Powerful AND Lightweight laptops

ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 10:54

Hi everyone,

After weighing my bag, it seems like I'm carrying a bit too much (~15Kg) and that's not really doing any favours to my back. I'm lugging 2x heavy 15" Dells to the office (and then to client)…. I'm a bit over this. :)

So I've decided to P2V (physical to virtual) one of the boxes and get a high specced yet lightweight(oxymoron?) laptop. The requirements are thus:

  1. i7 CPU (4th Gen preferable)
  2. 16 Gig of RAM (this is a hard requirement)
  3. SSD/HDD; not too fussed as I'll be swapping the drive myself if it isn't an SSD.
  4. 1920x1080 resolution (would prefer this for a bit more screen real estate).
  5. LIGHTWEIGHT <—- very important as that's the whole point of buying this. :)
  6. Good linux support.

My usage scenarios require a fair bit of CPU grunt as I run a number of VMs in parallel which may be doing fairly load intensive tasks.

While, I know Dell XPS have some really well specc'd laptops, I'm very apprehensive about the build quality. I have owned/used over 8 Dells from Vostros to inspirons to XPSes… very "meh"!

Thanks a ton.

Computing

Comments

  • heartychat on 07/07/2014 - 11:07
    +1

    Here's a good source of information to get started.

    http://www.cnet.com/au/topics/laptops/best-laptops/

    • ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 12:06

      Thanks mate. However, these guys seem to this the MBP 2013" retina is the best power/weight notebook. The rig I'd go for is ~$2.5K which is a bit steep IMHO. Also, I already have a MBP 13" that's an i5 2.5Ghz, 16GB RAM and an SSD. The issue is I want to run Debian as the main OS with Windows (and other OSes) in VMs.

  • Jam0864 on 07/07/2014 - 11:47
    +2

    I've been looking for a similar machine… this is the best I've been able to find. http://www.logicalblueone.com.au/store/523-horize-w110er-not… Not sure if 1.8kg is too much for you, depends how much your current one weighs. EDIT: not 1080p. Some of their other models are, and might be more suitable. Good linux support, and customisable hardware.

    I've also heard the thinkpads are good.

  • GriffinTx on 07/07/2014 - 12:21
    +1

    I think everyone has good/bad support, just depends who you get when you call.

    I've found HP to be fast with shipments but dell is also reliable if a bit slower. Never had the pleasure of owning a Lenovo machine so I can't comment on them (though they look great).

    Whether you get 16GB of ram with the laptop is another trick, most I've seen is 8gb (2 x 4gb). You may need to get 2 x 8gb sticks and ebay what comes with the machine.

    • ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 12:27

      That's what I did with my MBP. Got after-market RAM for the laptop. However, what really concerns me is the tendency for most contemporary portable laptops (ultrabook) manufacturers to solder RAM onto the motherboard . So any chance of after market upgrades goes out of the window.

      16GB is important as I sometimes need to do fully reserve the VM's memory in the physical memory (forgot what it's called).

  • Baysew on 07/07/2014 - 14:55

    I read this as Powerful AMD Lightweight laptops.

    I thought , well this will be interesting.

    • ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 17:00

      Lol. Now THAT would be an oxymoron. ;)

  • ruraro on 07/07/2014 - 19:25
    +1

    15" Macbook Pro matches your requirements, though they have those pci-e SSDs so can't upgrade them yourself. Also way too expensive for what they are. Consider these high-end business notebooks instead. Check Dell DFO for deals.

    15" Dell Precision M3800
    14" Dell Latitude E6440, get the 1600x900 LCD. DIY i7-quad upgrade.
    12" HP Elitebook 2570P, DIY i7-quad upgrade.

  • RI4V4N on 07/07/2014 - 21:20
    +1

    Razer blade? Its 2kg, Prob not something you could pull out in front of a client though

    • ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 21:41

      Not a problem at all. :) I'm not a "conventional" IT guy. That said they are upwards of 3.2K and a bit too rich for my blood.

  • scotty on 07/07/2014 - 21:44
    +3

    What's the budget? I'll be looking at Gigabyte P34G v2

    • i7-4710HQ
    • NVIDIA GTX 860M
    • 2x DIMM slot up to 16GB
    • 1x mSATA + 1x 3.5" HDD
    • 14" 1080p AHVA display
    • ~1.7kg

    MSY stocks them, or Affordable Laptops.

    • ThadtheChad on 07/07/2014 - 21:49

      Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation Scotty. :)

      Budget is 2Kish.

  • mrmarkau67 on 08/07/2014 - 08:08

    Dell vostro and xps build are not great but latitude and precision are very solid. Your use case is very similar to mine and I use a dell precision 15". But its old and anything but light. Newer ones are better.

  • VFM on 08/07/2014 - 10:14
    +1

    Similar use case as OP ( portable "desktop" ) and I just bought a Gigabyte P15F V2 from MSY. ( I got the one with Win7 Pro installed and Win8 Pro on DVD. There is another with only Win8 )

    • i7-4710mq
    • 1x8GB RAM , 1 free slot
    • GTX850m (not needed but stuck with it )
    • 1 msata slot
    • 1x 1TB HDD
    • 1x DVD drive ( empty HDD/SSD tray included )
    • 1920x1080 15 inch isplay.
    • 2.5 kg ? ( didn't weigh it but it didn't feel too heavy for a 15 laptop )
      *ESATA/USB combo

    I moved the HDD to the tray ( for backups ) and added an mSATA SSD and a normal SSD. 3 drives in total.
    Will get another stick of RAM after I figure out the timing on the Transcend stick.

    Drive tray is swappable in the sense of 2 screws to open case 1 screw to slip out the tray and 4 screws to take out the drive. I was hoping for hot-swappable with a couple of clips :-)

    Unknowns

    • Reliability and durability of case. Not a huge concern as I am very careful with my machines.
    • Battery life. Not a huge concern. It lasted more than 3 while i was looking around Win7. Workwise, 2 hours without charging is good enough for me. And I can always get a spare battery.
    • Linux drivers. Havent done the setups but I don't really expect much problems. Likely to work with Ubuntu. For Debian, you might need to hunt a bit for drivers as some components might be new.

    If I am not wrong, the internals are a Clevo W650SJ, should be decent enough.

    On a side note, it is really difficult to get a laptop with high processing power, decent 15 inch screen without dedicated graphics. Ironically, t is the software devs and sys admins who need such machines and the hardware boys refuse to make them. A dedicated graphics card to me is just a battery eating heat-sink.

Login or Join to leave a comment
Login Join