding myself looking at 1200ish machines, so like i said in my second post i am now willing to go to 1500
>>53561320
>xps ever
>Dell ever
Nahhhhh. Personally looking at the Razer Blade Stealth. $100 cheaper than the xps of the same specs, but Stealth would have UHD and Touchscreen.
>>53561516
do they make that in a 15inch, i can't deal with 13 for work
that's an interesting idea but I feel like I am running a crippled machine when I rely on a VM....like I'm using 20% of my CPU cycles and ram to boot an OS I am just using to boot the OS i want
i have never tried to rely on a non natively booted OS at work, that would be weird to me
>>53561564
KVM/libvirt is really awesome
>>53561531
I plan to use this every day for 2 or 3 years at work so 100 dollars is not a big deal
I just don't want to wind up with a laptop i don't like because of some tiny detail i missed when doing research, I was issued my last laptop so i have not even looked at them in like 6 years
there are so many models out there i have never heard of it boggles the mind as to how to make the right decision
>>53561584
is it honestly read for life in a professional setting and not just something to tinker with
All laptops are shit, even business models. Buy a cheap laptop, put a ssd in it and build a proper m-itx workstation at home. Leave the laptop at work.
>>53561594
Dell is a brand I shy away from, along with Lenovo due to that whole BIOS level malware thing. The Stealth has a dock you can get with it that would let you do light-to-heavy gaming, no problem.
The biggest thing to look for nowadays in laptops isn't specs so much, but build quality.
>>53561655
>The biggest thing to look for nowadays in laptops isn't specs so much, but build quality.
This is the thought I was having, but they don't have the kinds of laptops I am looking at in local retail stores so how can i tell if the fit and finish sucks
Get a macbook. No Joke. I don't have one since I'm too cheap but I have used them before and they are great. The build quality is better than most laptops out there and the resale value is ridiculous. You can install windows on it if you hate OSX. Specs aren't everything on a laptop. I've had plenty of friends spend that much on some high powered asus, hp, acer laptop because of the gpu and they had tons of issues. Not to mention the awful resale value and the crapware they put on the OS.
TL;DR get a macbook and don't look back
>>53561655
Build quality is irellevant, they are all either hot and noisy or underpowered and become shitty and die within a few years. No exceptions.
>>53561694
Reviews, nigga. If the laptop is shit the reviews will show it.
>>53561739
Every computer fucking gets shitty and dies in a few years if you don't fucking fix it and replace shit. Also, by build quality I meant the unit, not the internals. Metal quality over plastic.
the next MBP refresh
>>53561731
the resale value is truly ridiculous
you can get a new laptop every 2 years and get half your money back
most other laptops are all but worthless used
i almost want to do that, i think Win 10 crossed the line
but i need a 15inch and they start at $2000 and when you swap to mac and try to use it at work if you have never done it before you are going to wind up having to buy a few hundred more dollars of little things here and there, it just happens
it's kind of out of my price range if i can find something else that works as all my shit is set up for windows
>>53561747
yes i am doing that, but i get the feeling a lot of the review sites are shilling
cnet straight up sold out, i trust toms hardware but everything else seems like random blogs
suggestions on who i should listen to?
>>53561778
A proper atx build will last much longer than a laptop due to better cooling, more dust protection, easier servicability etc. Good luck replacing the gpu/cpu/cooling system in an old shitty laptop.
>>53561802
Yeah that's understandable. Have you thought of just plugging it into a monitor? That's what some of my co-workers do.
Not sure where you work, but the few places I've been to had plenty of support for macs.
>>53561516
>Get the xps dev edition and throw a win 7 VM on it.
just looked up the specs on it... so it's meant to be a laptop that boots linux but runs other virtual OSes.... but it has a 128gb hd?
what is going on there
>>53561913
I move around at work
that's not really an option, at home yes, but most of the time at work, no
is it true the new MBP does not come with an Ethernet jack and the mac to Ethernet jack adapter is $50
is this ok?
512 GB PCIe SSD, Core i7-4712HQ, Nvidia GTX 850M, 16 GB RAM
it's $1500 off...
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NV9M6HC/sr=1-2/qid=1458317148/ref
>>53561913
Yeah I believe that's true. They are pushing the thunderbolt thing pretty hard.
wtf dell
>Hard Drive 1024 GB flash_memory_solid_state
>Hard Drive Rotational Speed 5400 RPM
almost had me there for a minute
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-XPS15-6845sLV-15-6-Inch-Touchscreen-Processor/dp/B00JXLGECA
>>53561605
KVM works fantastically. Qcow2 doesn't have good disk performance, but raw/vfio does
>>53562428
what kind of resources does it use
>>53561936
Just need windows for office and visual studio. Put all your storage on the host and mount it in the VM.
>>53562428
It's next-to-native, per the whole gpu passthrough fad.
Virtual box is buggy, VMware is locked down and useless, but KVM is best of both for performance, stability, and features. Ease of use is a little lower, but it supports hugepages for a nice perf boost.
>>53562541
Woops, meant for
>>53562464
Look at some msi laptops, they are a great cross for work and gaming. The also hold up pretty well, and support some pretty good upgrades like quad ssds.
>>53562955
>quad ssds.
do they come with hardware RAID controllers ?
>not running everything off ramdrives made from old server memory racks
enjoy ur file transfers faggots
>>53562079
that looks it's going to be boiling hot all day unless you never actually use the specs for anything.
Normal laptops already get so hot with just light gaming. I can't even how awful something like that would be, never mind that it's consumer-grade shit so it definitely won't be lasting long.
Why is getting a desktop AND a laptop not an option?
>>53561334
I have been looking at the lenovo y700 series. They are in that range. 6700hq 16gb ddr4 ssd+hdd etc. Looks bretty good bro.
>>53564671
>ssd+hdd
>laptop
why even bother with an HDD on a laptop? Save the money for an external HDD and keep your laptop free of moving parts outside of the fans so you can actually be as mobile as you want with it with no worries.
>>53564654
it's not consumer grade, it is pro grade but they lost the contract with the factory who made the unique screen/display so it is now an "orphan" product and people don't like that, the original price was about $3000 and I have read reputable reviews that say it does not get too hot
>>53564654
>Why is getting a desktop AND a laptop not an option?
i do have a desktop but it is hard to carry it and my two 27 inch monitors to remote client job sites where I often need some computing power
i am trying to find something that will serve me as a tool in that way, i am not saying it's better than a tower
that's like me asking you why you hunt and peck keys on your cell phone when riding in a car when you could have brought your tower and proper cherry clicky keyboard
>>53564700
>because carrying around a delicate hard drive on a cord in your pocket or bag and constant hooking it up and taking it out and moving it around is less risky than securely mounting it in the chassis
>>53561517
The XPS 15 with 1tb HDD and 4k screen. Or get the 512gb version with 1080p screen.
>>53564671
this looks like a good deal 4gb video card too
i wounder if i could install windows 7 on it
i also wonder if i could paint over all the tacky red parts, but for the price it looks really good, they say the case is all brushed metal and not plastic
>>53561320
Define business
As someone who runs around data centres all day fixing customers bullshit, the x201 + a 9 cell with the grab handle thing with Arch is perfect
Your needs may vary if you require windows
>>53561320
>docking station
ThinkPad
>>53564654
not the same guy, but I was looking into that same laptop.
Is there anything out there with similar specs that won't overheat? Or can I just buy that, scale down the 4k, and play mid-range games without it overheating?
>>53564915
the 4k is meant for graphic artists looking at photos that are super gigantic, you know when you take a photo with a camera with lots of resolution and you can only see one corner before shrinking it down?
it's so they can see the whole photo at one time, it's meant for you to reduce the resolution when doing other stuff
>>53564915
>Is there anything out there with similar specs that won't overheat?
multiple hands on reviewers of that laptop over the course of the last year say it does not over heat
it's not trying to render games at those resolutions
>>53564961
Yes I know that, but I was wondering how the laptop fared when not running in 4k. In other words, can I get 60 fps running CSGO/TF2 on high quality settings?
>>53564903
>Define business
you honestly find it hard to believe someone might have a job where they have to have access to CPU taxing information but are not standing in a data center?
>>53564980
yes probably (or at least acceptable fps with some tuning), but read some reviews to find out
>>53565000
..what?
i said define business
business means different things to everyone
to me, my x201 is perfectly powerful but if you required video rendering on the go or something it's not ideal
don't ever fucking reply to me again if you're not contributing to the thread.
>>53564746
I never said anything about carrying an external HDD around, just not having a storage HDD drive in your laptop when you already have an SSD.
The storage HDDs will stay wherever your docking station or desktop is, not when you're on the go unless you really need that extra space somehow.
>>53565060
as i have said in the thread i run multiple VMs at the same time in the field to both diagnose and replicate problems and present them to the higher ups
running several VMs at the same time to simulate problems and help find solutions to problems will slow a lappy to a crawl i promise you
>>53565060
>don't ever fucking reply to me again if you're not contributing to the thread.
we've got a badass over here guys
>>53565245
>I never said anything about carrying an external HDD around, just not having a storage HDD drive in your laptop when you already have an SSD.
>The storage HDDs will stay wherever your docking station or desktop is, not when you're on the go unless you really need that extra space somehow.
different use cases, some people can't get by on just a small boot drive, some people have data for work that takes up a lot of space that they may need when using the laptop away from the desk
true story
penis
