Help me to choose between MacBook Pro 2020 or XPS 2020

LApra on 12/05/2020 - 16:02
Last edited 16/05/2020 - 22:30

Hi All,

Please help me to choose between XPS or MBP.
Currently I am looking for 13 inch laptop with 32GB RAM, minimum storage 512GB SSD and 10th Gen intel I7 with some dedicated graphics card. I would be using the Laptop for below activities and will change it to dual boot with Linux.

  1. Programming/Web development.
  2. MATLAB
  3. Machine learning/ AI
  4. Occasional Gaming.

Is 32GB RAM is too much to go for or 16GB would be enough. I want my purchase to futureproof for minimum 5 years.

I would appreciate your help.

Edit:Guys…thank you all for your valuable opinion, suggestions and recommendation..To be honest now I am truly torn between 13 and 15 inch in both XPS and MBP. Now I am waiting for any sweet EOFY deal to buy though…

Computing

Comments

        • This Guy on 15/05/2020 - 00:15

          200MHz difference in max frequency is nothing. The difference between OSX and Win 10 will be far more significant. Both have side vents but the XPS also has bottom vents so, unless Apple is dumping heat directly to the chassis, I doubt the MBP's thermals are close to the XPS.

        • butwhy on 16/05/2020 - 12:36

          Ok, I was wrong again

          https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-13-and-Intel…

          Early reports indicate the MBP processors at 28W provide similar performance to 25W processors used by other manufacturers. I'm guessing poor thermals of the MBP

  • DonWilson on 14/05/2020 - 00:07
    +2

    Your main priority is clearly portability. There's no way someone whose main priorities are maths based things would list their only options as laptops.

    Just get something you like.

    • This Guy on 15/05/2020 - 00:16
      +1

      OP use case looks like a uni student.

  • groot on 14/05/2020 - 00:12
    +4

    I prefer MBP over any windows based device for programming. MBPs are fast and does not Degrade like windows over time. 16 GB and i7 is good enough for Programming.
    Mac OS is built on Linux that is another advantage and reason why is fast.

    Go to 16 inch device for programming … I found it painful to work on 13 inch MBP .. too small to code in

    • This Guy on 15/05/2020 - 00:18

      SSD's stop that 'deterioration' (fragmentation). And windows has had SSD's for longer.

      • groot on 17/05/2020 - 20:54

        Still windows degrades the performance overtime .. its not because of SSDs but because of poor built windows OS and there constant updates..
        Prefer unbuntu on windows machine to code .. Its excellent piece of software

        • This Guy on 18/05/2020 - 14:01

          No.

          Windows has many real faults (like updates that delete data and require fresh installs to work again) and slow search. You don't need to make up new ones to justify ubuntu.

          • groot on 19/05/2020 - 12:49

            @This Guy: I am not a WIntel expert and neither want to be… .. I have told what I have experienced ..I have used windows machine for years for development until I came across LINUX( Call it ubuntu or Darwin MacOS). The whole point is degraded performance of WIN mc for whatsoever reason it may be and I don't care whats the reason behind that.
            You carry on with finding the correct reasons and finding right vs wrong. Good Luck mate

            • This Guy on 19/05/2020 - 14:05

              @groot: So why make stuff up then?

              • groot on 19/05/2020 - 15:11

                @This Guy: Guess I would have written that in BOLD "I have told what I have experienced" .. Change your perception and Move On.. bud

                • This Guy on 20/05/2020 - 11:59

                  @groot: I understand your first comment was your experience. I told you exactly what you experienced. Your response was to make stuff up to scare people from windows. Why?

                  • groot on 20/05/2020 - 19:13

                    @This Guy: Ohh really .. Mr. Sherlock. Shame that you felt that way. Although I did not meant to convey that

  • retardedrabit on 14/05/2020 - 01:06
    +2

    Check MSI prestige 15, modern 14.
    imo get a desktop for gaming, a good portable laptop for programming (no need for a gpu), and something like Google colab for machine learning work.

  • Randolph Duke on 14/05/2020 - 08:17
    +5

    If you’re after a smaller laptop but want discrete graphics, an egpu is always an option.

  • Ozbargainlyf on 14/05/2020 - 08:34
    +3

    Depending what tax bracket you’re in, couldnt you buy a MBP whenever its 10% off, deduct it as an instant write off for that FY. Then sell if 2-3 years on for 30% loss of value (keep in mind you bought for 10% off and not rrp) and rinse and repeat. Free upgrade?

    • StuckInTheMiddle on 14/05/2020 - 10:58
      +1

      I've been burnt by Dells for too many years (soooo many blue screens) and their lack of support borders on criminal. I've taken the above approach for MBP but didn't know about instant write off. I thought that was only for small businesses

      • Ozbargainlyf on 14/05/2020 - 12:42

        Yeh guess thats for ABN holders, but you could equally just depreciate over the effective life of the laptop whatever the ATO says it is.

  • jonkvh on 14/05/2020 - 08:59
    +2

    Take a gander at this: The MacBook Pro's Biggest Rival - DELL XPS 15 9500 & 17 9700 Laptops https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=navpQnqhwvg

  • casho on 14/05/2020 - 10:06
    +2

    Check out this comprehensive review between MBP and Dell XPS - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0lR8_DjPNcY

  • tomlikesbeetroot on 14/05/2020 - 10:53
    +2

    If your budget can stretch I'd recommend the razer blade stealth 13 or the surface book 3.
    Cheaper options would be to look at some of the laptops with nvidia MX250 https://www.ultrabookreview.com/26030-laptops-nvidia-mx250-m…

    • Apra on 14/05/2020 - 10:56

      Definitely will check it out…

    • butwhy on 14/05/2020 - 12:07

      Razer Blade Stealth 13 looks decent. I don't think you can get 32Gb RAM or 1TB SSD. Battery also seems suspiciously small for a laptop with a dedicated GPU, so don't expect good battery life.

  • darkmattersunB6c0MV on 14/05/2020 - 11:25

    Personally, I have tried a lot of different laptops, but found the HP to be excellent performance and reliability.
    Surface Books come at a cheaper price and are more affordable.

    My latest is HP Spectre x360 15 df002tx, which has served me well

    Work has given me HP Elite Dragonfly, but prefer the Spectre. ( Had to buy Win 10 Pro, as Spectre came with Win 10 home)

    If you are after performance and cost can be stretched,

    Intel i9

    https://h20386.www2.hp.com/AustraliaStore/Merch/Product.aspx…

    Or Xeon

    https://h20386.www2.hp.com/AustraliaStore/Merch/Product.aspx…

  • hoxyz on 14/05/2020 - 11:39
    +1

    Check out Lenovo X1 extreme. Slightly bigger than 13" but smaller than most 15". The font size on 1920x1080 in most cases look just right to me, if you're coding. With 1060 graphics, it's good for some decent gaming. You may read some reviews and benchmarks on Youtube.

  • abb on 14/05/2020 - 13:42
    +1

    MATLAB
    Machine learning/ AI

    These requirements cover a huge specturm. You can run these on a Raspberry Pi for some tasks, other things need a supercomputer to complete in a reasonable time…

  • T1OOO on 14/05/2020 - 14:51
    -1

    ive had both, anything in particular u want to know?

    the dell XPS was just crap build quality, had dell out 3 times replcated batter, and mother board

    it was my main work machine

    the mac i have for personal use but dont use it too much

    only thing i can recomend is make sure u spec it out, 32gb, check, and also bigger ssq, min 1TB

  • T1OOO on 14/05/2020 - 14:53
    +2

    32gb is needed for a .net dev, with VS/MSSQL, postman, beyond compare,e ct… if u want to run vms get more ram, 32 gb is enough, but if ur just a front end dev, html , angular, or react, 16 should be enough, but max it out for the price or ull regret it later.

  • pull the lever on 14/05/2020 - 15:12
    +1

    XPS 17 is coming real soon
    Dave2D from YouTube just received an engineering sample and did a short video of it.

    Get 32GB RAM.
    Otherwise, maybe find a refurbished 16" MacBook Pro when they're around?

    • sarahlump on 14/05/2020 - 20:26

      OP wants something in a 13" format.

  • gram on 14/05/2020 - 16:24

    Really depends on the operating system. That XPS screen is so god like though and makes any windows laptop even from this year look super dated.

  • lonewolf on 14/05/2020 - 17:00

    Working in IT for the last 20 years and providing Macbooks and PC laptops to my customers, I have noticed a trend of lower quality in Macbook Pros over the past few years compared to before, has anyone else experienced this? Far more breakdowns and faulty parts / hardware faults. Performance not up to scratch and general quality being down?

    • pull the lever on 14/05/2020 - 17:27

      But how do PC laptops compare? And between which brands?

    • sarahlump on 14/05/2020 - 20:26

      Apple doesn't care.

    • jonkvh on 15/05/2020 - 11:40

      Have a look at Louis Rossmann on YT, quality is getting worse for Apple.

    • BertieBrown on 15/05/2020 - 17:10
      +3

      I was going to spare everyone from my diatribe, as you’ve all probably heard me bemoan my 2017 MacBook Pro previously, but for your reading pleasure lonewolf, and because you asked! Sorry in advance for my ranting. :)

      • There are people on here more knowledgeable than I, however once upon a time I would have said go for the MacBook, but I really regret buying a 2017 MacBook Pro. I understand that you wouldn’t be looking at the same model, but these are a few of the grievances I’ve got with it;

      • I bought a 128 GB model and it currently has only got 12 GB’s free space left. It’s only me and missus using the thing for healthcare Uni work. It’s my own fault for not checking that the SSD wasn’t upgradeable, but when you’re spending $1600 on a laptop, you generally don’t expect it to be a glorified iPad, which it effectively is. In many ways, actually, an iPad Pro likely would have been a better investment.

      • We have to have a silicon cover on the keyboard literally all the time because the butterfly keyboard keys get stuck if anything gets underneath them (got half way through an online Uni exam and a couple of keys weren’t registering).

      • The base gets hot as Hades anytime you do anything remotely intensive (I’m not exaggerating when I say that touching the metal base during such times actually causes discomfort when touching the skin), which lends me to suspect that the CPU is almost certainly being throttled.

      • The GPU isn’t dedicated (but again that’s on me for not checking) but anything even remotely, from my experience, graphically intensive means a lot of frame skipping.

      To top it all off it wasn’t even particularly cheap. At least comparable to a Windows machine of similar initial investment.

      Largely, I bought the 2017 MacBook on the basis that my White MacBook 2010 was bullet proof.

      • As to your question lonewolf I don’t know, because my experience has only been my mid-2010 MacBook, and this 2017 one, however considering that the general advice after people started experiencing the 2017 on-wards butterfly keyboard issue en-masse, was to buy older MacBooks because they weren’t prone to the problem, I’d have to say that your experience does seem to jive.

      I think perhaps Apple just doesn’t need to pull their finger out when the iOS divisions is going gang-busters?

      • lonewolf on 15/05/2020 - 18:08
        +1

        That is a couple of problems my clients have as well. The over heating and high CPU / Fan noise happens on all of them the minute you start doing anything even remotely intensive, and i mean just browsing with a few windows or multiple applications running. We bought a batch with the 128gb and it has been a nightmare as the newer updates for the OS wanted a lot of space for the installation process. Ended up having to buy high Speed SD cards as temporary storage. We have had a lot of repairs made on the keyboards and generally the main boards.

        • BertieBrown on 15/05/2020 - 19:13

          Ah jeez. Well, might be worth trying to sell it whilst it’s still working before any of those problems start to appear, or in the case of the keyboard appear again, but I feel like conflicted selling something to somebody that I know has a shitty keyboard. Don’t know what I’ll do.

          Sounds like it’s really frustrating trying to look after all of the clients. Do you still purchase Apple for clients are you switching over the MS or other more so?

          • lonewolf on 15/05/2020 - 19:21
            +1

            @BertieBrown: We purchase both MS and Apple laptops for clients but basically recommend MS laptops to them as the standard. Some are insistent on only getting MAcs for the status / look. Same ones who always seem to remove the Asset labels we put on the laptops and then claim they fell off even when we put tamper proof stickers on top of the labels so they wont come off unless forcibly removed.

    • DonWilson on 15/05/2020 - 18:10

      Yeah. Been doing low level tech support for almost 20 years. The hardware is now PC hardware and has been for quite a while. Design helps but it's the same parts with the same problems.

      Software problems have also been on the increase. They were a thing 10+ years ago but weren't as common. Nowadays they're pretty much even on bugs and malware.

  • sillyguy on 14/05/2020 - 18:59

    Why would u need Linux if u are considerinf MBP?

    And why VMs while containers are out there?

  • aidsj on 14/05/2020 - 19:09

    MAC AIR + cloud, You'd save money that way and learn some cloud technology.

  • lltravel on 14/05/2020 - 19:18
    +2

    lol @ mac and gaming. Might as well throw money away

  • tessel on 14/05/2020 - 19:43

    No, just no.

  • sarahlump on 14/05/2020 - 20:25
    +2

    The razor laptops are apparently quite powerful in a 13 inch format.

  • thriftysach on 14/05/2020 - 21:37
    +1

    Why don't you take a look at the high-end HP Spectre and Elite Dragonfly Laptops? If you have the education store discount, some of them are pretty cheap. I personally use a 13" HP Spectre and find the screen too small for stuff like AUTO CAD and AUTO DESK. I will be using MATLAB next year (engineering) and think that a 15" laptop with a small form factor might actually have been the better option simply because of the bigger screen.

  • This Guy on 15/05/2020 - 00:38
    +1

    XPS

    Why?

    You are used to windows.

    MATLAB has a ton of extensions which are often only comparable with specific versions of MATLAB and Windows. Troubleshooting MATLAB extensions is a huge pain in the rear, adding boot camp or VM's make's it worse (I remember trying to run an XP VM once for one extension. I gave up and borrowed a configured PC)

    Machine leaning and AI is mostly cloud, but if you want to use local hardware Nvidia is the way to go. Apple and Nvidia have been in a silly fight for a decade so Nvidia is criminally under supported on Mac.

    and, because you want to keep you laptop for five years, you need to be aware of Apple's A13 ARM CPU and rumours that they are considering putting it in their laptops. They are testing the waters with the latest iPad. Apple has a history of switching CPU types and cutting off support quickly for their old platforms (OS/8, Apple Watch original). It might not happen, but Apple's autonomous car division was only confirmed when they closed that department. Apple is very secretive.

    But…

    If you want a Mac, you can make a Mac work.

    If this is for uni, you can do all your work in labs and use any laptops for notes and word processing.

    Programming is generally platform agnostic.

    So

    Pick what you prefer. Both platforms have advantages.

  • Dack Smith on 15/05/2020 - 06:51
    -2

    When people believe Dell over Apple….

    Apple isn't all that great anymore, but favouring Dell over Apple lol

    Really?

    • lltravel on 15/05/2020 - 12:43

      The xps is way better than the apple. Do your research

  • [Deactivated] on 15/05/2020 - 10:08
    +5

    For resale alone the Mac is a much better option. In 5 years time you'll still get $1000 for it. The XPS will be worthless.

    • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 12:13
      -1

      $1000 for it, how? feeBay and risk dodgy buyers?
      There is no way I would pay $1000 for a 5 years old MBP 13 inch.

      • [Deactivated] on 15/05/2020 - 12:44
        +2

        That's you. Resale on Macbooks is insane.

        • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 13:28

          Please pay the seller another $300.

          https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/143598364434?hash=item216f212712…

          • [Deactivated] on 15/05/2020 - 13:31

            @netsurfer: Ok great, you get the point. A 5 year old Dell XPS is worth exactly $0.

            • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 13:32

              @[Deactivated]: How about you give me $1000 in 2 years time for my old Macbook Pro 2017?

              The issue is that to be honest, selling a 5 years old MBP 13 for $1000 is ripping people off. Not to mention there is an increasing risk selling higher value items on feeBay. The buyers are much more fussy when it comes to higher value items and are not going to hesitate to request return / full refund if unhappy. The battery life would be quite poor. Replacing the battery is not easy on a MBP.

              • [Deactivated] on 15/05/2020 - 13:38
                +2

                @netsurfer: Here's a list of a plethora of 2015 Macbook Pros that have sold for more than $1000 recently.

                https://www.ebay.com.au/sch/i.html?_dcat=111422&_fsrp=1&RAM%…

                It's easy to cherry pick results. OP is looking at a maxed out machine. The above are examples of that. Now stop trolling.

                • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 13:45
                  -3

                  @[Deactivated]: Your statement is absolute. So I just need to find one MBP sold below $1000.

                  There is no guarantee that a MBP will be worth $1000 in 5 years time. Even based on THAT listing you've shown, there was a negative feedback on it so that buyer obviously returned it. That's the issue. It is not a safe assumption. It's a pain to deal with MBP return and when it comes to high value items, some buyers have really high expectations (which is quite understandable).

                  Again, I don't see ripping people off being the right thing to do, but if that's how some Apple users feel about it, that's them. I don't agree with dumping 5 years old MBP 13 inch on people.

                • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 14:02
                  -2

                  @[Deactivated]: 2016 - 2019 models all have butterfly keyboards so it is going to be interesting to see whether they will hold up well in value in the long run. 2020 - Apple finally changed back. But, Butterfly keyboard is a mistake which would hamper the resale value of 2016 - 2019 models in the long run.

                • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 14:23
                  -1

                  @[Deactivated]: Let's see how many neg votes you can do a day…

    • lltravel on 15/05/2020 - 12:44

      Doubt it, only sheep would pay that.

      I owned an XPS for over a year and sold it less than 200 than what I bought it for

  • netsurfer on 15/05/2020 - 14:21
    +1

    I want my purchase to futureproof for minimum 5 years

    That's going to be hard to predict. We don't know whether Intel can really sort out their 10nm mess soon or they will let go and go 7nm (which is TSMC's 5nm equivalent) or something better. Then, there is Apple working on using their A series ARM CPU on future Mac's.

    If you are after some decent gaming, forget about 13 inch laptops. Just picking well known brands from both camps (Apple and Dell) doesn't mean you can have everything, especially you are choosing essentially ultrabooks, not bulkier laptops. Intel still haven't got enough competition in this market so we are still stuck with 4 cores / 8 threads and a lousy GPU.

    The decision is simple. Do you need or want Mac OS? If yes, Macbook Pro. If you prefer Windows 10, Dell XPS. Pick the one you like, not the ones OZBers recommend. It's your laptop. An OZB recommended laptop means nothing.

    To be honest, both Dell and Apple 13 inch are: good from far, but far from good. All these TB3/USB-C ports only dongle books are annoying. A lot of rubbish dongles out there. Top notch ones are expensive. Even Apple themselves have multiple revisions of the same dongle. Alternatively is buy a bunch of new cables for USB-C (again, a lot of junk ones out there). The 13 inch graphics side is crippled compared to the 15 inch model for 4K or higher displays.

  • MessyG on 15/05/2020 - 21:12

    I have a MBP, it's 5 years old and still going strong. I use it mainly for browsing, Photoshop occasionally, a little bit of webdev, and Microsoft Office work (mainly word and Excel). It sucks for games - but I probably wouldn't use a laptop for gaming anyway.

    If you want to do serious gaming and programming, I'd get a desktop. Get the laptop for hanging out on the couch. I was a PC person for a very long time but switched to Mac in frustration, they last longer, are built better, and are much more thoughtfully designed. For gaming/coding though, I'd still get a desktop PC but I do very little of that these days.

  • kzrocky on 15/05/2020 - 21:12

    nemo dat quod non habet

  • CalmLemons on 16/05/2020 - 00:46

    the new xps series. new unibody chassis on these ones too.

  • akito on 16/05/2020 - 02:47
    +2

    Everytime I open up my XPS15, I regret my decision of not buying another Mac.

    Bought a MacBook pro in 2009 then decided I wanted an upgrade in 2015/16. The XPS15 at the time was better value than the MacBook pro 15 inch.

    Issues with my XPS15 which I still suffer till this day is lag and it easily overheats. I'm not a tech person but the XPS15 can't handle csgo, DotA rust or even basic bluestacks mobile games. I tried playing my mobile games via bluestacks on my XPS15 and switched back to my Google pixel 2 because the XPS15 was so slow.

    When tilted at an angle, the track pad for the XPS is horrible in terms of sensitivity and reliability in comparison to my old macbook. I tried trouble shooting but have given up and just use my wireless mouse.

    Everyday I regret my decision of getting the XPS 15 instead of MacBook. You know the feeling when you first open the box and turn it on and you know you f'd up? The feeling of regret still hasn't left me, hence I am commenting here. Buy anything but the XPS.

    • Orico on 16/05/2020 - 21:19

      If you want a good quality Dell Laptop, buy a precision or Latitude.

    • KLoNe on 17/09/2020 - 21:04
      -1

      You can return all Dell products for free for up to 30 days.nserves you right do not doing anything about it then whinging on a websites for years after.

      • akito on 17/09/2020 - 22:52

        Block-quote If you are an end user customer and wish to return a product that you have directly purchased from Dell Australia Pty Limited (“Dell”), we are happy to offer an exchange or refund or credit of the purchase price paid, provided the product is returned to Dell within 15 days of the date of Dell's invoice

        https://www.dell.com/learn/au/en/aucorp1/policies-returns#:~….

        I purchased the laptop via an ebay deal so it took a week or so for the laptop to arrive. This leaves me 15 days minus the delivery time. My first thought process was that it was an issue with my specific laptop which I contacted warranty for as the reviews for the laptop were generally positive.

  • altitudinous on 16/05/2020 - 12:20

    I would go this way - If you are going to run MacOS choose the Mac. If you would prefer windows, go the Dell. I know the Mac runs windows but it is far more convenient to run Windows on a Windows device.

    I would probably go 32Gb RAM.

  • Wayne7497 on 16/05/2020 - 14:37
    -1

    Buy a Mac repairing them constantly keeps me gainfully employed.

  • Cyb3rGlitch on 16/05/2020 - 15:30

    In my experience programming in Windows is going to be painful in general. You'll want Linux or MacOS. Personally I'd get the Macbook Pro. You get a great Unix system without the rough edges of most Linux distros (unless you enjoy fiddling of course!) The trackpad is second to none which makes a world of difference to qualify of life, something that frustrated me constantly on my Carbon X5.

    The Macbook has a fantastic DCI-P3 display if you ever need to do graphic work too, and with the 10th gen chips the inbuilt graphics performance isn't too shabby either. The 2020 10th gen models don't seem to throttle much either which is great news for heavy workloads.

    Battery life is also fantastic, the keyboard is great again, and the speakers and mic array are fantastic too. Camera is so-so but good enough.

    In the end, there's a reason big tech companies use MacBook Pro's. They're reliable well considered machines that compromise on the right areas. I used to buy PC but honestly, leave that for AAA gaming and do yourself a favour and get the MacBook Pro.

    • Orico on 16/05/2020 - 20:30

      $3k pricetag….rip

      I have a 2012 Macbook pro and I am curious how much my quality of life will improve with a 2020 macbook pro 13 1TB for $3000 (incl. edu discount).

      • Cyb3rGlitch on 16/05/2020 - 21:53

        If it's still working for you there's no real need to upgrade. $3k is a lot, might be worth looking at the Air if you don't need the higher TDP processors and extra memory.

  • Apra on 16/05/2020 - 22:29

    Guys…thank you all for your valuable opinion, suggestions and recommendation..To be honest now I am truly torn between 13 and 15 inch in both XPS and MBP. Now I am waiting for any sweet EOFY deal to buy though…

  • donnot on 16/05/2020 - 23:03

    Definitely worth considering the 16" MBP if size isn't an issue. Great GPU in the base model (5300m is noticeably faster than the 1650 in the XPS 15) which should cover occasional gaming. Also have the bonus (if you buy directly from Apple) of being able to return it (used) within 14 days with no restocking fees etc if you don't like it.

    If you're planning on using Windows without a charger close-by though, I can't recommend it; the dGPU is always active and I'd struggle to get 5 hours out of mine (vs 8-10+ on MacOS).

  • sachinruk on 16/05/2020 - 23:07
    +1

    Hi,

    ML engineer here. If you are looking for the GPU to help out with your computation, it might, but please don't let this be your primary motivation. If I ever need GPU compute I jump on google Colab/ AWS. Much cheaper that way. There's a python library called fastEC2 which gets spot instances if you want even cheaper prices.

    As for Matlab, this is not used by ML engineers anymore, at all. So start on python + jupyter first chance you get. I've never looked back.

    I personally use a MBP and I got a refurbished one, but found out later you can 1. buy the previous years version from JB etc. 2. Wait for the 15% discount on ebay. Way I see it, when it comes to programming mac books last very long, so you would save in the long run, and they remain fast and decent laptops even years after. Oh and keep in mind that only Nvidia GPU's matter for deep learning, and macbooks don't have those, but again, that never mattered because of colab, AWS etc.

  • gentlekoala5906 on 17/05/2020 - 10:12
    +1

    Don't need to dual boot linux, just run WSL in Windows 10.

    The 13" XPS 2020 is currently 15% off at JB hi-fi which is pretty good. Only concern I have with it is the WiFi adapted from killer has really bad drivers, wish they used Intel instead :+

  • TheLurker on 17/05/2020 - 15:51
    +1

    Mentioned above, but for your needs I'd get a machine you like format wise but save on crazy spec and pay for a good cloud hosted server or AI platform on subscription. What you may end up doing will choke out any machine even if you bought the most powerful on the market. In 2 years you'd still be frustrated with heavy processing. Cloud VM future proofs you for AI work, and you'd probably want to do that anyway.

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